CC BY
20Amnon Shiloah
THE STUDY OF ARABIC MUSICAL SOURCES: A QUEST FOR CONCEALED AND SYMBOLIC MEANING
ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ АРАБСКИХ МУЗЫКАЛЬНЫХ ИСТОЧНИКОВ: ПОИСК СКРЫТЫХ И СИМВОЛИЧЕСКИХ СМЫСЛОВ
Аннотация. В средневековых арабских текстах о музыке описываются, в частности, ее теоретические аспекты и психологическое воздействие, все множество вызываемых ею переживаний, ее всевозможные достоинства. Отсутствие музыкальной нотации и конкретных памятников изысканного музыкального искусства далекого прошлого делает эти описания во многих отношениях малопонятными. На четырех примерах автор показывает, что средневековые тексты богаты скрытыми и символическими смыслами, для расшифровки которых необходимы такие условия, как хорошее владение языком, глубокое погружение в культуру и непосредственное изучение рукописей.
Abstract. The Arabic medieval writings on music describe, in particular, its theoretical aspects and psychological effects, a whole gamut of experiences it produces, the variety of its virtues. The absence of musical notation and of concrete relics of the sophisticated musical art of the remote ages makes these descriptions largely arcane. On the example of four case studies the author shows how rich are the writings in question in concealed and symbolical meanings, whose deciphering requires a good command of the language, a solid knowledge of the culture, and a direct firsthand consultation of manuscript documents.
Ключевые слова: Средневековые арабские тексты о музыке, влияние греческой культуры, музыкальные инструменты, мимическое искусство, танец, музыкально-поэтические жанры.
Key Words: Medieval Arabic writings on music, influence of the Greek culture, musical instruments, mimics, dance, musical and poetic genres.
An excursion into the fascinating world of Arabic medieval musical writings presents the observer with a multi-faceted arena of forms and styles. These writings reflect the great importance attached to the learning in vogue during the epoch known as the Golden Age of Muslim civilization, when the study of music acquired a prominent place among the areas of knowledge designated to mould the educated individual1.
The nature of the material in the writings on music of that time oscillates between encyclopedic approach and specialization. The works belonging to encyclopedic and literary category are primarily conceived along the line of the adab literature, a term that embodies various meanings applying to works which can vary from florilegia to highly technical investigations, As a rule, this category of writing integrates knowledge
1 J. L. Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, Leiden, Brill, 1986.
about music within the framework of a wide range of topics, aiming either to instill ethical precepts, to provide its readers with a general education a learned man needed to stimulate his intellectual powers, or to establish guiding principles for numbers of various professions2. Central to this broad and comprehensive approach is the keen belief then held in the overwhelming power of music premising on the ideas that associated it with ethical and therapeutic effects and properties. However, this very belief in the extraordinary power of music soon aroused harsh opposition on the part of theologians and doctors of religion, who regarded its influence as a substantial depraving and debasing agent3. Any musicologist interested in the past of Arabic music, its norms and nature, must from the outset face the particular and insoluble problem, that of total lack of musical documents. Due to the absence of musical notation, the past has left no concrete relics to support an investigation of the remote ages. Therefore, one must fall back on the abundant surviving literature about music, from which adequate elements for one's inquiry and research may be drawn at one's discretion.
Short historical survey
Going through literature one finds that as early as the first century after the advent of Islam, music became an important factor in social and cultural life. There was a galaxy of famous musicians who enjoyed high social position and extraordinary material conditions. Not a few of them acquired fame also as authors of works on music. Most of the works of that epoch belong to the category of literary sources, which can roughly be divided into five classes:
a) Collections of songs by one or more musicians.
b) Biographies of famous musicians.
c) The rules of a good conduct as well as the qualifications concerning boon companions and musicians serving at court.
d) Works on musical instruments.
e) The question of the lawfulness of music; this literature is known under the title sama', which means 'to listen to' and by extension music and its making. The great theologian Ibn abil al-Dunya (823-894), who lived a reclusive life devoted to religion, used the term malahi in his full-scale treatise Dhamm al-malahi (condemnation of the instruments of diversion), which in a sense implied a puritanical approach to all kinds of amusements and recreation that distract the faithful from performing their religious duty4.
