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The Kitāb al-malāhi of Abū Ṭālib Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

James Robson  and
H. G. Farmer
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Extract

The notices of Ibn Salama are short. Al-Nawawī (d. 1277) and Ibn Khallikān (d. 1282) make reference to him only in the biography of his son, Abū '1-Ṭaiyib, who died in 920.

Ibn Salama was a grammarian of the Kūfan school. He studied under his father, Salama ibn 'Āṣim, a friend of Al-Farrā' (d. 822) and teacher of Tha'lab (d. 904); but Yāqūt says that he departed from his father's views. The Fihrist, followed by Ibn Khallikān, says that he met Ibn al-A'rābi (d. 846) and other learned men. Yāqūt says that he studied under Ibn al-A'rābī, Tha'lab, Ibn al-Sikkīt (d. 860), and others.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , April 1938 , pp. 231 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1938

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References

page 231 note 1 Biog. Dict. (ed. Wüstenfeld, ), p. 733Google Scholar.

page 231 note 2 De Slane, ii, 611.

page 231 note 3 Fihrist (Cairo, ed.), p. 109Google Scholar; Yāqūt, , Dict, of Learned Men (Gibb Mem. Ser.), vi, 7, p. 170Google Scholar.

page 231 note 4 Būlāq ed. (a.h. 1275), i, 656.

page 232 note 1 ii, 3; iv, 124, 344; v, 128, 155, 475. In the last of these nujūm (stars) occurs instead of naḥw (grammar).

page 232 note 2 Gesch. d. arab. Litt., i, 118.

page 232 note 3 Neither is reference made to it in the Supplement, i, 181.

page 234 note 1 Al-Bukhārī, , Nikāḥ 107Google Scholar, and Dāwud, Abū, Adab 83Google Scholar, both read “what he has not been given”. Another version is given in Lane, , Lexicon, p. 1497Google Scholar.

page 235 note 1 Lane, p. 2302, inverts the phrases and gives only Sufyān's interpretation. al-Makkī, Abū Ṭālib, Qūt al-qulūb, i, 90Google Scholar, gives the same form as Lane, but says it means one who chants with a beautiful voice. Cf. Al-Nasā'ī, , Sunan, ii, 180, for a note to the same effectGoogle Scholar.

page 235 note 2 In Arabic, mi'zafa. In 1 Sam. xvi, 16, 23, David is said to play the kinnōr, an instrument usually identified with the cithara. Seemingly the mi'zafa was a cithara or lyre.

page 235 note 3 This verse is not included in Ḥassān's dīwan (Gibb. Mem. Ser.).

page 236 note 1 The mizhar or mazhar of early Islāmic times was probably a round tambourine without “snares” (autār) or jingling apparatus (ṣunūj, jalājil). See Enc. of Islām (EI.), Suppl., vol., p. 74.

page 236 note 2 Cf. Rabbihi, Ibn 'Abd, 'Iqd, iv, 91Google Scholar.

page 236 note 3 The MS. wrongly gives Al-Nabūdakī.

page 236 note 4 Ja'far is commonly called Al-Ṭaiyār (the flier). When he was slain in battle Muḥammad mourned for him, and said he had seen him flying with wings in Paradise.

page 236 note 5 The barbaṭ (Persian lute) appears to have been of different structure from the 'ūd. The neck and sound-chest were made in one graduated piece of wood, hollow throughout. The neck of the ''ūd was solid. See EI., iv, 986; Farmer, , Studies in Or. Mus. Instrs., i, 95 fGoogle Scholar.

page 237 note 1 'Iqd, iv, 94, says that Ibn Ja'far replied, “You are right; this is a balance in which speech is weighed,” evidently thinking the answer clever.

page 237 note 2 The MS. has Ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Sa'd. “Ibn” is omitted following 'Iqd, iv, 93.

page 237 note 3 For the duff murabba' see EI., Suppl. vol. 73. Al-Mutarrizī says the square tambourine was forbidden although the round one was not. Ṭuwais, one of the earliest minstrels of Islām, played the duff murabba'. He was one of the despised mukhannathūn; so probably the legists forbade it because it was used by people of this class.

