Description
Book SynopsisMedieval Arab Music and Musicians offers complete, annotated English translations of three of the most important medieval Arabic texts on music and musicians: the biography of the musician Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī from al-Iṣbahānī’s Kitāb al-Aghānī (10th c), the biography of the musician Ziryāb from Ibn Ḥayyān’s Kitāb al-Muqtabis (11th c), and the earliest treatise on the muwashshaḥ Andalusi song genre, Dār al-Ṭirāz, by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Sanā’ al-Mulk (13th c). Al-Mawṣilī, the most famous musician of his era, was also the teacher of the legendary Ziryāb, who traveled from Baghdad to al-Andalus and is often said to have laid the foundations of Andalusi music. The third text is crucial to any understanding of the medieval muwashshaḥ and its possible relations to the Troubadours, the Cantigas de Santa María, and the Andalusi musical traditions of the modern Middle East.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements part 1: The Biography of Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī Introduction The Biography of Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī [Kitāb al-aghānī, Vol. V – 1964 rpt. of Dār al-Kutub Edition, pp. 154–258] Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī’s Genealogy and Various Anecdotes about Him part 2: The Biography of Ziryāb Introduction The Biography of ʿAlī ibn Nāfiʿ, Known as Ziryāb [Ibn Hayyān, Kitāb al-muqtabis: al-Sifr al-Thānī (al-Riyāḍ: 2003), pp. 307–335] On Singing: Information about Ziryāb, the Greatest Singer of the Land of al-Andalus part 3: Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk’s Dār al-Ṭirāz Introduction Contents of Dār al-Ṭirāz fī ʿAmal al-Muwashshaḥāt [The House of Brocade on the Composition of Muwashshaḥāt] The House of Brocade on the Composition of Muwashshaḥāt [Dār al-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwashshaḥāt] by Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (c. 1155–1212) Bibliography Index
