Among his students is Ahmed Al-Sheikh, an 11-year-old Syrian boy who has just passed his final exams at Shamma's House of Oud school in Abu Dhabi.

CNN: Saving the sound of the Middle East

He left his native Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule and moved to Cairo where he now runs a "House of Oud" music school with branches in Egypt, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.

CNN: Saving the sound of the Middle East

The school specializes in Arabic instruments such as the kanoun, a triangular stringed instrument a little like a horizontal harp, and the oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument similar to a lute, and also teaches Western classical instruments and music theory.

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