Occupied Jerusalem -
Sitting on a plastic bench sipping his coffee and listening to Sheikh Abdul Basit Abdul Samad's voice from the loudspeakers installed on the ceiling of his shop rented by the Jerusalem family of Qarash in the Khan al-Zayt market in the Old City, since 1936.
Next to the old shop owner, sits a cat he says has been his companion for five years, wandering in the place designated since 1969 for the sale of CDs and cassettes.
The visitor here does not need a long time to understand the reason behind the refusal of the elderly, Mahdi Qarsh, to close the doors of his shop or change his specialty after the reluctance of buyers from his goods years ago.
Passion and love for excellence and the pursuit of owning a musical and religious library in this Maqdisi drives him to acquire all the rare works of artists and readers from the giants of the Arab world.
Mahdi Qarsh was born on Al-Wad Road in the old city in 1954, and grew up in the alleys, moving between the house and his father’s shop, which was dedicated to selling food supplies. With Mahdi reaching the age of 15, his father left the shop to take a rest and Mahdi received it, and he has been working in it for 53 years after he turned it to sell audio CDs.
Al-Jazeera visited Qarsh Al-Saghir's shop, and tried to explore the depths of his professional career, which was interspersed with many experiences and situations.
Mahdi Qarsh inside his shop in Khan al-Zayt market, which refuses to close its doors despite the lack of purchasing movement (Al-Jazeera)
A hobby turned into a source of livelihood
In a calm voice, the man says that the hobby of collecting records has accompanied him since he was a child, so he was wandering in search of them to buy them or recording some songs from the radio stations.
With the opening of the doors of his shop, he set out on a search for records in the countries neighboring Palestine. His first stop was Jordan, from which he traveled to Egypt and Syria, then went further and reached Tunisia, Morocco and Iraq.
"I was searching in all countries for Umm Kulthum's works and collecting everything I found, and now I own 97% of her works, and I have some lost works from the radio archives," says Qarash.
In every country he visited, he found certain artistic colors, but he found 80% of the artworks he was looking for in the Syrian city of Aleppo, and there he set sail in the world of Aleppine qudood and Andalusian muwashshahat, some of which date back to before 1900.
When asked about the most sought after and sold records in Jerusalem in the seventies and eighties, the man smiled and said, "All the songs of Umm Kulthum. The Jerusalemites were racing to listen to them in their homes, as the cafe owners who used to entertain their customers with the works of Kawkab Al Sharq daily."
The Internet killed the profession
With deep happiness, Mahdi Qarsh spoke about the years of boom in this trade, and said that 56 shops in Jerusalem specialized in selling cylinders and tapes, and their owners were classified as "rich merchants", but they gradually closed all of their doors with the arrival of the Internet, and he remained alone in this profession, which he refuses to give up. until today.
Regarding the disappearance of this trade as well, he said, "Our profession has been killed since 2000, when the Internet entered homes, even though many of the rare works we can't find yet on YouTube, and my current customers are few and old."
Qarash owns a tape that he refused to sell for many years, containing the voice of Umm Kulthum reciting the Qur’an before dawn prayer in Egypt, and was able to obtain the recording in Tunisia from someone who worked with her.
Some of the old tapes included in the Mehdi Qarash store in the old city, including rare musical clips (Al-Jazeera)
A strange story in Aleppo
There are many stories and situations that crowd the memory of this man in his sixties, including his meeting with a Syrian man in 2007 in Aleppo who works as a “mkojia” (ironizing clothes) and owns rare works by Umm Kulthum in his shop.
Qarash went to the man for 5 consecutive days, and offered him a sum of money to buy artwork, but he refused. On the last day, he told him, “I want to return to Jerusalem, but I am fond of what you have.” The man was astonished and asked him for a handful of dirt from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Mahdi returned to Jerusalem and rooms a handful of al-Aqsa soil with a small olive seedling, and headed again to Aleppo, and when the Aleppo man looked on the dirt he cried and scattered dirt and prayed over it, and said to Qirsh, “Take all my artwork for free because my right brought me a handful of dirt.” this is".
The two men met in Aleppo repeatedly, and the last meeting between them was in 2011, when Mahdi Qarsh was unable to return to Aleppo due to the outbreak of the war in Syria.