page 237 note 4 Ṭabl was the generic term for any drum. See EI., Suppl. vol., s.v. “Ṭabl”. Certain types were forbidden, notably the kūba or ṭabl almukhannath, which was shaped like an hour-glass. But the military drum and pilgrimage drum were allowed. Probably the latter type is referred to in the above story. It is known nowadays as the ṭabl shāmī, a shallow kettledrum. It is depicted in Lane's Modern Egyptians, chap. vi.

page 238 note 1 Sa'd, Ibn, Ṭabaqāt, v, 115Google Scholar, mentions the names of Abū Salama's children, but does not include ‘Aṭa’. 'Abd al-Raḥmān (d. 652), his grandfather, was a Companion of the Prophet.

page 238 note 2 In Arabic, duff. Lisän al-'arab, s.v. “Ghirbāl”, calls the instrument mentioned in this tradition a ghirbāl, a name due to its likeness to a sieve. The ghirbāl seems to have differed from the mizhar in having “snares” stretched across the underside of the face or membrane. See EI., Suppl. vol., 74. It is now called the bandair in the Maghrib.

page 238 note 3 A similar, but longer, tradition is given in Tirmidhī, , Nikāḥ, 6Google Scholar.

page 239 note 1 The form Qābīn is unusual. Cain and Abel are usually called Häbïl and Qäbïl, Abel coming first. For other forms of the name Qābīl, see EI., ii, 186Google Scholar.

page 239 note 2 It is vocalized thus. He is the Lamech of Genesis.

page 239 note 3 Gen. iv, 19, says Lamech married two wives called Adah and Zillah (Ṣillāh).

page 239 note 4 Ibn Khurdādhbih is quoted in Mas‘ūdi’s, Murūj al-dhahab, viii, 88 f.Google Scholar, as saying that Ḍilāl bint Lamk invented stringed instruments, and Tubal ibn Lamk invented drums. Cf. Farmer, , Stud, in Or. Instrs., i, 55Google Scholar. A tradition (Tirmidhī, , Fitan 38)Google Scholar mentions stringed instruments as signs of the end of the world, so it is not surprising that Ḍilāl is the name given to the inventor, as ḍalāl means “error”.

page 239 note 5 See EI., Suppl. vol. s.v. “ṭunbūr” and Glasgow Univ. Oriental Society's Transactions, vol. v, p. 26Google Scholar.

page 240 note 1 Mizmār is the generic term for any instrument of the wood-wind family. It was also the specific name for the oboe or clarinet, as distinct from the flute or recorder. See EI., iii, 539; Farmer, , Studies, i, 65, 77Google Scholar.

page 240 note 2 According to the Rauḍat al-ṣafā' of Mīr Khwand (Trans, ii, i, 57), no less than seventy-two notes issued from the “blessed throat” of David. A voice with such a compass appealed to the imagination and became the prototype of all wind instruments.

page 240 note 3 pp. 21–4 of the MS. must be placed between 36 and 37. 25 is clearly the continuation of 20. Further, 24 ends with a reference to poetry which is not quoted on 25, while 37 begins with poetry without any reference to its author. As the instruments mentioned in the verses are those one would expect after 24, 37 must follow 24.

page 240 note 4 The MS. has ḥarīban (plundered). This has been changed to ḥadīthan following Freytag, , Arabum Proverbia, ii, 566Google Scholar and Salama, Ibn, Al-fākhir (ed. , Storey), p. 67Google Scholar. Both say the proverb means that someone's affairs are publicly spoken of.

page 240 note 5 See Al-fākhir, p. 68.

page 241 note 1 'Igd, iv, 105, gives three of these names, omitting muwattar. This latter is also identified with the lute in Lane, , Lexicon, i, 126Google Scholar, but it is doubtful. The same may be said of the identification of the mizhar and the kirān. See EI., Suppl. vol., 74.

page 241 note 2 The 'arṭaba is another doubtful identification. In Al-Shalāḥī's Kitāb al-imtā' (Madrid MS., No. 603) 'arṭaba, kinnāra, barbaṭ, and mizhar are given as names for the lute. See Farmer, , Studies, ii, 31Google Scholar.

page 241 note 3 See his Dīwān (ed. De Slane, ), pp. 30 fGoogle Scholar.

page 241 note 4 Cf. Lane, , Lexicon, p. 810; JRAS. (1935), p. 328Google Scholar.