Contacts with Greek culture
The treatment of Arab music theory as the subject of significant intellectual value began with the process of translation of non-Arab texts, mainly Greek treatises on music. Under caliph al-Ma'mun (813-833) the process of accumulating and translating Greek scientific and philosophic books reached its culmination and became a well-organized activity. The government-supported institute of science -bayt al-hikma - established in Baghdad, became a centre of translations into Arabic. This epoch was described by scholars as the Renaissance because of its humanist and universalist approach, wherein all cultural arenas blossomed5.
The science of music as conceived under the influence of the Greeks underwent considerable transformation and was developed in two major trends. In both of
2 Charles Pellat, Langue et littérature Arabes, Paris, 1970.
3 a) Amnon Shiloah, Music and religion in Islam, Acta Musicologica 69, 1997; b) Id., The attitude toward Music of Jewish religious authorities, The Dimension of Music in Islamic and Jewish Cuture, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS393, XII, London,1993.
4 Amnon Shiloah, The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings, RISM Bx, 1979, p. 139-140. [=The Theory].
5 See Kraemer, Humanism, op. cit.
them, familiar Greek topics and ideas were repeated, refined, improved, expanded, or conceived under a new light.
The sources of the first trend represent the philosophical-metaphoric approach and were dominated by mainly Pythagorean ideas according to which music is analyzed in terms of numbers, numerical ratios and numerology, all in stressing its affinities to cosmological and astral phenomena. The greatest representatives of this trend were: 1) Al-Kindi (d. after 256/870) who is called 'the Philosopher of the Arabs' and is said to have composed 13 treatises on the art and science of music. All of them are centred on the doctrine of ethos as the fundamental concept closely connecting music with the universal scheme of things, of human life and experience6; 2) Hunain ibn Ishaq, Christian philosopher and great translator from the Greek and Aramaic7; 3) the Ikhwan al-Safa ('Brethren of Sincerity' or 'Brethren of Purity'), a society for the pursuit of holiness. They wrote a comprehensive encyclopedia containing 52 epistles which cover all the fields of knowledge including an extensive treatise on music, in which music acts as a focus whose purpose is to explain and illuminate the universal harmony, the wonders of creation, the phenomena of nature, and matters lying within the domain of human creation8.
The second trend represents the speculative and systematic approach to the study of music, was predominated by the two great Aristotelian philosophers, al-Farabi (d. 950)9 and Ibn Sina (d. 1037)10, with whom the treatment of Arabic music as a subject of significant intellectual value per se attained its summit. They both became known in Europe through the Latin translations of works they wrote: the former as Alpharabius, the latter as Avicenna. Standing on solid Aristotelian methodological grounds, they moved in thought from Pythagoreanism and dismissed its arguments and the bulk of ideas connecting music with the universal harmony which had been supposed to preside over all created things. Their theoretical studies and the more recent treatises by Safi al-Din11 deal essentially with the following themes:
The theory of sound, its production and perception by the ear; definition of the musical interval; classes of intervals that distinguish between consonances and dissonances.
Grouping of intervals into genres and systems, whose definition usually involves complicated arithmetic calculations; from a number of genres and systems obtained theoretically those commonly used in practice are selected.
Theory and definition of rhythm (al-iqa'); its components and basic patterns. In discussing the properties and the structures of rhythm, the theorists refer to the prosodic system and terminology of Arab poetry.
Instruments are described in a variety of ways. Sometimes they are simply listed with minimum information, whereas at other times they are treated in a systematic classificatory way.
Problem of terminology
Against this general background testifying the outstanding development of theoretical literature, one ought to refer to one major difficulty and challengeable task faced by the theorists dealing with new scientific material. The problem essentially concerned the appropriate terminology which had been completely lacking in the previous poetical Arabic language. The problem continued in part even after the successful attempt to forge numerous adequate technical terms, because of the fact that the new terminology remained to some extent fluid and ambiguous. The ambiguity was due to the lack of precision, a certain inconsistency in its use in
6 A. Shiloah, The Theory, 253-260.
7 Ibid., 134-135.
8 Ibid., 230-233.
9 Ibid., 101-108.
10 Ibid., 211-218.
11 Ibid., 308-311.
texts of technical nature. On the other hand, the complexity of the matter increased the likelihood of mistakes and alterations made by copyists who did not always understand what they were copying. In concise texts with sharp and sudden shifts from one subject to another, any slight alteration or inexactitude due to a copyist was sufficient to render a whole passage obscure. One should also remember that a great part of the texts is without vocalizations; this, combined with total absence of punctuation, opens a way to various readings and, consequently, to different interpretations. It goes without saying that any attempt to overcome these difficulties must repose on a good command of the language, a solid knowledge of the culture, and a direct firsthand consultation of manuscript documents. When fulfilling these conditions one still finds cases of unsatisfactory interpretations. At this point I would like to propose four interesting cases that refer to different issues.
