Abboud Zeitoune
Author · Music Historian · Cultural Documentarian (Assyrian/Syriac Heritage)
Early Life & Background
- Born in Qamishli (Syria) in 1970.
- Moved with his family to Lebanon in 1975; studied at Taw Mim Simkat High School in Beirut, where he learned to read and write Syriac.
- Due to the Lebanese civil war, his family emigrated to Germany in 1984. There he continued his academic studies.
Cultural / Scholarly Work & Contributions
Abboud Zeitoune is particularly known for his work documenting Assyrian/Syriac modern music traditions, and preserving the written heritage of Assyrian Ottoman journalism.
Some of his key contributions:
- Discography & Cataloguing: In 2007 he published Music Pearls of Beth-Nahrin, an Assyrian/Syriac discography—collecting records of Assyrian music over the past century.
- Modern Assyrian Music (2015): A follow-up work completing missing sections from his first discography, so that together the books cover the full known Assyrian music record of the last 100 years.
- Music Heritage of Mesopotamia (2016): A song-book containing lyrics and a DVD with mp3 files of 145 selected songs (Eastern and Western Assyrian dialects) in cooperation with the Assyrian Youth Association of Germany.
- Journalism & Archival Projects: He has worked on the transcription and translation of Assyrian/Ottoman periodicals (e.g. Kawkab Mad(en)ho, Bethnahrin, Huyodo) and presented new books of Naum Faiq’s writings, bringing to light journals once inaccessible to a wide readership.
Other Roles & Community Engagement
- Active in Assyrian cultural organizations in Germany, including Beth-Nahrin Culture & Sport Association (Wiesbaden), and the Mor Afrem Foundation.
- Has edited many articles in well-known Assyrian/Syriac magazines in Europe (e.g. Shrogo, Shemsho, Funoyo).
- Delivered lectures and participated in festivals, both to document and promote Assyrian music heritage publicly.
His current major project includes preparing an English and German version of the Naum Faiq writings.