page 241 note 5 Cf. Al-Tibrīzī, (ed. Lyall, , Bibl. Ind.), pp. 82 fGoogle Scholar.

page 242 note 1 Cf. his Dīwān (Gibb. Mem. Ser)., p. 212, where bi-mūkar is the reading. This gives better sense. Taking majdūf in its ordinary meaning of “cut”, it makes the verse say that a wine-skin which is opened is continually being brought to him.

page 242 note 2 Read uzrā for uzzā.

page 242 note 3 In the Dïwān, p. 122, this verse follows that quoted on p. 24 of the MS. As it has “three” instead of “those”, the rose, the jasmine, and the singing-girls are meant, not musical instruments. Cf. Aghānī, vi, 73.

page 242 note 1 Cf. JRAS. (1937), p. 4551., where the 'ataba (pl. 'atab) is said to be the “nut” (anf) of the lute.

page 243 note 1 Light lutes were favoured. Ziryāb (early ninth cent.), the famous minstrel of Muslim Spain, said his lute was superior because it was one-third lighter than the ordinary instrument. See Al-Maqqarī, , Analectes, ii, 88Google Scholar.

page 243 note 2 These verses occur in the Kitāb al-ma'ānī 'l-kabīr of Ibn Qutaiba (MS. Āya Ṣōfia), p. 427. I owe this reference to Dr. F. Krenkow.

page 243 note 3 Dīwān (Gibb Mem. Ser.), p. 163.

page 243 note 4 At this point, owing to the comments, the arrangement of the lines is broken. This half-line would go better with the following. There is an odd half-line in the poem, but that is allowable, as it is the mashtür variety of the rajaz metre.

page 244 note 1 The king and queen are the chess pieces.

page 244 note 2 In early Islāmic times the lute had four strings, called from high to low the zīr, mathnā, mathlath, and bamm. The first and last are Persian words. For their adoption by the Arabs see Farmer, , An Old Moorish Lute Tutor, p. 26Google Scholar, and EI., iii, 750. As the mathnā is not mentioned in the verses, it may sometimes have been called the lower zīr and the zīr proper the upper zīr, hence the phrase “two zīrs”. Yet in the ninth century, as we know from Al-Kindī, a fifth string was added to the higher strings and called the zīr thānī. The “two zīrs” may therefore refer to these two strings.

page 244 note 3 The dirrīj was not a ṭunbūr, although the lexicographers Ibn Sīda and Al-Fīrūzābādī repeat the statement. The mistake arises thus. The lexicographers say that the dirrīj is “a thing like the ṭunbūr”, meaning that it is like the ṭunbūr in being a musical instrument. The dirrīj was actually a drum with a single face, something like the dardbuhka. Ibn Mukarram says that its vocalization is durraij, which is the pronunciation in Morocco to-day.

page 244 note 4 The wann appears to have been the harp with a lower sound-chest. A l-Fīrūzābādī says it was played with the fingers, and likens it to the ṣanj. This latter was, however, the harp with an upper sound-chest.

page 245 note 1 Dīwān (Macartney, ), p. 578Google Scholar, gives yazhā.

page 245 note 2 In the “Golden Age” of the 'Abbāsid dynasty foreign singing-girls from Persia and Khurāsān, who were performers on the ṭunbūr, were favoured at Baghdād. We know that the scale of their instruments was different from that of the Arabs. See Farmer, , Hist., pp. 147 fGoogle Scholar.

page 245 note 3 Lane, , Lexicon, p. 1135Google Scholar, says arqash is applied to a species of locust. The explanation “perfume box” may be due to the author thinking of the part of the instrument which looks like a box.

page 245 note 4 Dīwān (Gibb Mem. Ser.), p. 201, has mustaq sīnīn. In a footnote the reading ṣīnī is given, but the editor wrongly suggests changing it to ṣabī (boy). The instrument was a Chinese shêng, a real mouth-organ. It was known in Persia during the Sāsānid period. See Farmer's chapter on music in the Survey of Persian Art. According to the Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm (tenth cent.) the Arabic name was mustaq, while the Persians called it bīsha'-i mushta.

page 245 note 5 In the MS. wa-mizhar appears in smaller writing above this word, either as a v. 1., or as an explanation.

