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Ibn ‘Abd al-Rabbīh [Abū ‘Umar Ahmad ibn Muhammad]
(b Córdoba, 860; d 940). Andalusian Arab writer. Little is known of his life. His most important work is a large-scale compendium entitled al-‘Iqd al-farīd (‘The unique necklace’). Drawn mainly from Eastern Arab sources, it covers a wide range of subject matter and includes a substantial section on music which exemplifies the approach of the literary scholar. Proclaiming first the beneficial effects of music, Ibn ‘Abd al-Rabbīh then reflects, but without systematically exploring, the juridical debate on its permissibility. His main concern, however, is to provide a selection of informative, but primarily entertaining or unusual anecdotes, including a copious selection of song texts. For the most part these concern prominent figures of the first two centuries of Islam and the musicians and singing slave-girls (see Qayna) who entertained them. The events described almost all take place in the Eastern Arab world, and there is an unfortunate absence of parallel materials to illustrate musical life at the court of the Umayyads in Córdoba.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kitāb al-‘Iqd al-farīd, vi, ed. A. Amīn, I. al-Anbārī and ‘A. al-Salām Hārūn (Cairo, 1949), 3–81; partial trans. in H.G. Farmer, ‘Music: the Priceless Jewel’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1941), 22–30, 127–44; repr. as Music: the Priceless Jewel (Bearsden, 1942)
F. Shehadi: Philosophies of Music in Medieval Islam (Leiden, 1995)
OWEN WRIGHT
Ibn al-Nadīm [Abū l-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishāq al-Warrāq al-Baghdādī]
(b c930; d c995).Arab bibliographer. He lived in Baghdad, and in 987–8 wrote Kitāb al-fihrist (‘Index of books’), a classified bibliography of Arab literature known to him in his capacity as a copyist and bookseller (warrāq), from libraries and from earlier bibliographies. He listed almost 100 titles from Arab musical literature, giving short biographical notes on the authors and sometimes indications as to the origin and content of the books. Most of these are lost, though some later compilations, such as the Kitāb al-aghānī al-kabīr (‘Great book of songs’) by al-Isfahānī, contain fragments of older biographical works on musicians and singers, and collections of song texts. Of particular value is his information about Arabic translations of Greek treatises on music; quotations from these treatises, which are now mostly lost, are also found in Arab musical literature from the early 10th century.
WRITINGS
Kitāb al-fihrist [Index of books]; ed. G. Flügel (Leipzig, 1871–2); ed. R. Tajaddud (Tehran, 1971; Eng. trans. as The Fihrist of al-Nadīm: a Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, B. Dodge, New York and London, 1970)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘Ibn al-Nadīm’, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. M.T. Houtsma and others (Leiden and London, 1913–38, rev. 2/1960 by H.A.R. Gibb and others)
H.G. Farmer: ‘Tenth Century Arabic Books on Music: as contained in “Kitāb al-Fihrist” of Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad ibn al-Nadīm’, Annual of the Leeds University Oriental Society, ii (1959–61), 37–47
ECKHARD NEUBAUER
Ibn al-Tahhān
(fl first half of the 11th century). Arab musician and writer. The son of an eminent musician, he became a prominent singer at the Cairo court of the Fatimid caliph al-Zāhir (1021–36), and was still active as a teacher in 1057. His music treatise, completed after 1036 and entitled Hāwī al-funūn wa-salwat al-mahzūn (‘Compendium of the arts to comfort sad hearts’), is of particular interest in that it deals with various topics of little concern to other authorities. Written from the perspective of a cultured musician rather than that of a philosopher-theorist, it calls upon a literary tradition of writing about music, and its historical content is frankly derivative, even if of interest for the implication of continuity with the court music of 9th-century Baghdad. But it is wide-ranging in its treatment of contemporary practice, dealing not only with such basics as mode and rhythm, but also with such matters as the normal sequence of events in performance, deportment and etiquette, the materials and construction of the ‘ūd, and vocal quality and technique. Emphasizing the experience of the teacher, the latter discussion includes voice training and pedagogical method.
WRITINGS
Hāwī al-funūn wa-salwat al mahzūn (MS, EY-Cn Dār al-kutub, funūn jamīla 539); facsimile ed., Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, ser. C, no.52 (Frankfurt, 1990) [with introduction by E. Neubauer]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H.G. Farmer: Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments (Glasgow, 1939), 93–4
E. Neubauer: ‘Der Bau der Laute und ihre Besaitung nach arabischen, persischen und türkischen Quellen des 9. bis 15. Jahrhunderts’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, viii (1993), 279–378
E. Neubauer: ‘Die acht “Wege” der Musiklehre und der Oktoechos’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, ix (1994), 373–414
OWEN WRIGHT
Ibn Bājja [Avenpace]
(b Zaragoza, north Spain; d Fez, Morocco, c1139). Philosopher, administrator and composer. He spent much of his life, first in Zaragoza and then in Játiva, south Spain, as vizier to various Almoravid governors, and later moved to Fez.
His Kitāb fī al-nafs (‘Book on the soul’) deals with acoustics. He is also reported to have written a substantial treatise on music that could stand comparison with that of al-Fārābī, but this, unfortunately, has not survived. However, his reputation as a composer stayed alive for some considerable time, and his songs are still mentioned by Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406). He was also a dexterous ‘ūd player. The fullest, if still succinct, account of his achievements is provided by al-Tīfāshī (d 1253), according to whom he studied for several years with female professional musicians (qiyān) and subsequently introduced two important innovations. One resulted in improvements to two of the important song forms, while the other, more general, is intriguingly characterized as a fusion of ‘Christian’ and ‘Eastern’ song. The resulting synthesis was to establish itself as the dominant style in Muslim Spain, effacing that of the earlier school of Ziryāb.
WRITINGS
Kitāb fī al-nafs [Book on the soul] (MS, D-Bsb 5061)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
EI2 (D.M. Dunlop)
B.M. Liu and J.T. Monroe: Ten Hispano-Arabic Strophic Songs in the Modern Aural Tradition (Berkeley, 1989)
OWEN WRIGHT
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