Arabic music

Arabic music

The first process took place during the early centuries of Islam, with the growth of cosmopolitan cultural centers in Syria under the Umayyads (661-750) and in Iraq under the Abbasids (750-909). The ethnic blending that occurred during these centuries brought the music of Arabia into close contact with the musical traditions of Syria, Mesopotamia, Byzantium, and Persia. This contact resulted in the cultivation of new Arab music. While retaining strong local elements, such as the singing of poetical lyrics in Arabic - the language of the Qur'an and the lingua franca of the Islamic Empire - this music featured new performance techniques, new aspects of intonation, and new musical instruments. Proponents of the new trend included Persians and others from non-Arabian backgrounds.

Court affluence and acquaintance with the worldly splendor of conquered empires stimulated humanistic interests and artistic and intellectual tolerance on the part of the Arab rulers. In a short time court patronage of poets and musicians became common practice, in contrast to the antipathy of some early Muslims towards music and musicians. The Abbasid caliphs al-Mahdi (reigned 775-85) and al-Amin (reigned 809-13) are particularly known for their fondness for music. In contrast to the quynat, or female slave singers, who were prevalent during the early decades, the emerging court artists were often well-educated and from distinguished backgrounds. Among such artists were the singers and scholars Prince Ibrahim al-Mahdi (779-839) and Ishaq al-Mawsili (767-850), and the 'ud (lute) virtuoso, Zalzal (died 791), who was Ishaq's uncle.

The second process was marked by the introduction of scholars of the Islamic world to ancient Greek treatises, many of which had probably been influenced previously by the legacies of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This contact was initiated during the ninth century under the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun (reigned 813-33.) This ruler established Bayt al-Hikmah, literally "the House of Wisdom," a scholarly institution responsible for translating into Arabic a vast number of Greek classics, including musical treatises by major Pythagorean scholars and works by Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus.

The outcome of this exposure to the classical past was profound and enduring. The Arabic language was enriched and expanded by a wealth of treatises and commentaries on music written by prominent philosophers, scientists, and physicians. Music, or al-shymusiqa, a term that came from the Greek, emerged as a speculative discipline and as one of al-shyulum al-shyriyadiyyah, or "the mathematical sciences," which paralleled the Quatrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) in the Latin West. In addition, Greek treatises provided an extensive musical nomenclature, most of which was translated into Arabic and retained in theoretical usages until the present day.

Theoretical treatises written in Arabic between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries established an enduring trend in Near Eastern musical scholarship and inspired subsequent generations of scholars. An early contributor was Ibn al-Munajjim (died 912) who left us a description of an established system of eight melodic modes. Each mode had its own diatonic scale, namely an octave span of Pythagorean half and whole ...