Abu al-Faraj
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Illustration from Kitab al-aghani (Book fof Songs), 1216-20, by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, a collection of songs by famous musicans and Arab poets.
- Abul-Faraj (1226-1286) was also a learned Armenian Jew, who became bishop of Aleppo, and wrote a history of the world from Adam onwards.
- Abu al-Faraj was also the Arabic name of Joshua ben Judah, a Karaite scholar of the eleventh century.
He was thus connected with the Umayyad rulers in Spain, and seems to have kept up a correspondence with them and to have sent them some of his works.
He was born in Isfahan, but spent his youth and made his early studies in Baghdad. 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 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).
The Book of Songs
Kitab al-Aghani (book of songs), a collection of poems and songs with the stories of the composers and singers in many volumes from the oldest epoch of Arabic literature down to the 9th cent. The poems were put to music, but the musical signs are no longer readable. Because of the accompanying biographical annotations on the authors and composers, the work is an important historical source. It contains a mass of information as to the life and customs of the early Arabs, and is the most valuable authority we have for their pre-Islamic and early Islamic days.
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