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The Instruments of Music on the Ṭāq-i Bustān Bas-Reliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The famous Sāsānian bas-reliefs at Ṭāq-i Bustān, (A.D. 590–628) have so often been reproduced that it is highly probable that most Orientalists could picture the scenes in the mind's eye with little difficulty. Yet I do not suppose that any could give a correct delineation of the instruments of music contained therein for the simple reason that the reproductions of these sculptures have given so many different outlines for these instruments.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1938

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References

page 398 note 1 p. 10: pl. iii, 9.

page 398 note 2 Vol. i, p. 258: the first two plates.

page 398 note 3 A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (1874), p. 58.

page 399 note 1 Pls. 63, 64.

page 399 note 2 Tome i, p. 4; tome ii, pls. 10, 12.

page 399 note 3 Nos. 86–7, 88–9.

page 399 note 4 The complete scenes appear in The Survey of Persian Art.

page 400 note 1 Encyclopædia of Islām, iii, 528; iv, 986.

page 400 note 2 Unvalla, , as cited, and Benveniste, , JA. (1932), p. 260Google Scholar. Professor H. W. Bailey informs me that Dr. Unvalla's book must be used with caution.

page 400 note 3 Shāh nāma.

page 400 note 4 Al-Mas'ūdī, , Les prairies d'or, viii, 90–1Google Scholar; Al-Tha'ālibī, , Histoire des rois des Perses, trad, par Zotenberg, H., Paris (1900)Google Scholar.

page 401 note 1 The Antiquaries Journal, viii, 10, 1928Google Scholar. Galpin, The Music of the Sumsrians, pl. v.

page 401 note 2 Engel, , Music of the Most Ancient Nations (1870), p. 49Google Scholar.

page 401 note 3 Sarre, Die Kunst des alien Persien, Nr. 110.

page 401 note 4 The Survey of Persian Art.

page 401 note 5 The Occidental Persian lexicographers in defining the van as a “cymbal” (sinj, sanj) played with, the fingers, leads one to conclude that finger cymbals are meant, but the Persians are merely following the definitions of their Arabic predecessors who used the word ṣanj, a term which stood for both a harp and a cymbal.

page 401 note 6 Al-Qāmūs, s.v.

page 401 note 7 Dīwān (, G. M. S.), p. 201Google Scholar.

page 402 note 1 Unvalla, op. cit., pp. 15, 27. He transliterates the word as vin. Professor Christensen writes vīn.

page 402 note 2 See Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 50, pp. 244–253: vol. 51, pp. 47–50.

page 402 note 3 Budge, , Egyptian Dictionary, pp. 202, 211, 216Google Scholar.

page 402 note 4 Galpin, op. cit. Engel, , Music of the Most Ancient Nations, p. 29Google Scholar. Délégation en Perse, Mémoires, tome iii, pl. 23. Maspero, , Le Musée Egyptien, Cairo, 1907, iii, pl. 40Google Scholar.

page 402 note 5 Sachs, , Die Mitsikinstrumente des alten Ägyptens, p. 50Google Scholar.

page 402 note 6 This flagon has been denied a Sāsānian origin and has even been dated as late as tenth to eleventh century.

page 403 note 1 Délégation en Perse, Mémoires, tome iii, pl. 23.

page 403 note 2 Engel, op. cit., p. 31.

page 403 note 3 Unvalla, 27.

page 403 note 4 Shāh nāma (Mohl, ed.), iii, 292, 317Google Scholar. Mohl translates chang by “luth”.

page 403 note 5 Advielle, , La Musigue chez les Persans en 1885, p. 13Google Scholar. Pillaut, , Le Musée du Conservatoire national de Musique, 2e Suppl., p. 38Google Scholar.

page 403 note 6 The oboe has a conical tube whereas the reed-pipe has a cylindrical tube.

page 403 note 7 See my Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments, i, 65–7.

page 403 note 8 Al-Mas'ūdī, , Les prairies d'or, viii, 90Google Scholar. Burhān-i qāṭi', s.v.

page 403 note 9 See my Turkish Instruments of Music in the Seventeenth Century, 23.

page 404 note 1 Encyclopædia of Islām, ii, 541.

page 404 note 2 Van Aalst, , Chinese Music (1884), 80Google Scholar.

page 404 note 3 See my Studies . . ., ii, 9–10, for further details.

page 404 note 4 Shāh nāma (Mohl, ed.), i, 198, 228, 298, 418, 468Google Scholar; ii, 4.

page 404 note 5 al-Ṣafā', Ikhwān, Rasā'īl (Bombay ed.), iii, 91Google Scholar.

page 404 note 6 Shāh nāma, i, 420.

page 404 note 7 See infra.

page 405 note 1 Unvalla, 28.

page 405 note 2 Tagore, , Yantra kosha, 102Google Scholar; Short Notices . . ., 39. At the same time we must recognize that ṭāsāt, according to Ibn Ghaībī (d. 1435), were the musical cups used like the modern harmonica.