The first case brings us to medieval Spain
After the Arab's conquest of Spain in 711, the Iberian Peninsula became the scene of one of the most fascinating examples of intercultural contacts; members of a highly diversified society took part in crystallizing a social and cultural symbiosis, wherein music occupied a prominent place. The Andalusian culture also played a prominent role in the transmission of various branches of knowledge, including the science of music, to the West12.
Andalusia provides us with significant evidence of many instruments in vogue in the thirteenth century. However, since the first decades of the twentieth century, some technical terms used in related sources have confronted the specialists with enigmatic lexicographic problems; the exact nature and use of some instruments remains unclear as well. Despite the researchers' efforts to find interesting interpretations, some problems still remain insoluble, particularly as regards some terms found in the Risala fi tafdil al-andalus 'ala barr al-'udwa (Tract on the merits and superiority of al-Andalus over the lands overseas') of Abu'l-Walid al-Shaqundi al-Qurtubi (d. Seville, 629/1231)13.
The treatise in question is a literary work extolling the excellence of Seville in the making of musical instruments and all the musical activities. Al-Shaqundi enumerates in his work not less than eighteen names, some of which are really enigmatic. In order to clarify the terminology, I addressed myself to contemporary relevant sources obviously referring to the same terms. The first is a manuscript of the Tunisian man of letters, poet and scientist Ahmad al-Tifashi (1184-1253), entitled Mut'at al-asma' fi 'ilm al-sama' (The ears' pleasure in the science of music') discovered in the 1950s. This work offers us a new outlook on the development of Arab music in Spain. The author describes it as a dynamic process abetted by several renowned figures, the most prominent of them being the philosopher Ibn Bajja, known in the West as Avempace (d. 1139). Al-Tifashi writes about him: 'After having secluded himself for a few years to work with skilled singing-girl slaves he improved musical forms by mixing the songs of the Christians and those of the East'14.
Another source is the chapter on the science of music included in the historical work al-Muqaddima (The prolegomena') by the celebrated historian-sociologist Wali al-din 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (d. 1405), which constitutes a remarkable model of ancient organological knowledge15. Incidentally, the authors of all the three aforementiend sources were not music theorists, but, respectively, a man of letters, a historian and a poet and scientist. Would this imply doubt concerning the scientific reliability of their obervations and analyses? The answer is 'no'. Generally
12 Amnon Shiloah, Development of Jewish liturgical music in Spain, Music and its Virtues in Islamic and Judaic Writings, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS875, XX London 2007.
13 Amnon Shiloah, The Theory, vol. II, RISM BxA , 2003, al-Shaqundi, 168-170.
14 Ibid., al-Tifashi, 184-186.
15 A. Shiloah, The Theory I, Ibn Khaldun, 188-189.
speaking, up to the end of the Middle Ages the whole output of major important speculative works on music was provided mainly by philosophers like al-Kindi, the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina.
Not unlike al-Shaqundi who extols the superiority of Seville as a prestigious centre of arts excelling in all accoutrements and pleasure, al-Tifashi dedicated a passage in his work to the key role of Seville as a principal centre of education producing the accomplished singing-girls. In comparing Eastern and Andalusian singing styles, al-Tifashi claims that the Andalusian is slower than the Eastern and has more notes, meaning it is highly ornate and melismatic. He adds that this style is prevalent in Seville, which excelled in forming singing-girls trained in the arts of singing, playing musical instruments, dancing and miming; the kings of the Maghrib and Ifriqiya (Morocco and Tunisia) purchased them for high price. In the last sentence of the whole passage al-Tifasi writes: 'Sometimes, the singing-girls are expert in the playing of all instruments, the dance and the khayaV (probably mimics), which is the first among the eighteenth terms mentioned in the list of al-Shaqundi; this term is considered by many scholars as corresponding to a musical instrument.
