Arab music
covers a vast geographical area ranging from the Atlas Mountains and parts of the Sahara
in Africa to the
Persian
Gulf region and the banks of the Euphrates. Whether from Morocco,
Egypt, or Iraq, Arabs are able to identify today with a multi-faceted musical heritage
that originated in antiquity, but that gained sophistication and momentum during the
height of the Islamic Empire between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries. Since the
spread of
Islam
from the Arabian Peninsula towards the middle of the seventh century until the present
century, Arab music has been shaped by five principal processes, some purely intellectual
and cultural, others political.
Contact with Assimilated Cultures
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 al­Mahdi (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.
Contact with the Classical Past
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 al­musiqa,
a term that came from the Greek, emerged as a speculative discipline and as one of al­ulum
al­riyadiyyah, 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 steps. Used during the
eighth and ninth centuries, these modes were frequently alluded to in conjunction with the
song texts included in the monumental Kitab al - Aghani, or Book of Songs,
by Abu al­Faraj al­Isfahani (died 967). In this system, each mode was
indicated by the names of the fingers and the frets employed when playing the 'ud.
Another major contribution was made by the philosopher al-Kindi (died about 873), who
in his treatises discussed the phenomenon of sound, intervals, and compositions. Al-Kindi
presented an elaboration on the diatonic 'ud-fretting known at his time and proposed
adding a fifth string to the four-stringed 'ud in order to expand the theoretical pitch
range into two octaves. Al-Kindi is also known for the cosmological links he made between
the four strings of the 'ud and the seasons, the elements, the humors, and various
celestial entities. Comparable emphasis on cosmology and numerology was presented by the Ikhwan as-Safa', "Brethren of sincerity," in their tenth century epistle on
music.
One of the most prolific contributors was Abu Nasr al-Farabi (died 950), whose Kitab
al-Musiqa al-Kabir, The Grand Treatise on Music, is an encompassing work. It discusses
such major topics as the science of sound, intervals, tetrachords, octave species, musical
instruments, compositions, and the influence of music. Al-Farabi provided a lute fretting
that combined the basic diatonic arrangement of Pythagorean intervals with additional
frets suited for playing two newly introduced neutral, or microtonal, intervals. Al-Farabi
also described two types of tunbur, or long-necked fretted lute, each with a different
system of frets: an old Arabian type whose frets produced quarter-tone intervals, and
another type attributed to Khorasan with intervals based on the limma and comma
subdivisions of the Pythagorean whole-tone. Discussions on the phenomenon of sound, the dissonants and the consonants, lute fretting, and references to melodic modes by specific
names are also found in the writings of the famous philosopher and physician Ibn Sina, or
Avicenna, (died 1037.)
Another influential theorist who contributed to the knowledge and systematization of
the melodic modes was Safi ad-Din al-Urmawi (died 1291) In two authoritative treatises, Safi ad-Din discussed various aspects of musical knowledge including rhythm and meter. He
also expounded on the subject of melodic modes, describing the intervals of each mode in
accordance with a detailed theoretical scale similar to the one found in the Khorasani
tanbur described by al-Farabi. Accordingly, each Pythagorean whole step in the seven-tone
scale was divided into two limmas (90-cent intervals) and a small remainder or comma (a
24-cent interval). Thus, it was possible to accommodate the neutral intervals found in
certain modes. Safi ad-Din's contribution to modal theory had a profound influence upon
later scholars and particularly upon the musical systems of contemporary Iran and Turkey.
Although there is no evidence that musical notation was employed in actual performance,
al-Kindi and Safi an-Din left us fragments of songs recorded in a system of notation based
on alphabetical symbols.
Contact with the Medieval West
The third major process affecting Arab music was the contact between the Islamic Near
East and Europe at the time of the Crusades in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries and during the Islamic occupation of Spain (713-1492.) This contact had a
widespread impact on both Islamic and European traditions. The westward movement of
scientific scholarship into the Muslim universities of Spain is known to have influenced
the Christian West and to have promoted the translation of Arabic works, including
commentaries on Greek sources, into Latin. Although it is difficult to assess precisely
the nature and extent of the Near Eastern musical impact upon medieval Europe, such
scholars as Julian Ribera, Alois R. Nykl, and Henry George Farmer have argued that
substantial influence existed in areas ranging from rhythm and song forms to music theory,
nomenclature, and musical instruments.
