The Origin of the Arabian Lute and Rebec

Henry George Farmer

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00071859

The Origin of the Arabian Lute and Rebec

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Henry George Farmer

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Among the instruments of Mediaeval Europe that contributed most to the progress of the art of music the lute and rebec stand pre-eminent. That they were introduced into Western Europe by the Arabs is generally admitted, and for that reason the question of their original adoption by the Arabs themselves is of some importance, especially in view of the statements of Miss Schlesinger; not only in the above extract, but in the works to which she refers us.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , October 1930 , pp. 767 - 783

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00071859 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1930

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^{page 767 note 1} 1910.

^{page 767 note 2} llth edition, 1900–11.

^{page 767 note 3} 1925.

^{page 767 note 4} See JRAS. 1925, p. 62.

^{page 768 note 1} Al-Mas'ūdī, , Prairies d'or, viii, 88–9Google Scholar.

^{page 768 note 2} Ibid., p. 99.

^{page 768 note 3} Fleischer's, translation runs: “Sapor magno…ejusdem aetate instrumentum musicum quod el-'ud (barbytos) appellatur, inventum esse dicitur.” Abulfedae Historia Anteislamica, 82–3Google Scholar.

^{page 768 note 4} See my History of Arabian Music, 16. Barbaṭ is the older form of the word. (See Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm.) Barbuṭ is a later word. MissSchlesinger's, barbud (Precursors, p. 488)Google Scholar has no existence so far as the present writer is aware.

^{page 768 note 5} Dalton, , Treasures of the Oxus (2nd ed.), 211Google Scholar.

^{page 768 note 6} Hist. of Arabian Music, 15.

^{page 768 note 7} Madrid MS., 603, fol. 13, v.

^{page 769 note 1} p. 491.

^{page 769 note 2} A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum (1874), p. 60.

^{page 769 note 3} Musik der Araber, p. 9.

^{page 769 note 4} Al-Mas'ūdī, op. cit., viii, 93–4.

^{page 769 note 5} Al-Ṭabarī, i, 185.

^{page 770 note 1} Cf. Hishām, Ibn (d. 843), Sīrat al-rasūl (Wüstenfeld edit.), 191–2Google Scholar, and al-Athīr, Ibn (d. 1234), Chron. (Tornberg edit.), ii, 55Google Scholar.

^{page 770 note 2} Al-Naḍr learned other things besides music at Al-Ḥīra. It was the Persian stories of Rustam and Isfandiyar, and similar legends, that he brought back, that Muḥammad condemned as “idle tales”.

^{page 770 note 3} Al-Aghānī, xx, 134.

^{page 770 note 4} Known in Arabic as Fālūdh. For other forms of the name see ProfessorBrowne's, E. G.History of Persia, i, 14Google Scholar, and JRAS. 1899, p. 54. The vocalization with ḍamma as above is given in the Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm, p. 238.

^{page 770 note 5} Al-Aghānī, vii, 188.

^{page 770 note 6} Al-Aghānī, i, 98.

^{page 771 note 1} Al-Aghānī, v, 24.

^{page 771 note 2} Al-Maqqarī, , Moh. Dyn., i, 411Google Scholar; ii, 118–19. Analectes, ii, 84, 86–7.

^{page 771 note 3} Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm, 238.

^{page 771 note 4} Lane, Lex., s.v.

^{page 771 note 5} The Dīwāns of 'Abīd b. al-Abraṣ and 'Āmir b. aṭ-Ṭufail. Edit. Sir Chas. Lyall, ix, 5.

^{page 771 note 6} 'Iqd al-farīd, iii, 186.

^{page 772 note 1} JRAS. 1929, p. 492.

^{page 772 note 2} Dalton, , Treasures of the Oxus (2nd edit.), 211Google Scholar.

^{page 772 note 3} Lane, Lex., s.v.

^{page 772 note 4} Cf. Land, , Trans, of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists, 1892, ii, 161Google Scholar. See the Portuguese machête in Engel's, Catalogue of Musical Instruments, p. 254Google Scholar, and pl. facing p. 248, which is made in the form of a fish.

^{page 772 note 5} See Lachmann, R., Musik des Orients, 136Google Scholar.

^{page 772 note 6} JRAS. 1899, 59.

^{page 772 note 7} 'Iqd al-farīd, iii, 186.

