This paper examines the concepts of the “Arab spirit” (al-rūḥ al-‘arabiyya) and the “Eastern spirit” (al-rūḥ al-sharqiyya) in music. Arabic-language books, newspapers, magazine articles, and radio broadcasts from the past century reveal widespread concern with the presence of the “Eastern spirit” and “Arab spirit” in music. At first, these terms were used interchangeably; however, the term “Arab spirit” came to dominate by the mid-twentieth century. This shift mirrors the substitution of the term “Eastern music” with “Arab music” that occurred in the 1920s as a reaction to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the strengthening of pan-Arab identity (Vigreux 2001). Musicians, critics, journalists, and educators debated the following questions: 1. Does contemporary Arab music reflect the modern “Arab spirit”? 2. To what extent is music capable of generating a powerful “Arab spirit” that inspires national sentiment and national movements? 3. Have colonialism and Westernization adulterated the “Arab spirit” to the extent that it is no longer authentically represented in Arab music; if so, what can be done to reverse this phenomenon musically? The resounding call was to replace the sentimentality of Arab music with music of a national sentiment. Traditional ṭarab music, for example, was considered overly sentimental, engendering weakness and effeminacy in the “Arab spirit.” On the other hand, music based on national themes and collective feelings was thought to inspire strength, masculinity, progress, and revolution (e.g., Ahmad Zaki Pasha 1922). In this paper, I analyze the concepts of the “Arab spirit” and “Eastern spirit” within a Hegelian framework that holds that nationalism and nationalist movements emerge from the “spirit of the people.” I argue that the discourse concerning the “Arab spirit” in music––in addition to Arab music itself––was a catalyst for the pan-Arab nationalist movement. This research uses a mixed-methods approach, combining archival research with several years of ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt. By examining the crucial role of emotion, discourse, and the arts in nationalist movements, this paper seeks to contribute to the literature on nationalism in the Middle East.