| Safi
al-Dîn is a scholar having an important place in the history of Eastern
music and living in the XIII. century with the works he wrote in the field
of music theoretic. Besides being a theoretician, he is a professional music
performer, a composer and an inventor of musical instrument. As in the Eastern
sources, Safi al-Dîn is also one of the theoretician mostly taken
places in the works of Western writers studying on Eastern music. His works
had been a source for almost all the musical writings written in a period
of a few centuries after him. These writings are as if they are the annotations
of Safi al-Dîn and their writers tell about Safi al-Dîn, whom
they name the master of this field, with a praise and give the value he
deserves. |
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| Al-Sharafiyyah
is perfect in terms of both arrangement and style. This feature in the work
is, as we mentioned before, due to the fact that he knows Arab literature
and language well. |
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| Safi
al-Dîn studies the ratios between the numbers very systematically,
names the intervals established with these ratios, classifies them and explains
the consonance and dissonance ones in detail. |
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| After
al-Fârâbî, the tetrachord divisions had never been examined
in such a detailed way in any Adwâr. Safi al-Dîn shows all possible
divisions and points out the most consonant of these. He mentions the tetrachords
with four intervals and pentachordal kinds and explains the consonant ones.
Some writer following him avoid from this topic as it is very detailed.
The ones studying this topic follow the same route as Safi al-Dîn.
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| He
benefits from several sequencing forms of tetrachord, pentachord and tanînî
intervals while he is arranging two octave ranges. While forming one and
two octave ranges, he arranges the intervals of tetrachord and pentachord
in several ways and he forms the maqams with the consonant ranges appearing
after this work. Besides, he mentions about some topics as the determination
of 17 sound range, common tones of scales, transposition, performing of
an instrument, the order of accord, the performance with several accords
and composition. |
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| We
encounter with the examination and naming of the maqams in Kitâb
al-Adwâr and al-Sharafiyyah of
Safi al-Dîn for the first time. In his al-Sharafiyyah Safi al-Dîn
arranges 63 ranges with tetrachords and pentachords, he produces 18 maqams
out of them and shows the scales of 12 ones in the tables by adapting into
17 tones/notes. Up to the end of fifteenth century there seems no great
change in the classification and naming of the maqams Safi al-Dîn
did. |
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| Having
a great knowledge over the terminology of music in his age, Safi al-Dîn
gives almost all the topics in his al-Sharafiyyah
with a clear and understandable language and style. With the work he produced
with a purpose of being a light for the incoming studies in the future,
we believe that al-Sharafiyyah is a valuable
work supplying some substantial contributions to everybody writing over
music as in the past. |