LONDON ORIENTAL SERIES - VOLUME 28 THE MODAL SYSTEM OF ARAB AND PERSIAN MUSIC A.D. 1250-1300 BY O. WRIGHT Lecturer in Arabic at the ‘School of Oriental and African Studies OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1978Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford, ox2 6DP OXFORD LONDON GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON IBADAN. NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA GAPE TOWN KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE JAKARTA HONG KONG TOKYO DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI © O. Wright 1978 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by ary means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wright, O. ‘The modal system of Arab and Persian music, A.D, 1250-1300, (London Oriental series; vol. 28). 1. Music, Arab—History and criticism. 2. Music, Iranian—History and criticism. ; Musical intervals and scales. I. Title II. Series. ISBN 0 19 713575 7 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford by Vivian Ridler Printer to the UniversityNo. 1 London Oriental Series PHONETICS IN ANCIENT INDIA W. SIDNEY ALLEN *No.2 THE DIACRITICAL POINT AND THE ACCENTS IN SYRIAC No. No. *No. No. 7 *No. No. No. No. 1 No. 1; No. *No. #No. *No. J. B. SEGAL 3 THE MANICHAEAN HYMN CYCLES IN PARTHIAN MARY BOYCE 4 THE BACKGROUND OF THE REBELLION OF AN LU-SHAN EDWIN G. PULLEYBLANK 5 SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN WESTERN INDIA 1817-1830 KENNETH BALLHATCHET THE HEVAJRA TANTRA D. L. SNELLGROVE. Two volumes THE GANDHARI DHARMAPADA Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by JOHN BROUGH 8 THE HISTORY OF THE CAUCASIAN ALBANIANS BY MOVSES DASXURANCI Translated by c. J. ¥. DOWSETT 9 KURDISH DIALECT STUDIES, Vol. I D. N. MACKENZIE 10 KURDISH DIALECT STUDIES, Vol. IT D. N. MACKENZIE 1 NINETEENTH-CENTURY MALAYA ‘The Origins of British Political Control ©. 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HATTO * "These volumes are out of print. + Available only from the School of Oriental and African Studies.PREFACE Ir gives me great pleasure to be able to express here my gratitude to the colleagues who have helped me at various stages in the writing of this work. I should like to thank particularly Professor C. F. Beckingham, for his encouragement and for his comments on an early draft of the Introduction; and Dr. T. O. Gandjei and Mr. A. A. Haidari, who patiently corrected many mistakes in the preparation and translation of the Persian text: for those that remain I am naturally entirely responsible. Above all I should like to record my indebtedness to Professor N. A. Jairazbhoy, who gave of his time generously in discussing the greater part of the book with me, and whose criticisms and suggestions were invariably pertinent and stimulating. Finally, I should also like to express my gratitude to the School of Oriental and African Studies, for including this work in the London Oriental Series, and for granting a subvention to cover the cost of publication. ‘The system of transliteration from Arabic requires no comment. How- ever, in the music examples in chapter g it is abandoned in favour of a broad transcription for the benefit of the non-Arabist. The transliteration of Persian words in the main text is rather unsystematic. Forms given in previous musicological studies have been taken into consideration and deviations from them kept to a minimum. In general, Arabic words occurring in Persian texts are transliterated as if from Arabic. Persian terms also frequently used in Arabic texts are sometimes given in their Arabicized form (e.g. dwaz, kardaniya, zankiila), but sometimes with the Persian consonantal values retained (e.g. buzurg, chahargah, diigah, parda), and occasionally with the vowels also (e.g. kichek, segah). Dates are a.D. throughout. Orientalists will be readily able to supply the A.H. equivalents, and I have assumed that for musicologists they might be more confusing than helpful. I hope each party will forgive some of the oversimplifications designed to assist the other.CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART I 1, The Systematist scale 2, Transcription of the species and scales PART II 3. Safi al-Din’s classification of the modes 4, Consonance and unit combinations 5. Problems of notation PART III 6. Qutb al-Din—r: scales already listed 7. Qutb al-Din—2: further material 8. shu‘bas and tarkibs PART IV 9. The examples of notation—1: transcription 10. The examples of notation—2: commentary APPENDIX 1. Relative pitch APPENDIX 2. Text SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF MODES AND SCALES GENERAL INDEX 20 79 95 124, 143 167 194 216 245 270 282 293 297 300INTRODUCTION Tue latter half of the thirteenth century constitutes one of the most important periods in the history of Arab and Persian musical theory. It witnessed the emergence of a corpus of theoretical writings that not only demonstrate a considerable degree of originality, but also provide the framework within which all the major theorists of the following two centuries were to operate. The analytical procedures adopted by these theorists, who collectively form what has come to be termed the Systematist school, are derived in the main from the terse, seminal Kitab al-adwar, which was probably written in 1252,' being therefore the first surviving work of any significance in this field since the treatises of Ibn Sina (980-1037) and Ibn Zayla (d. 1048). The author of the Kitab al-adwar, and hence the ‘founder’ of the Systematist school, was Safi al-Din ‘Abd al-Mu’min al-Urmawi, one of the most celebrated musicians of his day, anda prominent figure at the court of the last Abbasid Caliph, al-Musta‘sim (1243-58). Having survived the sack of Baghdad, on account, it is said, of his talent as a performer, he was taken into the service of the Mongol conquerors, and about 1267 composed for Sharaf al-Din Hariin a second and lengthier treatise, the Risdla al-sharafiyya.* He died, imprisoned for debt, in 1294.3 The third important contribution to the development of Systematist theory is made in the section on music in the Durrat al-tdj, an encyclopedia by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236-1311). The most brilliant of Nasir al-Din al-Tiisi’s pupils, Qutb al-Din was a polymath excelling in medicine, optics, and astronomy. He also wrote on theology and philosophy, producing a standard commentary on the Hikmat al-ishrag of Suhrawardi. The date of the Durrat al-tdj is unknown, but may reason- ably be assumed to be ¢. 1300: the section on music certainly postdates the death of Safi al-Din.+ One aspect of the Systematist theory, as exhibited in these three works, * Farmer, Sources of Arabian music, 48-9. One copy gives 1235 as the date of composition, but this is rather unlikely. Another copy (one of the earliest extant, Bodleian MS. Marsh 521, ff. 120-57, dating from 1334) states that the work was written at the instigation of Nasir al-Din al-Tisi (1201-74). It is possible, however, that this particular manuscript derives from a presentation copy made, with suitable additions, some time after the original date of composition. 2 See Farmer, loc. cit. Sharaf al-Din Haran was a son of Shams al-Din al-Juwayni, sahib-i diwan of Hulagu. 2 Further details on his life may be found in Farmer, History of Arabian music, 227-9, and Neubauer, ‘Musik zur Mongolenzeit’, Islam, xlv (1969). 4 And as the Durrat al-taj is dedicated to Dubaj of Gilan it was probably completed before the Mongol attack on that province in 1307. For further biographical material on Qutb al-Din see Encyclopaedia of Islam, ii (1927), 1166~7. D370 B