Kitab al-Aghani

Illustration from Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs), 1216-20, by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.

Kitab al-Aghani (Arabic: كتاب الأغاني‎, The Book of Songs), is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions by the 10th-century Arabic litterateur Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (also known as al-Isbahani).[1][2] Abu al-Faraj claimed to have taken 50 years in writing the work, which ran to over 10 000 pages. It can be seen as having three distinct sections: the first dealing with the '100 Best Songs' chosen for the caliph Harun al-Rashid, the second with royal composers and the third with songs chosen by the author himself.[3] It spans the period from the Jahiliyya to the end of the 9th century CE. Abu al-Faraj importantly included performance directions for many of the songs included in Kitab al-Aghani. Due to the accompanying biographical annotations on the personages in Kitab al-Aghani, the work is an important historical and literary historical source; it is also useful for those interested in the sociology of Arabic literature.[4]

Reception

The prominent 14th-century historian Ibn Khaldun called The Book of Songs the register of the Arabs: "It comprises all that they had achieved in past of excellence in every kind of poetry, history, music, etc. So far as I am aware, no other book can be put on a level with it in this respect. It is the final resource of the student of belles lettres and leaves him nothing further to be desired".[5]

Editions

  • al-Iṣfahīnī, Abu al-Faraj, Kitāb al-Aghānī, Dār al-Fikr, 21 parts and Index in 9 vols., equivalent to the edition Cairo 1322/1905–5.
  • al-Isfahani, Abu al-Faraj, Kitab al-Aghani, 25 vols., Beirut, Dar Sader Publishers: 2004.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Kitab al-Aghani, 25 vols., Beirut, Dar Sader Publishers: 2004.
  2. ↑ Wikisource Thatcher, Griffithes Wheeler (1911). "Abulfaraj". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 79.
  3. ↑ Kilpatrick, Hilary (2010). Making the great Book of songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abû I-Faraj al-Isbahânî's Kitâb al-aghânî. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415595841.
  4. ↑ Kilpatrick, Hilary (1997). "Abū l-Faraǧ's Profiles of Poets: A 4th/10th Century Essay at the History and Sociology of Arabic Literature". Arabica. 44 (1): 94–128. JSTOR 4057271.
  5. ↑ Sawa, George Dimitri (2016). Erotica, Love and Humor in Arabia : Spicy Stories from The Book of Songs by al-Isfahani. McFarland & Company. p. 2. ISBN 9781476663654.


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