^{page 772 note 8} Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 166.

^{page 773 note 1} Leyden MS., Cod. 561, Warn., fol. 59, v.

^{page 773 note 2} Al-Maqqarī, op. cit., ii, 118–19. The fifth string appears to have been adopted in the East just prior to the year 850, as would appear from a story in the Kitāb al-aghānī (v, 53). See also my Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, p. 252.

^{page 773 note 3} See my History of Arabian Music, p. 70.

^{page 773 note 4} See my Historical Facts, p. 240 et seq.

^{page 773 note 5} Al-Maqqarī, , Moh. Dyn., ii, 118–19Google Scholar. Cf. Analectes, ii, 86–7.

^{page 773 note 6} Berlin MS., No. 5530 (Ahlwardt), fol. 25. There is a hiatus in the MS., which makes the sense doubtful.

^{page 774 note 1} See JRAS. 1928, 515.

^{page 774 note 2} The narrow strips of board that compose the back of the lute are referred to here.

^{page 774 note 3} Cf. Riaño, , Notes on Early Spanish Music, p. 114Google Scholar, for the 'ūd, and p. 115 for the barbaṭ or mizhar.

^{page 775 note 1} In point of fact, her authority is given as a book entitled. Enumeration of Arab Musical Instruments, xiv, c, which so far as the present writer is aware, has no existence under this title. See my Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, pp. 336–7.

^{page 775 note 2} Precursors of the Violin Family, 398.

^{page 775 note 3} xxii, 948.

^{page 775 note 4} Engel, op. cit., 63. Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family, 13.

^{page 775 note 5} Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm, 237. Cf. Clement Huart's article in Lavignac's, Ency. de la Musique, p. 3071Google Scholar. Ribera, op. oit., 51.

^{page 775 note 6} Leyden MS., Or. 651, fol. 80.

^{page 775 note 7} Bombay edit., i, 92, 97.

^{page 775 note 8} Chelebī, Evliyā, Travels, i, ii, 226, 234Google Scholar.

^{page 776 note 1} Huth MS. The author's.

^{page 776 note 2} Berlin MS. (Ahlwardt), 5527, fol. 47, v.

^{page 776 note 3} Delphin, et Guin, , Notes sur la poesie et la mvsique arabe, 59Google Scholar.

^{page 776 note 4} Engel, , Researches, etc., 12Google Scholar. Curt Sachs, Reallexikon, s.v.

^{page 776 note 5} Bahār-i 'ajam and Burhān-i qāṭi'.

^{page 777 note 1} L'Arte (1896), i, 24. Miss Schlesinger's earlier example from the paintings at Baouīt, is doubtful.

^{page 777 note 2} Fétis, , Hist. Gén. de la Musique, ii, 144Google Scholar.

^{page 777 note 3} Land, , Recherches, 55Google Scholar.

^{page 777 note 4} Enc. Brit., xxii, 948. See also Heron-Allen's, E.Violin-Making (1885), p. 41Google Scholar, and Grove's, Dictionary of Music (2nd ed.), v, 289Google Scholar.

^{page 777 note 6} Al-Fārābī does not write rabāba as Miss Schlesinger says.

^{page 778 note 1} Kosegarten, , Lib. Cant., 77Google Scholar.

^{page 778 note 2} This may also be the parent of the English word “jar” (a tremulous vibration).

^{page 778 note 3} See my Arabic Musical MSS. in the Bodleian Library, p. 5.

^{page 778 note 4} Bombay ed., i, 91–2. All these instruments are written in the plural except the rabāb. The Cairo (a.h. 1306) text, and that of Dieterioi (Die Abhand. der Ichwān es-Safā) as well as the latter's Propaedeutik der araber, give dabdāb in the place of rabāb. The dabdāb was a drum, and is clearly a copyist's error. Rabāb is given in the Bombay text, and in the two Bodleian MSS.

The terms dūlāb and nā'ūr are given to a “water wheel”, but it is not improbable that they were also the names of musical instruments. The dūlāb of Ibn Ghaibī was a “hurdy-gurdy”.

^{page 779 note 1} India Office MS., 1811, fol. 173.

^{page 779 note 2} Brit. Mus. MS., Or, 2361, fol. 235, v.

^{page 779 note 3} Ibid., fol. 235.

^{page 779 note 4} Land, , Recherches…, 55Google Scholar.