Influence in the case of instruments is indicated by name derivations: for example, the
lute from al-'ud; the nakers, or kettledrums, from naqqarat; the rebec from rabab; and the anafil, or natural trumpet, from al-nafir. Added evidence comes from manuscript
illustrations of instruments that have obvious Near Eastern origins. One such document is
the thirteenth-century collection of songs entitled Cantigas de Santa Maria, prepared for
the Spanish King Alfonso X, who was known as el Sabio (the wise). This work was decorated
with miniature illustrations in color, showing musicians, including Moors, performing on a
wide variety of instruments such as the lute, the psaltery, and the double-reed shawm.
The contributions of Moorish Spain to Arab music were profound and far-reaching. The
Easterners' adaptation to a new physical environment and the introduction of Eastern
science and literature into settings of wealth and splendor, as represented in the courts
of Seville, Granada, and Cordoba, were inspirational to the new artistic life of
al-Andalus. Zaryab (died about 850) was a freed slave who moved from Baghdad to Cordoba,
where he became a highly respected singer, 'ud player, and music teacher. Zaryab is
credited with compiling a repertoire of twenty-four nawbat, (singular nawbah or nubah),
each of which was a composite of vocal and instrumental pieces in a certain melodic mode.
The nawbat were reportedly associated with the different hours of the day. The nawbah
tradition was largely transported to North Africa by the Muslims who were expelled from
the Iberian Peninsula in the late fifteenth century.
Moorish Spain also witnessed the development of a literary-musical form that utilized
romantic subject matter and featured strophic texts with refrains, in contrast to the
classical Arabic qasidah, which followed a continuous flow of lines or of couplets using a
single poetical meter and a single rhyme ending. The muwashshah form, which was utilized
by major poets, also emerged as a musical form and survived as such in North African
cities and in the Levant, an area covering what is known historically as greater Syria and
Palestine. In this area, the muwashshah genre became popular in Aleppo, Syria.
The fourth major process influencing Arab music was the hegemony of the Ottoman Turks
over Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the coasts of Arabia, and much of North Africa (1517-1917.)
During this four-centuries span, the center of power in the Sunni Muslim world shifted to
the Ottoman court in Turkey, while Iran was gradually emerging as a separate political,
cultural, and religious entity, eventually instituting Shiism as the state religion,
Musically, the Ottoman period was characterized by gradual assimilation and exchange. Arab
music interacted with Turkish music, which had already absorbed musical elements from
Central Asia, Anotolia, Persia, and medieval Islamic Syria and Iraq. This interaction was
most obvious in larger cities, particularly Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo. In the rural
communities - for example, among the Syrian Bedouins and North African Berbers - musical
traditions apparently maintained a fair degree of continuity and stability.
During this period in Arab history, certain aspects of musical life may have resulted
from broader cultural and political contacts. In the Ottoman world, musicians, like
members of other professions, belonged to specialized professional guilds (tawa'if). In
Egypt, such musicians included the alatiyyah, literally, "male
instrumentalists", and the 'awalim, literally "learned females." According
to M. Villoteau, whose extensive description of Egyptian music is part of the accounts
prepared by the Napoleonic mission to Egypt, the former groups entertained male audiences,
while the latter specialized in performing for female audiences. Instruments associated
with professional musicians of the cities, included the oud, the qanun (zither) and the
nay (flute) and were commonly used in Turkey and in the Arab world.
The sama'i (or Turkish saz semai) and the bashraf (or pesrev), both instrumental genres
used in Turkish court and religious Sufi music, were introduced into the Arab world before
the late nineteenth century. Instrumental and possibly vocal and dance forms were
transmitted partly through the Mevlevis, a mystical order established in Konya, Turkey, in
the thirteenth century. Known for cultivating music and including famous composers and
theorists, this order spread into parts of Syria, Iraq, and North Africa. Military bands,
similar to the type connected with the Janissary army, existed in various political
centers of the Ottoman world. (An example found in Cairo was described by Villoteau.)
With respect to theory and nomenclature, Arab and Turkish musical systems
overlapped considerably. Melodic and metric modes in Turkey and in the Arab
world, particularly Syria, have exhibited and still exhibit strong similarities
Links for the musical
history of Arabia By
Ali Jihad Racy
Ph.D. and Jack Logan, PhD
If you would like to listen Arabian music click here
abdelwahab
