“Wa in la-akum habibi, sellimouli alayh… It was on an evening train from Leipzig to Berlin that I was bopping my head to the chorus of Abdel Halim Hafez’s “Sawah”. Crossing over from Egypt to Lebanon, the next song that came on shuffle was by Melhem Barakat. After a beautiful instrumental intro, he started to sing: Sallim alayha ya hawa… Piecing together the meaning of these lyrics with my beginner-level Arabic, I realized both songs made use of the same motif – that of greeting.”