Likewise, the second term of al-Shaqundi's list, al-kurraj, is eloqently described by the aforementioned Ibn Khaldun in his chapter on music as follows: 'People at that time constantly had games and entertainments, dancing equipment, of robes and sticks, and poems to which melodies were set and intoned'. Al-kurraj 'was also a wooden figure resembling a saddle horse and is also attached to robes such as women wear. (The dance wear) gives the appearance of having mounted horses. They attack and withdraw and compete with skill (with weapons)'. And in the conlusion of this passage, Ibn Khaldun adds. 'In Seville, the musical art is highly developed'. After Seville had lost its influence, this art was transplantede from there to the cost of Ifriqiya and the Maghrib (Tunisia and Morocco)16.
As for the khayal, the English translator of al-Tifashi treatise renders it as 'shadow play'. However, in a study of live theatre in medieval Islam, Shmuel Moreh shows that the khayal is often used as a synonym of hikaya (mime) and la'ab (dance), and the participants are described as 'live actors' performing mime and buffoonery. Moreh contends that the khayal is live mime rather than a shadow play17.
Another obscure term included in the list of al-Shaqundi is al-fanar, which has been considered by the specialists as a musical instrument, though without specifying its nature. Dozy writes in his supplement: 'Fanar, plural fananir, signifies lantern'. It might plausibly refer to the lantern used in shadow theatre as one of the musical entertainments.
The presence in the author's list of both obvious and well-known instruments and what seems to be 'tools' or equiment can be understood better if we take into consideration that they were destined to enhance the related forms of entertaining spectacles in vogue and their functioning. Indeed, all these forms do combine music, dance, and the diverse equipment needed for their performance.
The concrete musical instruments in al-Shaqundi's list are al-'ud (luth); rabab (fiddle); qanun (zither); kithara (guitar); and a stringed instrument of European origin named rota (rote). The latter instument, says al-Tifashi, 'is like the jank (harp) in the East, save that its shape differs'. Curt Sachs wrote in his book The History of Musical Instruments: The rota was now small, now very large; it has seven, sometimes more than ten, and even as many as seventeen strings; the rota originated from triangular psaletrium. These qualities point to the harp'18. In dealing with this instrument, the Spanish sholar Rosario Alvarez claims that although in medieval music the rote designates a variety of stringed instruments, on Spanish soil the term applied to the
16 A. Shiloah, Music and its Virtues, op. cit. XXII.
17 Shmuel Moreh, Live Theatre in Medieval Islam, Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honor of Prof, David Ayalon, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1986, 565-611.
18 C. Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments, New York, 1940, 262.
harp-ziter as is confirmed by its occurrence among instruments mentioned in the great thirteenth-century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria19.
The group of wind instruments in the list comprises zulami (a kind of double-reed instrument), al-shabbaba (flute), and buq (horn), described by Ibn Khaldun as made of copper, hollow, one cubit long, forming a bell towards the opening; one blows into it through a small reed.
Al-Tifashi desribes the buq as 'the noblest instrument among them, and the one producing the greatest pleasure in dancing and singing; its timbre is strange and grand arousing delight and astonishment'. In the relevant Arabic literature the buq is usually referred to as a simple horn; yet, according to the aforementioned description, we are concerned with a different instrument characterizing Andalusian music.
Second case - Mersenne and the didactic poem
of al-Dhahabi
In 1610, when Marin Mersenne was working on his extensive treatise l'Harmonie Universelle, he asked the well-known humanist and patron of the arts Nicolas Peiresc to produce a suitable treatise on Arabic music to be used in his monumental work - he believed that the ancient Greek music could be rediscovered through the later Arabic science. Peiresc went about locating the proper treatise. Through the good offices of a correspondent in Cairo, he finally obtained a small treatise written in the form of didactic poem (epistle) by Shams al-din al-Dhahabi al-Saydawi - a fourteenth-century music theorist. The treatise deals with the theory and classification of modes. The author's highly important innovation is included in part three of the text. It involves an eight-line stave in different colours - a notation system with notes represented by letters placed between the coloured stave lines. There are also symbols indicating the note of departure in a melody, the finalis, the direction of the melody, as well as a table of the transposition of scales.
