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Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani
أبو الفرج الأصفهاني
Illustration from Kitab al-aghani (Book of Songs), 1216-20, by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, a collection of songs by famous musicians and Arab poets.
Born	897 (897) Isfahan
Died	967 (aged 69–70) Baghdad
Known for	Book of Songs
Scientific career
Fields	History
Patrons	Sayf ad-Dawlah

Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Iṣfahānī (Template:Lang-ar), also known as Abul-Faraj, (full form: Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. al-Ḥaytham al-Umawī al-Iṣfahānī) (284/897–356AH/967CE) was a litterateur, genealogist, poet, musicologist, scribe, and boon companion in the tenth century. He was of Arab-Quraysh origin and mainly based in Baghdad. He is best known as the author of Kitāb al-Aghānī (“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-Iṣfahānī’s time. Given his contribution to the documentation of the history of Arabic music, al-Iṣfahānī is characterised by Sawa as “a true prophet of modern ethnomusicology”.

Dates

The commonly accepted dates of al-Iṣfahānī’s birth and death are 284AH/897–8CE and 356/967. However, the credibility of these dates is to be treated with discretion. The dates are given by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (392–463/1002–1071), who bases his information on the testimony of al-Iṣfahānī’s student, Muḥammad b. Abī al-Fawāris (338–412/950–1022). The death date given by al-Khaṭīb is irreconcilable with a reference in the Kitāb Adab al-ghurabāʾ (“The Book of the Etiquettes of Strangers”), attributed to al-Iṣfahānī, to his being in the prime of youth (fī ayyām al-shabība wa-l-ṣibā) in 356/967. If we accept al-Iṣfahānī’s authorship of the Adab al-ghurabāʾ and the authenticity of all the accounts in it, none of the above dates makes sense. However, it is possible to calculate the approximate dates of his birth and death through the lifespans of his students and his direct informants. Muḥammad b. Abī al-Fawāris — the youngest to have transmitted from him — was born in 338/950. If we assume that Muḥammad started to attend al-Iṣfahānī’s lectures at the age of ten, then we may suggest that al-Iṣfahānī was still active in 348/960 onwards or a little later. Among his direct informants, the one who died earliest is Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā al-Munajjim, who lived from 241/855 to 300/912. Again, if we postulate that al-Iṣfahānī transmitted from Yaḥyā when he was at least ten years old, we can infer that he was born before 290/902. Therefore, al-Iṣfahānī’s intellectual activity took place in the first six decades of the tenth century, from about 290/902 to 348/960. It should be noted that no source places his death earlier than 356/967.

Biography

Abu al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī was born in Isfahan, Persia (present-day Iran) but spent his youth and made 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.

His later life was spent in various parts of the Islamic world, in Aleppo with its Hamdanid governor Sayf ad-Dawlah (to whom he dedicated the Book of Songs), in Ray with the Buwayhid vizier Ibn 'Abbad, and elsewhere.

Although he wrote poetry, also an anthology of verses on the monasteries of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and a genealogical work, his fame rests upon his Book of Songs (Kitab al-Aghani).

Book of Songs & Other Works

• Kitāb al-Aġānī (كتاب الأغاني) 'Book of Songs', a collection of Arabic chants rich in information on Arab and Persian poets, singers and other musicians from the 7th - 10th centuries of major cities such as Mecca, Damascus, Isfahan, Rey, Baghdād and Baṣrah. The Book of Songs contains details of the ancient Arab tribes and courtly life of the Umayyads and provides a complete overview of the Arab civilization from the pre-Islamic Jahiliyya era, up to his own time. Abū ‘l-Faraj employs the classical Arabic genealogical devise, or isnad, (chain of transmission), to relate the biographical accounts of the authors and composers. Although originally the poems were put to music, the musical signs are no longer legible. Abū ‘l-Faraj spent in total 50 years creating this work, which remains an important historical source.

The first printed edition, published in 1868, contained 20 volumes. In 1888 Rudolf Ernst Brünnow published a 21st volume being a collection of biographies not contained in the Bulāq edition, edited from MSS in the Royal Library of Munich.

• Maqātil aṭ-Ṭālibīyīn (مقاتل الطالبيين}), Tālibid Fights, a collection of more than 200 biographies of the descendants of Abū Tālib ibn'Abd al-Muttalib, from the time of the Prophet Muḥammad to the writing of the book in 313 the Hijri (= 925/926 CE) who died in an unnatural way. As Abūl-Faraj said in the foreword to his work, he included only those Tālibids who rebelled against the government and were killed, slaughtered, executed or poisoned, lived underground, fled or died in captivity. The work is a major source for the Umayyad and Abbāsid Alid uprisings and the main source for the Hashimite meeting that took place after the assassination of the Umayyad Caliph al-Walīd II in the village of al-Abwā' between Mecca and Medina. At this meeting, al-'Abdallah made the Hashimites pledge an oath of allegiance to his son Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya as the new Mahdi.
• Kitāb al-Imā'āš-šawā'ir (كتاب الإماء الشواعر) 'The Book of the Poet-slaves', a collection of accounts of poetic slaves of the Abbasid period.