page 246 note 1 Probably this passage should read, “the mizmār, the mizmār al-'irāqī ('Irāqian reed-pipe)… ” Several writers speak of the 'Irāqian reed-pipe as distinct from the ordinary one. The difference is not recorded, but cf. EI., iii, 541, and Farmer, , Historical Facts, p. 142Google Scholar.

page 246 note 2 For a design of the modern zammāra see Farmer, , Studies, i, 84Google Scholar. See also EI., iii, 541.

page 246 note 3 Nāy was the Persian generic term for a wood-wind instrument and mizmār the Arabic. Nāy also meant specifically a reed-blown instrument, the flute being called the nāy-i narm (flûte douce). When the Arabs adopted Persian names for some instruments, nāy was used indifferently for the oboe and flute. The passage above seems to refer to an oboe, quṣṣab standing for a flute. Nowadays the nāy is a flute in most Islāmic lands. See Farmer, , Studies, i, 65 fGoogle Scholar.

page 246 note 4 'Irān may be a copyist's error for kirān. Al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 1414) says the 'irān was a horn, so an instrument of this name may have been known in his day. If so, it may have been borrowed from the Crusaders who used a cornet d'airain. The Arabs probably adopted merely the last word, which was not an infrequent custom with them.

page 246 note 5 MS. rabīq. The early Arabic lexicographers say the zanbaq was the zammāra. The name comes from the material (sambucus) of which it was made.

page 246 note 6 This is another rare word. La Borde, , Essai sur la musique (1780), i 198Google Scholar, gives it as hunbūqa and describes it as a kind of flute.

page 246 note 7 cf. Aghānī, xviii, 119.

page 246 note 8 cf. Dīwān (Gibb Mem. Ser.), p. 121; Aghānī vi 73.

page 247 note 1 This ends the transposed passage. See p. 240, n. 3.

page 247 note 2 Reading bāghim for nāghim, following Lisān al-'arab, xii, 249. There the verse is attributed to Kuthaiyir 'Azza. Cf. Kuthaiyir's, Dīwān, ii, 80Google Scholar. On the same authority yarā' is read instead of rughā'.

page 247 note 3 The kabar seems to have been a drum of the darabuhka class with a single face, but with a cylindrical or semi-conical body. Nowadays it is known in the Maghrib as the aqwāl. See Farmer, , Studies, ii, 29Google Scholar; EI., Suppl. vol., s.v., “ṭabl”.

page 247 note 4 See p. 237, n. 4.

page 247 note 5 A game in which the pre-Islāmic Arabs gambled by means of arrows for portions of a camel.

page 248 note 1 Several authorities say kinnāra was a name for the lute. Others liken it to the pandore, drum, and tambourine. It was more probably a cithara or lyre, like the Hebrew kinnōr. See Farmer, , Studies, ii, 31Google Scholar.

page 248 note 2 Cf. Aghānī, x, 30; xvi, 14.

page 248 note 3 Nā (us) is written above nī (me) as an alternative.

page 248 note 4 Tāj al-'arūs, s.v. “ṣlq”, says Jadhīma received this name because of the beauty of his voice, and that he was the first of the tribe of Khuzā'a to sing.

page 249 note 1 Al-Jauharī, Tāj al-lugha, s.v. “jdn”, saya Dhū Jadan was a king of Ḥimyar.

page 249 note 2 The naṣb was a more cultured form of the camel-drivers' song.

page 249 note 3 In a parallel passage ('Iqd, iv, 104) qaināt (singing-girls) appears in place of fityān (youths). But Al-Ibshīhī, (Mustaṭraf, ii, 126)Google Scholar, who also includes it, has fityān. The change from fityān to qaināt is more likely than the reverse change, so fityān is to be preferred.

page 249 note 4 'Iqd, loc. cit., and Mustaṭraf, loc. cit. read “and it is that which excites the hearts and rouses the long-suffering.” Both works say that the passage about the types of singing is a quotation from Abū 'l-Mundhir Hishām ibn al-Kalbī (d. 819).

page 249 note 5 MS. ḥibiqqai. The change of text, which is merely a matter of dots, is made on the authority of Mas'ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab. viii, 93, where it is said that the singing of the people of Al-Yaman waa of two kinds, ḥanafī and ḥimyarī, the former being the better. See Farmer, , Hist., pp. 3, 15Google Scholar, where it is suggested that the ḥanafī was the more recently adopted.