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The Canon and Eschaquiel of the Arabs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Whatever the author of The Music of Hindustan has to say about Oriental music, must have a certain interest if not authority, and, for that reason, his passing comments on two points raised by me, prompt me to investigate the validity of his strictures. Whether his first objection is a philological one, or whether it is musical, is not made quite clear. If it is the former, i.e. that my contention is incompetent because the Arabic word qānūn (
) is derived from the Greek word kanōn (κανών), then one might as reasonably suggest that the Greek word νΦθα did not “ become ” the Latin naphtha, because the ancient Semites had the word (Arabic 
) long before. If, however, the objection is directed against the instrument itself, it is evident that we ought to inquire into the precise structure of the Greek instrument called the kanōn.
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References
page 239 note 1 JRAS., 1925, pt. i, p. 61.
page 239 note 2 Perhaps the use of the term zither, which is a modern descendant of the psaltery, is likely to be misleading. It would have been better to have used the Mediaeval name of psaltery and I adopt this latter in preference.
page 239 note 3 Stephani Thesaurus Graecae Linguae, Edit., 1816–18.
page 240 note 1 Revue des Études Grecques, xix, 318.
page 240 note 2 We do not urge the authenticity of the design, but similar types occur in Greek art. See Revue des Études Grecques, vii, 371.Google Scholar
page 240 note 3 Nikomachos, Harm. (Meibom), 8. Théo Reinach says (Rev. des Études Grec., vii, 372) that this monochord was “ analogue au rahab (? rabāb) actuel des Arabes du Caire ”. The passage is repeated in Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. des antiq., iii (2), 1450. The statement is misleading, since this rabāb is a flat-chested rebec or viol.
page 240 note 4 Julius Pollux, iv, 60.
page 240 note 5 It is also attributed to the Egyptians, Phrygians, etc. See Athēnaios, iv, 184. Mart. Capella, ix, 924. Clem. Alex.
page 240 note 6 Viollet le Due, Dict. du Mobillier, ii, 291.
page 241 note 1 Maspero, Hist. anc. des peuples de l'orient classique, iii, 411. Mémoires de la délégation en Perse, iii, pl. xxiii. Engel., Music of the Most Ancient Nations, figs. 5 and 9.
page 241 note 2 Clement of Alexandria says that the term was given to those instruments of Egyptian provenance.
page 241 note 3 Cf. Vigouroux, Dict. de la Bible, v, 807. Mahillon, Catalogue … du Musée instrumental du conservatoire royal de Musique de Bruxelles, i, 367.
page 241 note 4 St. Augustine, Patr. Lat., xxxvi, 671. St. Jerome, Patr. Lat., xxx, 215.
page 241 note 6 The psalterium, canon, and medius canon are recognized as distinct by Aegidius Zamorensis (ca. 1270). Gerbert, Scriptores, ii, 388.
page 242 note 1 Riaño, Notes on Early Spanish Music, 129–30. For other versions see that of Jean Ducamin (Toulouse, 1901), and Ribera, La musica de las cantigas, 83.
page 242 note 2 Fétis, Hist. Mus., v, 153, 155. Ency. Brit., xxii, 540.
page 242 note 3 Grove, Dict. Mus., i, 739; iii, 846–7. Sachs, Reallexikon der Musikinstrumente. Burke, Hist. Spain, ii, 331 (cf. 334). Lavignac, Ency. de la musique, iv, 1944.
page 242 note 4 Even the compilers of the copious and diffuse Encyclopedia of Islām give us but six lines on the qānūn, and these concern the modern instrument as described by Lane, Modern Egyptians, and F. Salvador Daniel, La musique arabe. For other modern references see the following :— Engel, Desc. Cat. of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum, 208. Christianowitsch, Enquisse historique de la musique arabe, 30, pl. iii. Déscription de l'Egypte, état moderne, i, 883. Mahillon, Cat. Desc. … du Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire royal de Musique, ii, 190–1. Brown, Musical Instruments and their Homes, 188. Cat. of the Crosby Brown Collection of Mus. Instruments, ii, 77. Delphin et Guin, Notes sur la poésie et la musique arabes, 56. Mélanges de la faculté orientale (Beyrouth), vi, 27. Lavignac, Ency. de la musique, v, 2788, 2927, 3020, 3072. Darwīsh Muḥammad, Kitāb Ṣafā al-awqāt (a.h. 1328), 15. Hammerich, Das Musikhistorische Museum zu Kopenhagen, 140. Stanley, Cat. of the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, 171. Pillaut, Le musée du Conservatoire National de Musique, ler Suppl., 60. Dalman, Palästinischer Diwan.
