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Concept
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani
Summary
Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Iṣfahānī (أبو الفرج الأصفهاني), also known as Abul-Faraj, (full form: Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥaytham al-Umawī al-Iṣfahānī) (897-967CE / 284–356AH) was a writer, historian, genealogist, poet, musicologist and scribe. He was of Arab-Quraysh origin and mainly based in Baghdad. He is best known as the author of Kitab al-Aghani ("The Book of Songs"), which includes information about the earliest attested periods of Arabic music (from the seventh to the ninth centuries) and the lives of poets and musicians from the pre-Islamic period to al-Isfahani's time. Given his contribution to the documentation of the history of Arabic music, al-Isfahani is characterised by George Sawa as "a true prophet of modern ethnomusicology".
The commonly accepted dates of al-Isfahani's birth and death are 897–898 and 967, based on the dates given by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi which itself based its information on the testimony of al-Isfahani's student, Muhammad ibn Abi al-Fawaris. However, the credibility of these dates is to be treated with caution. No source places his death earlier than 967, but several place it later. These dates are at odds with a reference in the Kitab Adab al-ghuraba ("The Book of the Etiquettes of Strangers"), attributed to al-Isfahani, to his being in the prime of youth (fi ayyam al-shabiba wa-l-siba) in 967. Calculation of the approximate dates of his birth and death through the life spans of his students and his direct informants suggests that he was born before 902 and died after 960.
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani was born in Isfahan, Persia (present-day Iran) but spent his youth and undertook his early studies in Baghdad (present-day Iraq). He was a direct descendant of the last of the Umayyad caliphs, Marwan II, and was thus connected with the Umayyad rulers in al-Andalus, and seems to have kept up a correspondence with them and to have sent them some of his works. He became famous for his knowledge of early Arabian antiquities.
Official source
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