The song is nothing new. It is not a creature of our modern age. Man sang before he wrote. It is often said that poetry is the tongue of the Arabs, and in the olden times poetry was recited and not read. It was intoned in a sing-song fashion.
Arab literature abounds with books on music and singing.
This book has become part of the artistic lore of the Arabs and is It is regarded as a reference for those who want to study the development of Arabic music. Until modern times singing was in classical Arabic and all the song texts were composed by leading poets. Even in modern times both Mohamed Abdel-Wahab and Umm Kalthum sang poems by leading Egyptian poets, and their lyrics were composed by distinguished writers including Ahmed Shawqi. Other leading singers were equally finicky about the choice of the texts of their songs, be they classical or colloquial. Most of the new songs performed these days are in fact colloquial, musical settings of everyday idioms.