Muhammad Qadri Dalal was born in Aleppo, northern Syria, in 1946. At the age of three he accompanied his father at the ceremonies of Sufi brotherhoods. He decided to become a musician, and studied oud with Bakri al-Kurdi and Nadim Ali al-Darwish. He also studied the violin and Western music theory. From 1966 to 1971 he worked as a musician on Syrian television, after which he became an oud teacher at the Casablanca National Conservatory. He has performed throughout the world and is also the author of a number of books, including an oud method.