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• List of Iranian scientists and scholars

Notes

1. Other dates of death are in the 360s/970s and 357/967–68, suggested respectively by Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 385/995 or 388/998) and Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (336–430/948–1038)
2. The attribution of Adab al-ghurabāʾ to al-Iṣfahānī is much disputed in current scholarship. The scholars who affirm al-Iṣfahānī as the author of Adab al-ghurabāʾ include: On the opposite side are:
3. Al-Isfahani traces his descent to Marwan II as follows: Abu al-Faraj Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Haytham ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Marwan ibn Abd Allah ibn Marwan II ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan I.

References

1. M. Nallino (1960). "Abu 'l-Faradj al-Isbahani". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 118. OCLC 495469456.
2. Bagley, F. R. C. "ABU'L-FARAJ EṢFAHĀNĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original on 16 November 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
3. Sawa, S.G. (1985), "The Status and Roles of the Secular Musicians in the Kitāb al-Aghānī (Book of Songs) of Abu al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī", Asian Music, 17 (1), Asian Music, Vol. 17, No. 1: 68–82, doi:10.2307/833741, JSTOR 833741
4. Sawa 1989, p. 29. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSawa1989 (help)
5. Abū Nuʿaym, Akhbār, vol. 2, p. 22. sfn error: no target: Akhbār (help)
6. Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist, p. 128. sfn error: no target: al-Fihrist (help)
7. al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Madīnat al-Salām, vol. 13, p. 338; vol. 2, p. 213 (On Ibn Abī al-Fawāris). sfn error: no target: Tārīkh_Madīnat_al-Salām (help)
8. al-Hamawī, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, vol. 13, p. 95–97. sfn error: no target: Muʿjam_al-udabāʾ (help)
9. al-Iṣfahānī, Adab al-ghurabāʾ, p. 83–86. sfn error: no target: al-ghurabā (help)
10. Azarnoosh 1992, p. 733. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAzarnoosh1992 (help)
11. Günther 2007. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGünther2007 (help)
12. al-Munajjid 1972, p. 10–16. sfn error: no target: CITEREFal-Munajjid1972 (help)
13. Kilpatrick 2004, p. 230–242. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKilpatrick2004 (help)
14. Kilpatrick 1978, p. 127–135. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKilpatrick1978 (help)
15. Hoyland 2006, p. 36–39. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHoyland2006 (help)
16. Crone & Moreh 2000, p. 128–143. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCroneMoreh2000 (help)
17. al-Aṣmaʿī 1951, p. 81–85. sfn error: no target: CITEREFal-Aṣmaʿī1951 (help)
18. al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Madīnat al-Salām, vol. 2, p. 213–214. sfn error: no target: Tārīkh_Madīnat_al-Salām (help)
19. Fleischhammer 2004, p. 68–69. sfn error: no target: CITEREFFleischhammer2004 (help)
20. De Slane, Mac Guckin (1842). Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, Volume 3. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. p. 300.
21. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abulfaraj". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 79.
22. ^ Al-A'zami, p. 192. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAl-A'zami (help)
23. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 5
24. Brünnow 1888. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBrünnow1888 (help)
25. Günther, p. 13. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGünther (help)
26. Günther, p. 14. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGünther (help)
27. Nagel, pp. 258–262. sfn error: no target: CITEREFNagel (help)

• Al-A'zami, Muhammad Mustafa (2003), The History of The Qur'anic Text: From Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments, UK Islamic Academy, ISBN 978-1872531656
• Abu’l Faraj al-Isfahani (1888), Brünnow, Rudolf-Ernst (ed.), The Twenty-First Volume of Kitāb al-Aġānī; a Collection of Biographies not contained in the edition of Bulāq, Edited from Manuscripts in the Royal Library of Munich, Toronto: Lidin Matba' Bril {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Günther, Sebastian (1991), Quellenuntersuchungen zu den Maqātil aṭ-Ṭālibiyyīn des Abū 'l-Faraǧ al-Iṣfahānī, Hildesheim{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Tilman Nagel (1970). "Ein früher Bericht über den Aufstand von Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh im Jahr 145 h". Der Islam (in German) (46 ed.). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

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