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Taarab

Taarab is the music of Zanzibar's Kishwahili-speaking Muslim people, a form of string band music that combines Egyptian and Indian melodies and African percussion with the salsa accents that have crept in from the soukous of Zaire. The large string sections (sometimes ten or 15 violins, violas, and bass fiddles) give the music a pleasing, almost classical (in both the Indian and Western sense) sound.