page 243 note 1 Al-Mas‘ūdī, Prairies d'or, viii, 91. ‘Iqd al-farīd (Cairo edit., 1887), iii 179. Al-Tirmi
ī, ii, 33. Aghānī, x, 161. Mafātīḥ al-‘ulūm, 236–7. Al-Tibrīzī, 
arḥ al-qaṣā'id, 146.
page 243 note 2 Ibn Sīnā, Al- 
ifā' (India Office MS.), fol. 173. Here the instrument is called 
and 
in Pocock, 109 and 250, Bodleian Library). Al-Ḥusain ibn Zaila (Brit. Mus., Or. 2361, fol. 235 v.) has 
page 243 note 3 According to the Mafātīḥ al-‘ulūm the ahrūd was invented in the year 912 by Ḥakīm ibn Aḥwas al-Sughdī, called 
ulais ibn A
waṣ by Al-Fārābī (Lib. Cant., 43), and Ibn al-Awaṣ by Ṣafī al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Mu'min (arafiyya).
page 243 note 4 Kosegarten, Liber cantilenarum, 110, cf. 77.
page 243 note 5 Al-Ma riq, xvi, 454.
page 243 note 6 Ibn Zaila, Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 235.
page 244 note 1 Kosegarten, Lib. Cant., 45, translates ma‘āzif by phorminges, and on pp. 77 and 110 by nablia.
page 244 note 2 Ibn Sīnā, as above.
page 244 note 3 It is written thus in the India Office MS., but in the Bodleian Pocock, 109, there are no points, whilst the word is omitted in Pocock, 250.
page 244 note 4 Ibn Zaila, Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 235.
page 244 note 5 Yet the Chinese evidently borrowed it, since they call their dulcimer the yang-k'in (“ foreign k'in ”).
page 245 note 1 Ibn Zaila, fol. 235 v.
page 245 note 2 Ibn allikān, Biog. Dict., iii, 309.
page 245 note 3 Cassiodorus says : “ Tensibilia sunt chordarum fila, sub arte religata, quae amodo plectro percussa mulcent aurium delectabiliter sensum; in quibus sunt species cithararum diversarum. ” Patr. Lat., lxx, 1209. See also Isidore, Patr. Lat., lcccii, 167.
page 246 note 1 Payne Smith, Thes. Syr., 3613.
page 246 note 2 Cf. Riemann, Dict. Mus. (Engl. edit.) sub “ Zither ”.
page 246 note 3 Alf laila wa laila (Macnaghten edit.), 169th night.
page 246 note 4 Mardrus, Le livre des mille units et une nuit.
page 246 note 5 Alf laila wa laila, 49th night.
page 246 note 6 The theorists Euclid and Ptolemy, who both experimented with a κανών, belonged to Egypt.
page 246 note 7 Ribera, op. cit.
page 247 note 1 Al-Maqqarī, Analectes, ii, 143–4.
page 247 note 2 Rowbotham, Hist. Mus., iii, 512.
page 247 note 3 Cf. Casiri, loc. cit., and Derenbourg's Catalogue, p. 613.
page 247 note 4 Robles, Catalogo, No. 603.
page 247 note 5 Casiri, Bibl. Escur., i, 527.
page 247 note 6 Al-Maqqarī, Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, i, 365–6. Cf. Golius, Lexicon, and Meninski, Thesaurus, sub “ qānūn ”.
page 248 note 1 Rieu, Suppl. Pers. MSS. in the Brit. Museum, 15, says that the date, in a chronogram, may be read as 1346, 1355, or 1362. Cf. Clément Huart in Lavignac's Ency. de la musique, v, 3071.
page 248 note 2 I use the following scale, A digit (angu t) = 2·25 cm., an open digit (angu t ku āda) = 6·75 cm., and a span (badast) = 27 cm.
