Details

Subject(s)

• Music theory—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Musical instruments—Arab countries—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Arabic—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Restrictions note

Access limited: Material extremely fragile; Use digitized version.

Summary note

Treatise on musical theory and musical instruments, in three parts. This copy does not contain the section on the construction of the ʻūd.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
• Title from title page (fol. 1a).
• The title on the title page is by a later hand. There is no mention of a title for the entire work in the text itself.
• 21 long lines per page. Written in medium small naskh in black ink with use of red for entries, headings and diagrams. Glazed paper with horizontal laid lines visible ; frame-ruled (9 mm.). There are some collation notes and very few marginal notes. Catchwords on the verso of each leaf. Note on sound on fol. 104b. Foliation in black ink using Arabic numerals in the upper right corner of the verso of each leaf. Modern foliation in pencil using Western numerals.
• Inscription on title page (fol. 1a): Note on content (number of leaves and quires, and titles of the main divisions of the text) corresponding to the foliation using Arabic numerals mentioned in the physical description; mention of the number of the leaves missing in another note by a later hand. Some leaves are indeed missing as shown by the catchwords (see fol. 30b-31a) and the missing numbers in the mentioned foliation.
• Notes in pencil on the margin of some pages refering to J. P. N. Land. Recherches sur l'histoire de la gamme arabe. Tiré du vol. II des Travaux de la 6e session du Congrès international des Orientalistes à Leide. Leide: E:J: Brill, 1884.
• Copied on 14 Rabīʻ al-Awwal 866 by Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Isḥāq [---?] (colophon, fol. 104a).
• Incipit: بسم ... رب يسر واعن ذكرت تشوفك للنظر فيما يشتمل عليه صناعة علم الموسيقا المنسوبه الى القدما وسالتني ان اثبته(؟) لك في كتاب اولفه
• Explicit: منها ما يستعمل في الامور التي هي جد ومنها ما شانها في دنياك و اخرتك والله اعلم بالصواب واليه المرجع والماب

Binding note

Upper and lower covers and envelope flap made of brown leather over pasteboards. The endcap and fore-edge flap have been repaired. The upper and lower covers have a blind-stamped central scalloped medallion and an elaborate outer frame, formed of fillets and a running frame of palmettes. The inner corners of the frame are triangles demarcated by fillets forming the inner edge of the frame, and contain each three impressions of a circular stamp with a flower motif. The envelope flap has a more dense blind-stamped decoration. The block-pressed leather doublure is only visible on the envelope flap. Modern pastedowns and endpapers.

Contents

• 1. fol. 5a-29b: al-Madkhal fī ṣināʻat al-mūsīqā.
• 2. fol. 30b-67b: Usṭuqsāt ʻilm al-taʾlīf.
• 3. fol. 68a-104a: Taʾlīf al-alḥān.

Provenance

Ownership statements on fol. 1a. Acquired from Brill, Leyden, 1925, from the books of Murād Bey Bārūdī (Beirut).

Source acquisition

Gift ; Robert Garrett, Class of 1897 ; 1942.

References

• Hitti, P. Garrett coll., 1984
• Fārābī. Kitāb al-Mūsīqá al-kabīr. Ed. G. A. Khashaba. Cairo: Dār al-Kātib al-ʻArabī, p. 31-32
• Shiloah, A. The Theory of Music in Arabic writings (c. 900-1900) : descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in libraries of Europe and the U.S.A. Munchen: G. Henle Verlag, 1979, no. 057/6
• Farmer, H. G. The Sources of Arabic Music, no. 159

Other title(s)

المدخل الى صناعة الموسيقي

Title given by Hitti, P. Garrett coll

• al-Mudkhil ilá ṣināʻat al-mūsīqī

OCLC

67613490

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