malhun

thumb|Part of the Malhun song "Lalla Ghita Moulati" performed by the artist Adnane Sefiani in a wedding in Salé, Morocco - November 2025 Malhun (Arabic الملحون / ALA-LC: al-malḥūn), meaning 'the melodic poem', is a form of music that originated in Morocco. It is a kind of urban, sung poetry that comes from the exclusively masculine working-class milieu of craftsmen's guilds. On 6 December 2023, malhun was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists of Morocco.

== Origins == The mǝlḥun first emerged as a pure literary creation, as a poetic genre today known in Morocco under the name of "qasida" (meaning "poem") (Arabic: القصيدة) or "zajal" (Arabic: الزجل). It developed in the Tafilalet oases of southern Morocco in the fifteenth century before it spread to other parts of the Maghreb.