Table of Contents
Music in Arabic culture
Music plays important role in every cultures around the world, Arabic culture is not exception in this case. Music in Arabian countries has deep root in history and it influences are observable today.
Before Christ
The first hint about Arabic music was mentioned in Ashurbanipal’s age inscription. In this inscription noted that the king were delighted by Arab prisoners who had been playing music.
Pre-Islamic
Yemen was the capital of sciences and arts in Arabian worlds before Islamic centuries. For many years, the Arabs of Hejaz recognized Yemeni musician as the best artists in universe. According to Arabic folklore, jinns revealed poems to poets and music to musicians, so, in their beliefs music was supernatural thing. Most common instruments in this age were drum, the lute or the rebab.
Early Islamic
Music in early Islamic centuries had been effected by golden age of Islamic sciences, many scientists were doing researches in that era. For instance, Al-Kindi, Farabi, Abulfaraj, Al-Ghazali and Safi al-Din did some investigation about music from 80 to 1300 AD. Safi al-Din complied a unique form of musical notation, in this form rhythms where shown by geometric representation in 1252. A similar system were not created by anyone until 1987!
Al-Andalus
In 11th century Islamic Iberia was capital of instruments manufacturing, these instruments spread around the Europe and influenced heavily on western music. After ejecting Muslims from continent of Europe, Andalusian music found it way in the northern Africa and it is still alive.