Author
a later hand at the head of f. 41v identifies the text incorrectly as
Notes on the
Ashkāl al-taʾsīs
Publication Date
8 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 1104 AH)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Add MS 7471, ff 41v-92r
Record ID
vdc_100047232289.0x000002
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
8 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 1104 AH)
Notes
Anonymous commentary on Ṣafī al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Mu’min ibn Yūsuf ibn Fākhir al-Urmawī’s (Safi al-Din Abd al-Mu’min ibn Yusuf ibn Fakhir al-Armawī, d. 1294)
Book of Cycles
(Book of Roles), an extremely influential treatise on music theory.
A title line added by a later hand at the head of f. 41v identifies the text incorrectly as
Notes on the
Ashkāl al-taʾsīs
(Footnote to forms of incorporation).
The text is divided into fifteen sections (chapter):
Sections one and two not marked (ff. 41v-50r);
Section Three: The Interval Ratio (ff. 50r-59r);
Section Four: The Necessitating Cause of Dissonance (ff. 59r-60r);
Section Five: Consonant Harmony (ff. 60r-65r);
Section Six: The Scales and Their Relationships (Chapter Six on Roles and Their Ratios, ff. 65r-69v);
Section Seven: The Arrangement of Two Strings (ff. 69v-71r);
Section Eight: Discussion of the ‘Ūd, Tuning its Strings, and Deriving Scales from Them
Section Nine: The Names of the Scales (ff. 72r-77r);
Section Ten: Tone Sharing of the Scales, ff. 77r-78v;
Section Eleven: Transposed Cycles (Chapter Eleven, ff. 78v-79v);
Section Twelve: Scordatura (Chapter XII Unusual Accompaniment, ff. 79v-81v);
Section Thirteen: Rhythm (ff. 81v-90r);
Section Fourteen: Influence of the Modes (ff. 90r-90v);
Section Fifteen (Chapter Fifteen, ff. 90v-91v).
The text contains fifteen diagrams:
Diagram of interval ratios (f. 53r);
Diagram of interval ratios (f. 54v);
Table of the seven tetrachord species (tetrachord sections, f. 62v);
Table of the twelve pentachord species (five sections, f. 63r);
Six diagrams of tonal relationships (ff. 67r-68v);
Five diagrams of rhythmic notation (ff. 88r-89v).
The copy was completed on Tuesday 8 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 1104/11 August 1693 by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Sijinālī (? Shams al-Din Muhammad bin Hussein al-Sijnali [?], see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, ff. 91v, lines 14-16 and f. 92r, line 3 transcribed below).
Beginnings (f. 41v, lines 4-6):
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad and his good and pure family
Before delving into what is meant, one must know that every knowledge has its rank
Subject, principles, issues, and the subject of every science is what it searches for its effects...
Ends (f. 91v, lines 9-11):
... Let this be the last thing we wanted to clarify
The message and praise be to God, praise be to Him, there is no effort to prepare it, no elaboration to provide it, and prayer
Peace be upon His chosen servants, especially Muhammad, his family, and his infallible children
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(ff. 91v, line 12-92r, line 3):
May God’s blessings be upon Muhammad and all his good and pure family
This explanation of the roles has been carefully written
God, the mighty King, on the eighth Tuesday
One year from the month of Dhul-Hijjah al-Haram
Four hundred and one thousand
From the migration of the Mustafawiyya
...
He freed him, a poor servant in need of the mercy of the rich God
Shams al-Din Muhammad bin Hussein al-Sijnali (?)
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Cureton, William and Charles Rieu,
Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens
(London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 388, p. 186
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Editions of text commented upon:
Urmawī, ʻAbd al-Muʼmin ibn Yūsuf,
Kitāb al-Adwār fī maʻrifat al-nagham wa-al-adwār
, ed. by Ḥusayn ʻAlī Maḥfūẓ (Baghdād: Mudīrīyat al-Funūn wa-al-Thaqāfah al-Shaʻbīyah bi-Wizārat al-Irshād, 1961)
Urmawī, ʿAbd al-Muʼmin ibn Yūsuf,
Kitāb al-Adwār
, ed. by Hāshim Muḥammad al-Rajab ([Baghdad]: al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʿIrāqīyah, Wizārat al-Thaqāfah wa-al-Iʿlām, Dār al-Rashīd, 1980)
Urmawī, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Yūsuf,
al-Adwār fī al-mūsīqá
, ed. by Ghaṭṭāṣ ʿAbd al-Malik Khashabah and Maḥmūd Aḥmad al-Ḥifnī (al-Qāhirah: al-Hayʾah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʿĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1986)
Facsimile edition of text commented upon:
Urmawī, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Yūsuf,
Book on the Cyclic Forms of Musical Modes Kitāb al-adwār, and Treatise Dedicated to Sharaf al-D
īn on Proportions in Musical Composition al-Risāla al-Sharafīya fī 'l-nisab al-taʾlīfīyah
, ed. by Fuat Sezgin (Frankfurt: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 1984)
Studies:
Farmer, Henry George,
The Sources of Arabian Music. An Annotated Bibliography of Arabic Manuscripts which Deal with the Theory, Practice, and History of Arabian Music
(Bearsden, Scotland: Issued privately by the author, 1940), no. 235, p. 55
Wright, Owen, 'A Preliminary Version of the "kitāb al-Adwār"',
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
58.3 (1995) pp. 455-78