Mersenne and several authors after him failed to decipher the treatise's complex terminology. Nevertheless, the uninterpreted notation system was quoted by several European musicologists. It took another 150 years before Jean Benjamin de Laborde, with the help of a contemporary orientalist, published the main elements of the epistle's music notation system in his Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Ernest David and Mathis Lucy included a short resume from Laborde in their work without providing a proper acknowledgment. In 1925, the eminent scholar H. G. Farmer published a concise description of three similar manuscripts found in the Bodleian Library and shortly thereafter dedicated a short chapter to the epistle's music notation in his book Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence. As in the case of Laborde, a number of essential elements of the notation system was omitted in Farmer's chapter, as was any mention of other important aspects of the treatise.
It is true that we are not in position to know with certainty whether Peiresc's correspondent in Cairo selected the aforementioned epistle at random or it was carefully chosen as the most representative sample of the Arab musical scholarship. According to my own assumption, the choice was not made randomly. The answer, I believe, has something to do with the emergence of a new theoretical trend shortly after Safi al-Din's death - a trend, whose principles were derived from, but not identical to those, of the Book of Cycles (Kitab al adwar - the first treatise by al-Urmawi). The epistle on music clearly belongs to this very trend, and its author may in fact have been one of those who represent a new paradigm of musical scholarship20.
19 Rosario Alvarez, Los Instrumentos Musicales en los Codices Alfonsinos, in Revista de Musicologia, vol. X/1, Madrid (1987), 71.
20 Amnon Shiloah (with A. Berthier), A propos d'un petit livre... in: Music and its Virtues, op. cit., XIV.
The third case concerns dance
Over the centuries, Islamic literature has identified three forms of dance: sacred, secular, and folk. Of the three, sacred dance has received most of the attention of the scholars and theologians. Of particular interest has been the sacred dance of Islam's mystical orders. Secular art dance as practiced at the courts of rulers or aristocrats was banned by the theologians, who claimed that it was unlawful because of its licentious aspects. Art dance received some attention in the Middle Ages, while folk dance, when it was mentioned, was usually tolerated for its special function in personal and community ceremonies, because it was associated with the most sophisticated forms of entertainment.
Unlike music, the medieval art dance did not attract much attention from contemporary Islamic scholars. From the scarce documentation it can be said that a form of sophisticated art dance existed, based on codified rules that required a bit of talent and a long period of training. When it is mentioned, it is always associated with the art of music, which was also a recreational activity of prospering medieval urban artistic society.
The lack of literary discussion and description of dance probably resulted from two prevailing attitudes. One is that dance was considered a secondary or an inferior art, the second refers to the puritanical and rigid attitude of religious authorities who argued that dance was merely an amusement, a frivolity connected with women.
In his monumental treatise on music, the philosopher al-Farabi (d. 850) classified dance, drumming and hand clapping as secondary and subordinate to the art of playing instruments and singing. Mime is the lowest in this classificatory list21.
The description of bringing the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, that inspired King David and his subjects to dance, ends as follows: 'And as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart'22. The Koran contains the following verse which refers to the code of behavior concerning dance: 'And walk not in the earth exultantly; God loves not any man proud and boastful. Be modest in the walk, and lower the voice, The most hideous of the voices is the ass's. Nor walk with insolence through the earth. For God loveth not any arrogant^3.
Naturally, the most violent attacks against dance came from the canonists and theologians who at best considered it a form of la'b - play and amusement. As a matter of fact, in Yemen and other places dancing is called la'ba (play). The Ottoman religious authority Kinalizade (d. 1572) explains that the whirling and dancing of the Sufi have nothing to do with that is commonly called raqs (dance), which is 'a play accompamied by a double-headed drum and mizmar (oboe-like instrument) presented in sessions of debauches attended by women'. The jurist Ibn Taymiyya denounced the dance of the Sufis and practices such as self-mutilation; according to him, anyone who indulges in such behaviour is infidel and polytheist. Al-Sakizi (d. 1294) compared the dancing to the cockfights held by the Christians and claimed that they are good only for women. Al-Turtushi (1049-1126), the Spanish authority on law and tradition, says that the dance of the Sufis is comparable to the Golden Calf. The rhytmical beating with a wand is a Manichean invention, intended to turn the Muslim away from the Book of Allah. Anyone who accepts the sama' is a freethinker24.