page 249 note 1 Kanz al-tuḥaf, Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 264.
page 249 note 2 The MS. dates from 1662–64.
page 249 note 3 This looks as though it should be 4 angu t (= 9 cm.) as in ‘ Abd al-Qāḍir ibn 
aibī. Yet the above dimension occurs in the Paris copy of the Kanz al-tuḥaf.
page 250 note 1 Kanz al-tuḥaf, fol. 263 v.
page 250 note 2 Bodleian MS., No. 1842, fol. 78. Cf. Lavignac's Encyclopédie de la musique, v, 2978.
page 251 note 1 Evliya Efendi, Narrative of Travels, i (2), 235 ; and the text in the Siyāḥat-nāma.
page 251 note 2 Curt Sachs, op. cit., 263.
page 251 note 3 Ibid., 261.
page 251 note 4 Kanz al-tuḥaf, fol. 264 v. seq.
page 251 note 5 Quoted by Yekta Bey, Lavignac's Ency. de la musique, v, 3013.
page 251 note 6 Ibn aldūn, Prolegomena, ii, 352. Delphin et Guin, in their Notes sur la poésie et la musique arabes, 57, quote a native authority for the statement that the qānūn was introduced into Algeria in the nineteenth century !
page 252 note 1 Bābar nāma (edit. Beveridge), i, 278.
page 252 note 2 See the typical Arabian qānūn in the painting of Wilhelm von Herle (Moreck, Die Musik in der Malerei, pl. i), and Orcagna's Trionfo della Morte (Lacroix, Les arts au moyen âge. Naumann, History of Music, ii, 320).
page 252 note 3 Aegidius Zamorensis (ca. 1270). Gerbert, Scriptores, ii, 388.
page 252 note 4 Juan Ruiz (ca. 1330). See Riaño, Notes on Early Spanish Music, 129.
page 252 note 5 Guillaume de Machaut (fourteenth century).
page 252 note 6 Der Minne Regel, ca. 1404. See Samm. d. Inter. Musikgessel., xiv.
page 252 note 7 Fétis, Hist. Mus., v, 153. Grove, Dict. Mus., i, 739.
page 253 note 1 Music and Letters, April, 1925.
page 253 note 2 Grattan Flood, loc. cit., Galpin, Old English Instruments of Music, 121. Samml. Inter. Mus. Gesel., xiv, 485. Sachs, Real-Lexikon der Musikinstrumente, s.v.
page 253 note 3 The shabbyāba was a flute. This was another of the Arabic names adopted by Southern Europe.
page 254 note 1 I use the plural instead of the dual here.
page 254 note 2 Al-Maqqarī, Analectes, ii, 143.
page 254 note 3 De Gayangos, Al-Maqqari's Mohammedan Dynasties, i, 366. Mizmār = psalterium in one of the oldest Arabic versions of Psalm el.
page 254 note 4 Madrid, Bibl. Nac., No. 603.
page 254 note 5 See Dozy and Engelmann, Glossaire des mots Espagnols et Portugais dérives de l'Arabe, Intro.
page 254 note 6 Al-Ma riq, ix, 18–28.
page 254 note 7 Al-Fihrist, 270.
page 254 note 8 Al-Jāḥiẓ (Cairo edit.), 133, 143.
page 255 note 1 Ibn Abī Uṣaibi‘a, ii, 155, 163.
page 255 note 2 See authorities quoted in my “ Byzantine Musical Instruments in the Ninth Century”, in the JRAS., Pt. II, 1925, p. 304 (1).
page 255 note 3 For full details of the organ from Arabic sources see my new book. The Organ of the Ancients from Eastern Sources (Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic).
page 255 note 4 Ibn aibī, Bodleian MS., No. 1842, fol. 78.
page 255 note 5 Al-Ma riq, xvi, 444–58.
page 256 note 1 Professor M. Collangettes, who supplied a note to the text, conceived this instrument to be similar to the one described by Kircher in his Musurgia Universalis, ii, 344 (Icon., xxii), but the principle of the wind supply in the Banū Mūsā instrument was different from that of the latter instrument.
page 256 note 2 Al-Ma riq, xvi, 454.