^{page 779 note 5} Brit. Mus. MS., Or. 2361, fol. 262.

^{page 780 note 1} Ibid., fol. 262, v.

^{page 780 note 2} Advielle, , La Musique chez les Persans en 1885, p. 13 and plateGoogle Scholar. Uspensky, , Klassicheskaya Muzyka Uzbekov (“Sovietsky Uzbekistan”, Tashkent, 1927), p. 306Google Scholar. Fitrat, , Uzbīk qilāssiq mūsiqāsī (Tashkent, 1927), p. 42Google Scholar.

^{page 780 note 3} Ency. Brit., xxii, 948.

^{page 780 note 4} Descr. Cat.…South Kensington Museum, 62. Engel says: “Al-Shaqundī, who lived in Spain about a.d. 1200, mentions the rabāb, which may have been in use for centuries without having been thought worthy of notice, on account of its rudeness.” For other misquotations see Heron-Allen's, E.Violin-Making (1885), p. 41Google Scholar, and Grove's, Dictionary of Music (2nd ed.), v, 289Google Scholar.

^{page 780 note 5} Al-Maqqarī, , Moh. Dyn., i, 365–6Google Scholar.

^{page 780 note 6} Ency. Brit., loc. cit.

^{page 780 note 7} Precursors of the Violin Family, 396.

^{page 780 note 8} Ency. Brit., loc. cit.

^{page 781 note 1} Ḳuṣejr 'Amra, Vienna, , 1907, pl. xxxivGoogle Scholar. (Published by Kais. Akad. der Wiss.)

^{page 781 note 2} Lane, Lex., s.v. .

^{page 781 note 3} Lane, , Modern Egyptians (5th ed.), 364Google Scholar.

^{page 781 note 4} Primitive Music (1893), 130.

^{page 781 note 5} Bodleian MS., No. 1842, fol. 78, v.

^{page 781 note 6} Niebuhr, , Voyage en Arabie (1776)Google Scholar. Laborde, op. cit., i, 381.

^{page 781 note 7} Crichton, , History of Arabia, ii, 380Google Scholar. Burckhardt, , Bedouins and Wahabys, and Travels in Arabia, i, 398Google Scholar. Burton, , Personal Narrative…, iii, 76Google Scholar. Cf. Doughty, , Arabia Deserta, i, 41, 98, 263, 264Google Scholar.

^{page 781 note 8} Barcelona (1853), p. 54. The MS. of Al-Shalāḥī (= Kitāb al-imtā' wa'l-intifā', Madrid MS., No. 603), does not appear to wholly confirm this, or at least not fol. 15, which deals with the kaithār. I might also mention that Al-Shalāḥī does not give any of the forms rabel, arrabel, or arrabil, as Miss Schlesinger says. (Ency. Brit., xxii, 947.)

^{page 781 note 9} Ency. Brit., xxii, 950.

^{page 782 note 1} Kosegarten, , Lib. Cant., 45, 105Google Scholar.

^{page 782 note 2} Al-Mas'ūdī, op. cit., viii.

^{page 782 note 3} See my Historical Fads…, 20. The modern Greeks still call their pear-shaped rebec a lyra.

^{page 782 note 4} Or lūrā. Mafātīḥ al-'ulūm, 236.

^{page 782 note 5} Madrid MS., No. 603, fol. 15.

^{page 782 note 6} Ismā'īl, Muḥammad ibn, Safīnat al-mulk, 473Google Scholar.

^{page 782 note 7} Riaño, op. cit., 128. Ribera, La Música de las Cantigas, pl., Angel No. 2.

^{page 782 note 8} Ruiz, Juan, Libro de Buen amor (Edit. Ducamin), verse, 1254Google Scholar.

^{page 782 note 9} Riaño, , op. cit., 114Google Scholar. Ribera, op. cit., fig. ii.

^{page 782 note 10} Edited by Schiaparelli.

^{page 783 note 1} Edited by Seybold. What was the Mediaeval baldosa, baudosa, baudoise, baudoire? Several conjectures have been made. Could it have been a rectangular flat-chested instrument? In Spanish, “a square brick or tile” is called a baldosa. The murabba' (rectangular flat-chested instrument of the Arabs) described by Ibn Ghaibī, had a sound-chest like the “mould of a brick”.

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