At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The network in which the Greek-speaking urban popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.

The record includes the song "Politissa (Ap' tin Poli irthe mia prochthes)" by Antonis Dalgkas (Diamantidis) and not the "Arap sabah taksim" written on the label. This is a reprint by Pathé Turkey of Pathé Greece record X-80063, the reverse side of which includes "Arap sabah taksim" (matrix number 70043). Apparently, although the listed matrix number of this recording is correct, the title and artist of the recording included on the reverse side of the original disc were mistakenly printed on the label.

According to the data collected so far, in Greek historical discography, the song was recorded three times in Athens in 1929 by Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), who according to the labels of the recordings is also appears to be the author of the song:

- "Politissa (Ap’ tin Poli irthe mia prochthes)", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Pathé Τουρκίας 70041 – 77517), present recording
- "Tatavliani tsachpina (Ap' tin Poli irthe mia prochthes)", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, November 1929 (HMV BW-2959 - AO-591)
- "Tatavliani tsachpina", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 18066 – 20562 & Columbia USA W294250 – 56244F)

The song can also be found in the Turkish repertoire that was recorded in the USA. More specifically, the Armenian Karekin Proodian (Գարեգին Բրուտեանο) recorded the song "Canto Sevdim Güzel" in Turkish in 1916, in New York, for Columbia (44024 - E3065).

On the label of the record, the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople (Istanbul) since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).

It should be noted that other recordings have been found in the Turkish record catalogs which are possibly related to the song in question, and possibly some of them predate the performance mentioned above. However, no audio material of them has so far been found. For example:

- "Sevdim Güzel/Kanto", Şeker Hanım (Odeon)
- "Sevdim Güzel/Kanto", Hanende İbrahim Efendi ve Rıza Bey (Orfeon 10372)
- "Sevdim Güzel/Kanto", Hafız Yaşar [Okur] (Orfeon 11548)

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis