Iftah Ya Simsim
The show focused on Arab heritage, like the wedding rituals of countries in the region, and included Arab poems and songs. "Iftah Ya Simsim" premiered in Kuwait in September 1979, and was broadcast in all Arabic-speaking countries excluding Egypt. The show's opening consisted of a catchy tune that became beloved of its young viewers. As the song played, the opening footage showed children across the Arab world running past familiar landmarks like the Pyramids and playing in playgrounds and ancient alleyways before running into a white fort that had its gates open wide. The show's set consisted of an intricately traditional Arabian neighborhood called "Sharee Eshreen" (20th Street).
Yiḥyah Salaḥ
Yiḥya was born in the lunar month of Cheshvan, in the year 5474 "anno mundi", a year corresponding to 1713 CE, to Joseph b. Ṣāliḥ. Ṣāliḥ, his grandfather (d. 1749), was a survivor of the infamous Mawza Exile, the founder of the "Saleh synagogue" in Sana'a and one of the city's judges and ritual slaughterers (Heb. shochet). Although Rabbi Yiḥya Ṣāliḥ would later serve as chief judge ("Av Beit-Din") and President of the rabbinical court at Ṣanʻā’, for most of his life he worked under the shadow of two great men of his generation: the illustrious Rabbi David Mishreqi (d. 1771), the author of "Shtilei Zeitim", a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh ("Orach Chaim" and "Yoreh De'ah"), and Rabbi Shalom Iraqi al-Cohen (1685–1780), called "al-'Ousṭā" (the artisan), the comptroller of the customs and surveyor-general of the royal buildings and gardens who had been the favorite of two successive kings, although demoted in 1761.