page 405 note 3 Christensen, 33.

page 405 note 4 Shāh nāma, i, 137.

page 405 note 5 Unvalla, 28, quoting from the Avesta texts.

page 405 note 6 See my article in the Encyclopædia of Islām, iv, 985–6; my Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments, i, 95–6; and my Turkish Instruments of Music in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 36, 41.

page 406 note 1 Mafātīḥ al-'ulüm, 238.

page 406 note 2 JRAS. (1899), 59. Al-Tha'ālibī, 705. The dish showing Eros (?) playing a lute of three double strings may not be Sāsānian. See Argenterie orientale, Nr. 93.

page 406 note 3 See my article on the Evolution of the Ṭunbūr in the Transactions of the Glasgow University Oriental Society, v, 26–7.

page 406 note 4 Délégation en Perse, Mémoires, tome vii, pls. xxvii, xxviii. Galpin, op. cit., pl. viii.

page 406 note 5 Unvalla, 15.

page 406 note 6 Christensen, 30.

page 406 note 7 Farmer, , Studies . . ., ii, 31Google Scholar.

page 407 note 1 Al-Mas'ūdī, viii, 92. The text in both authors has which would appear to be a copyist's slip for . Cf. my Studies . . ., i, 62.

page 407 note 2 Sharḥ maulānā, British Museum MS., Or. 2361, fol. 76 v.

page 407 note 3 Voyages en Perse (1735), tome iii, p. 160, pl. xxvi (F).

page 407 note 4 Christensen, 30.

page 407 note 5 Unvalla, 27.

page 407 note 6 Yantra kosha (in Bengālī), Calcutta (1875), p. 24Google Scholar: and the same author's Short Notices of Hindu Musical Instruments (in English), Calcutta (1877), p. 20Google Scholar.

page 407 note 7 This word, through a printer's error, is written rehāb, i.e. an h instead of a b. The mistake is hardly worth mention, but the same slip occurs in several books.

page 407 note 8 JRAS. (1935), 353: Studies . . ., ii, 28, 32.

page 407 note 9 Rasā'īl (Bombay ed.), iii, 97. The text has which must be a copyist's slip for .

page 408 note 1 King's College Library, Cambridge, MS. 211, fol. 20.

page 408 note 2 JRAS. (1930), 775 et seq. Farmer, , Studies . . ., i, 99Google Scholar.

page 408 note 3 Unvalla, 29.

page 408 note 4 Argenterie orientate, Nr. 65.

page 408 note 5 Shāh nāma, iii, 317.

page 408 note 6 Kanz al-tuḥaf, fol. 20 v.

page 408 note 7 The rasan of the Pahlavī text (Unvalla, , 28)Google Scholar, may very well be a copyist's slip for ravav ( = Pers. rubāb).

page 409 note 1 Shāh nāma, i, 137, 228, 334.

page 409 note 2 Jāmi' al-alḥān, Bodl. Library MS., Marsh, 282, fol. 80.

page 409 note 3 JRAS. (1936), 30. Farmer, , Ṫurkish Instruments of Music, 32Google Scholar.

page 409 note 4 Shāh nāma, i, 198, 386, 470.

page 409 note 5 Argenterie orientale, Nr. 66. Dalton, , The Treasures of the Oxus (2nd ed.), p. 211Google Scholar.

page 409 note 6 Unvalla, 28: Christensen, 30.

page 409 note 7 Sarre, op. cit., Nr. 105.

page 410 note 1 Unvalla, 28.

page 410 note 2 Unvalla, 28: Christensen, 30.

page 410 note 3 Shāh nāma, i, 298.

page 410 note 4 JA. (1932), 260.

page 410 note 5 Al-Tha'ālibī (Zotenberg ed.), p. 705. Al-Fārābi refers to the instrument as the mizmār wāḥid. See Kosegarten, , Lib. cant., 98Google Scholar.

page 410 note 6 Al-Mas'ūdī, viii, 90. The text has . Al-Fārābī has the same. See my Studies . . ., i, 57–8.

page 410 note 7 Engel, op. cit., p. 58.

page 410 note 8 Unvalla, 28: Christensen, 30.

page 410 note 9 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum exoticarum . . . (1712), 740, Nr. 4Google Scholar.

page 410 note 10 Benveniste, , JA. (1932), 260Google Scholar. The editor suggests tumba[la]k.

page 410 note 11 Kaempfer, op. cit., Nr. 6.

page 411 note 1 Unvalla, 28.

page 411 note 2 Advielle, op. oit., 14.

page 411 note 3 Villoteau, , Desc. de l'Égypte, état moderne, i, 980–1Google Scholar.

page 411 note 4 Unvalla, 28.

page 411 note 5 Khallikān, Ibn, Biog. Dict., iii, 491Google Scholar.

page 411 note 6 Farmer, , Turkish Instruments of Music . . ., 10Google Scholar.

page 412 note 1 Dalton, loc. cit. Argenterie orientale, Nr. 66.