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An Old Moorish Lute Tutor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

Maghribī or Moorish documents on the theory of music are extremely rare. We certainly have the Commentary on Aristotle's De anima by Ibn Rushd (d. 1198), but that deals with the question of the physical basis of sound, and not with practical theory. Probably the latter is treated in the Kitāb al adwār al-mansūb attributed to Ibn Sab'īn (d. 1269), but this is, unfortunately, locked away in a private library in the East. We also have the treatise bearing the name of Al-Shalāḥi (ca. 1301) known as the Kitāb al-imtā' wa'lintifā', and the chapter on music in the mugaddima of the Kitāb al-'ibarof Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), but they tell us very little. The former is mainly concerned with the question of the “lawfulness” of music, whilst the latter is too general in its treatment to be of much use, and tells us nothing about practical theory.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1931

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References

page 349 note 1 Al-Hilāl, xxviii, 214.

page 349 note 2 Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, 307–11.

page 349 note 3 No. 220, 4.

page 350 note 1 In his article on “La Musique en Espagne” in Lavignac's, Encyclopédie de la Musique, tome iv, 1922Google Scholar, published in 1920, he says: “Seizième siècle” and adds: “Une semblable coïncidence ne résoud pas le problème, et il faudrait une étude plus complète et approfondie de cet intéressant document, avant de se hasarder à prononcer une conclusion.”

page 350 note 2 The Influence of Music: From Arabic Sources, 18.

page 351 note 1 See my History of Arabian Music, 70, and Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, 241, 307–11.

page 351 note 2 Also written dhīl and dhail elsewhere.

page 351 note 3 The text has by mistake.

page 352 note 1 A marginal addition.

page 352 note 2 Read from left to right.

page 352 note 3 The text has but read .

page 353 note 1 The text has (J).

page 353 note 2 In the text, this phrase , through a slip of the copyist, is repeated.

page 353 note 3 A marginal addition.

page 353 note 4 The text has an omission mark here, but there is nothing to correspond in the margin, and there does not appear to be a hiatus in the matter dealt with.

page 353 note 5 The ramal poetic metre has no connection with the ramal musical mode.

page 354 note 1 or .

page 354 note 2 ?

page 355 note 1 Meaning, shift the finger until it is in tune with the open ramal string.

page 355 note 2 The note of the dīl (= C) is called the “old man” (shaikh) whilst its octave on the ḥusain string is named the “young man” (shābb). The old classical names for these were sajāh (shuḥaj) and ṣiyyāḥ respectively.

page 355 note 3 The text has, owing to the marginal correction, got slightly mixed here. It reads as follows:

, ( margin)

“Then between the dīl and the māya (is the interval of a tone, and between the māya and the ramal) and the ramal and the ḥasain the interval of a fourth, and between the ramal and the ḥusain the interval of a tone. Then the ratio of [the dīl] to the ramal is like the ratio of the māya to the ḥusain.”

The words in brackets are from the margin, and clearly the words that follow are redundant. I have made the translation agree with my revision of the text. The word ṭani is rather unusual. The general term is ṭanin.

page 356 note 1 There is a folio or folios missing here. This is a great loss, because an author is mentioned whose name would, to some extent, have aśsisted in fixing the date of the author of the MS.

page 356 note 2 Only five out of the six are named, the missing one being, it would seem, 'irāq al-'ajam.

page 356 note 3 Cf. zaukand (Ibn al-Khaṭīb), zīrāfkand (Ṣafī al-Dīn 'Abd al-Mu'min), and zīrakghanḍ (below).

page 357 note 1 The text has ṭabā'i' (“natures”), but ṭubū' (“elements”) is intended.

page 357 note 2 The text has ṭubū' (“elements”) but principal modes ('uṣūl) is intended.

page 357 note 3 The text has in place of .

page 357 note 4 The text contains no figure of this “tree”. There is a “tree” with “branches” showing principal and branch modes according to the Eastern Arabian musical system to be found in a Bodleian Library MS. (Ouseley, 106). See my Arabic Musical MSS. in the Bodleian Library, p. 17.

page 358 note 1 See Weir, T. H., The Shaikhs of Morocco in the Sixteenth Century, p. 149Google Scholar.

page 359 note 1 As pointed out above, the name of this author has been crossed out and an interlineal note added which says: “Bather by the shaikh, the faqīh, Sīdī 'Abd al-Wāḥid al-Wanshirīsī.”

page 359 note 2 Ṭabā'i'. These are the same aa the “humours” (akhlāq) of Al-Kindī, Al-Mas'ūdī, and the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'.

page 359 note 3 Ṭubū'.

page 359 note 4 Naghma.

page 359 note 5 Ṣaut.

page 359 note 6 It is vocalized with fatha but the other treatises, and present day pronunciation, have dhīl or dīl.

page 359 note 7 Murattil.

page 360 note 1 Laḥn.

page 360 note 2 . A play on the preceding word raṣd.

page 360 note 3 A marginal note gives a different line, which reads: “And its 'Ushshāq take, it has gone up, and the singing has become light.”

page 360 note 4 . Word of text doubtful.

page 360 note 5 Here a marginal note has been added which runs: “Pray and beg for peace, in the beginning, for him [the Prophet Muhammad] who was sent to created things.” This was due to the author's neglect to include the customary pious invocations.

page 360 note 6 A marginal note says: “And do not forget in its time the morning draught.”

page 362 note 1 Ṭubū'.

page 362 note 2 Ṭibā'.

page 365 note 1 The text has thaqīlat al-munfaṣilāt, which is an error.

page 365 note 2 Kosegarten, , Lib. cant., 61–2Google Scholar.

page 365 note 3 Vloten, Van, Liber mafātīh al-olum, 244Google Scholar.

page 365 note 4 Brit. Museum MS., Or. 2361, fol. 226.

page 365 note 5 de Vaux, Carra, Le traité des rapports musieaux, 48Google Scholar.

page 366 note 1 The correspondences refer to the Maghribī lute described in the Ma'rifat al-naghamāt al-thamān treatise.

page 366 note 2 Host, , Nachrichten von Marokos und Fes (1781)Google Scholar, Tab. xxxi.

page 366 note 3 Salvador-Daniel, , La Musique arabe (1879), 81Google Scholar. Lavignac, , Encyclopèdia de la musique, v, 2924Google Scholar.