Medieval Arab Music and Musicians

Medieval Arab Music and Musicians offers complete, annotated English translations of three of the most important medieval Arabic texts on music and musicians: the biography of the musician Ibrahim al-Maw?ili from al-I?bahani’s Kitab al-Aghani (10th c), the biography of the musician Ziryab from Ibn ?ayyan’s Kitab al-Muqtabis (11th c), and the earliest treatise on the muwashsha? Andalusi song genre, Dar al-?iraz, by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Sana’ al-Mulk (13th c).
Al-Maw?ili, the most famous musician of his era, was also the teacher of the legendary Ziryab, who traveled from Baghdad to al-Andalus and is often said to have laid the foundations of Andalusi music. The third text is crucial to any understanding of the medieval muwashsha? and its possible relations to the Troubadours, the Cantigas de Santa María, and the Andalusi musical traditions of the modern Middle East.