Do Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman's ‘Songs From The Victorious City’, Muslimgauze, and Alek Lee work in this regard? I need to relisten to ‘Spiritchaser’ from this angle, but I've been collecting some world music too in this time, might dig up something.
Before I forget, check out also Dj Diaki's ‘Balani Fou’ and Nozinja / Tshetsha Boys' shangaan electro — might also be interesting for you, although it's more modern sub-Saharan stuff.
Perhaps try also the label Awesome Tapes From Africa, however idk how much of that is Arab-style music, I think most is likewise rather modern West-influenced sub-Saharan. Also Bandcamp likely has only a portion of their releases.
north African blues
That sounds interesting, I'd appreciate some posts or just a dump of links/names on this topic.