Arab Music: A Survey of Its History and Its Modern Practice

Sources of illustrations ;



Foreword ;



Recorded Music ;



Transliteration of the Arabic letters ;



Introduction ;



Part I: Historical background ;


Introduction ;


The legacy of past centuries ;


Egypt and Mesopotamia ;


From the third century BCE to the seventh century CE ;


Arab music before the arrival of the Islam ;


The Bedouins ;


Mecca and Medina ;


Musical instruments ;


The early Islamic period and the Umayyad Caliphate (600 - 750) ;


The mu?anna? ;


Damascus ;


The Golden Age of the Abbasids (eighth and ninth centuries) ;


Music at the court of Harun ar-Rasid ;


The emergence of Andalusia ;


The beginning of the Andalusian music tradition: Ziryab ;


Music theory ;


The tenth to the thirteenth century ;


Music theory in the Mashriq ;


Developments since the tenth century in the Maghreb ;


From circa 1250 to 1600 ;


Musical life ;


Music Theory ;


Rhythm ;


Forms of compositions ;


The organization of the modes and cosmology ;


Musical instruments ;


From the late fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century ;


From 1850 to the end of the twentieth century ;


The period of the Arab renaissance, the nah?a ;


The twentieth century ;


The lyric theatre ;


The music film and Mu?ammad ?Abdu-l-Wahhab ;


The radio and Umm Kulthum ;


The tura? or musical heritage ;


The seventies, a change of generations ;



Part 2: The Modern Time ;


Introduction ;


The tone system ;


Temperament ;


The jins ;


The maqam ;


Meter and rhythm ;


The classical urban music ;


The tradition of Iraq: al-maqam al-?iraqi ;


The classical tradition of Syria and Egypt, the wa?la ;


Classical traditions in North Africa: the nawba ;


Popular music ;


Firqa songs ;


The Egyptian sa?bi ;


The Egyptian gil ;


The Algerian rai ;


The Moroccan sa?bi (chaabi) ;


The Arab hiphop ;


Folk Music ;


The Middle East ;


The Maghreb ;



Bibliography ;



Discography ;



List of recorded music ;



Websites ;



Index