21 Al-Farabi, Kitab al-musiqi al-Kabir tr. R. d'Erlanger, tome I et II de La Musique Arabe, Paris, 1930/35, t. 1, 21-23.
22 2 Samuel 6:16.
23 Sura XXXI, Lukman 18-19.
24 Music and Religion, Acta Musicologica, op. cit.
The fourth case - the North African 'arubi
'Arubi is a Maghrebi poetic genre that is sung by Jews and Muslims. Its language is dialectal but somehow refined and affected. Its text and melody are closely combined in one and the same creative process deriving its components from a traditional formulary stock. This process allows a margin of freedom to the performer.
In this combination, the texts usually change while the melody is more or less stable; therefore the changing texts must obey to the accents of the melody. A scientific approach to this type of creativity ought to take into consideration the important role of the musical component whose accents and inflexions control the whole poem.
The 'arubi is essentially a province of female non-professional singers; in the past townswomen used to sing it during their spring excursions in gardens and in the country along with the hayfi - the songs of swings. The hayfi type of popular poetry consists of short poems, sung by girls or young women while amusing themselves on swings. The latter songs refer to various circumstances, and their musical setting is quite simple consisting of the same pre-existing tune. There is another category of songs related to the swings which is more sophisticated and totally identified with the 'arubi and its characteristics.
Although the Maghrebi repertoire includes other love songs, it is in the framework of the 'arubi that the most passionate love has found its highest exaltation. The rich thematic list of these songs tells of the lover, the happiness or the torment love gives, it describes sentimental love, passionate love, the exposure of a heart blinded by the charm of the beloved one. And its infinite faithfulness bordering on deliberate slavery.
These themes are usually enhanced and emphasized by highly expressive and touching tunes of ornate style, which, unlike art music, are entirely spontaneous. It is finally possible to mention the incompatibility of the foregoing description with the etymology suggested by some scholars claiming that the term 'arubi refers to 'Arabian', 'Arabizing', or 'bedouin'. Much more plausible is the definition given in two Arabic lexicographical works: Lisan al-'Arab and Taj al-'Arus quoted by E. W. Lane as follows: ''arubi designates a woman who manifests love to her husband, or who loves him passionately, excessively. It also means the contrary, disobedient and unfaithful'25.
A note of conclusion
At the end of this demonstration it would be advisable to remember the fact that we are comcerned with a sophisticated musical art whose past has left no concrete relics to support an investigation of the remote ages. As against the absence of musical notation, we have a wealth of literary sources which describe its psychological effects, a whole gamut of experiences it produces, the variety of its virtues. It is in this multi-faceted expressions that one must plunge in quest for the concealed and symbolical meaning. My presentation is just a modest sample of what has determined my long quest for the concealed meaning and message of the musics I have investigated.
25 E. W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (rept. New York: Frederik Ungar, 1956), bk. 1, pt. 5, p. 1944c.
СПИСОК ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ
Al-Farabi. Kitab al-musiqi al-Kabir. Tr. R. d'Erlanger, tome I et II de La Musique Arabe, Paris, 1930/35, t. 1. ,
Alvarez R. Los Instrumentes Musicales en los Codices Alfonsinos // Revista de Musicologia, vol. X/1, Madrid (1987).
Kraemer J.L. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Lane E.W. Arabic-English Lexicon (rept. New York: Frederik Ungar, 1956), bk. 1, pt. 5.
Moreh Sh. Live Theatre in Medieval Islam // Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honor of Prof. David Ayalon. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Pellat Ch. Langue et littérature Arabes, Paris, 1970.
Sachs C. The History of Musical Instruments. New York, 1940.
Shiloah A. The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings // RISM Bx, 1979.
Shiloah A. The attitude toward music of Jewish religious authorities // The Dimension of Music in Islamic and Jewish Cuture, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS393, XII, London,1993.
Shiloah A. Music and religion in Islam // Acta Musicologica 69, 1997.
Shiloah A. The Theory, vol. II // RISM BxA , 2003.
Shiloah A. Development of Jewish liturgical music in Spain // Music and its Virtues in Islamic and Judaic Writings, Variorum Collected Studies Series CS875, XX London 2007.
