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 l-Faraj al-Isfahani (var. al-Isbahani).^[1] Abu l-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.^[2] It spans the period from the Jahiliyya to the end of the 9th century CE. Abu l-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.^[3]

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".^[4]

Editions

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

See also

• Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani
• Hamasah
• Imru' al-Qais
• Maqamat (literature)
• Mu'allaqat
• Mufaddaliyat

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Columbia Encyclopedia

1. Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani, Kitab al-aghani, 25 vols., Beirut, Dar Sader Publishers: 2004.
2. Kilpatrick, H., Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abu l-Faraj al-Isbahani's Kitab al-aghani, London, RoutledgeCurzon: 2003.
3. Kilpatrick, H., 'Abu l-Farag's profiles of poets. Much work has been done in recent years on Kitab al-aghani by, among others, Hilary Kilpatrick, whose book Making the Great Book of Songs
4. 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.