Musiker hos kaliffen

Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani (år 897-967) skrev et mammutværk på 10.000 sider om musik og musiklivet i de arabiske lande i årene 700 til 967. Han beskrev bl.a. at en hofmusiker skulle have grundigt kendskab til ca. 5000 sange og at han skulle kunne spille et instrument og kunne komponere. Han skulle endvidere være lærd indenfor litteratur, poesi, prosodi, grammatik, historie, fortællekunst, koranvidenskab, astrologi, kogekunst, vinbrygning, hesteopdræt, skak og backgammon og endvidere i etikette, så han vidste hvordan man skulle føre sig ved hoffet. Med denne baggrund kunne musikeren ikke blot underholde, men også undervise herskerne. Musikerens uddannelse var lang og hans arbejdsdag travl.

 Ishâq al-Mawsili (767-850) var en af sin tids mest berømte musikere og komponister. Han var ansat ved abbasidehoffet i Bagdad, hvor også hans far havde en strålende karriere. Ishâq's mest talentfulde elev Ziryab (789-857, Ziryab er hans kælenavn, det betyder solsort og henviser dels til hans mørke hudfarve, dels til hans smukke stemme) blev omkring 822 tvunget til at forlade Bagdad fordi han efterhånden var blevet dygtigere end sin lærer. Efter sigende kunne han på det tidspunkt 10.000 sange. Han rejste derpå til Cordoba, hvor han blev musiker ved Umayyadehoffet. Ishâq al-Mawsili beskriver sin læretid ved hoffet på denne måde:

"Jeg tilbragte en stor del af mit liv med, ved solopgang at gå til Hushaym, for at lytte til ham; så gik jeg til al-Kisa'i eller al-Farra' eller Ibn Ghazala for at læse lidt fra Koranen; derefter gik jeg til Mansur Zalsal, lutspilleren, som ville lære mig to eller tre stykker; så gik jeg til Atika bint Shuhda for at lære en eller to sange fra hende; så til al-Asma'i og Abu Ubayda, fra hvem jeg søgte viden og diskuterede kalligrafi, og jeg lærte, og det blev jeg klogere af. Derefter gik jeg til min far for at fortælle ham hvad jeg havde opnået, hvem jeg havde besøgt og hvad jeg havde lært fra hvem; dernæst spiste jeg frokost med ham. Ved middagstid gik jeg til de troendes prins, kalif Harun al-Rashid."

Musikhistorikeren al-Isfahani (897-967) beskriver musikere ved Abbasidernes hof i Baghdad. Den omtalte prins Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (ca. 779-839) var død da al-Isfahani skrev sit skrift, men han var bror til kaliffen (den berømte kalif Harun al-Rashid, som beskrives i "1001 Nats Eventyr) og hans familie sad stadig på magten, så det er ikke hr. Hvem-som-helst al-Isfahani kritiserer. Den "Ishag" som al-Isfahani referer til er den mest berømte musiker i datidens arabiske verden, Ishag al-Mawsili (767-850), hvis berømmelse altså var intakt selvom han havde været død i næsten hundrede år:

"And despite his knowledge and talent, Prince Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi fell short in his performance of songs of the older repertoire and fell equally short in composing in that style. He used to remove notes from songs that involved much labor and lightened them in accordance with what suited him and with what he was able to accomplish in his performance. If he was reproached for doing so he would say: "I am a king, son of a king. I sing as I wish and in the manner which pleases me." He was the first to spoil songs of the older repertoire, and because of his stature he facilitated and opened the way for others to boldly effect change in this repertoire.
Up to now people are of two types:

• Those who followed the belief and practice of Ishag and his friends, who disapproved of changing the older repertoire, found such audacity distressing, reproached those who acted in that way, and considered such an act faulty and short of perfection. They sang the older repertoire according to its proper way, or close to it.
• And those who followed the belief and practice of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi or were guided by it, such as Mukhariq and Shariya and Rayyiq. And the person who learned from them would sing the older repertoire as they desired it and not the way it was sung by the composer to whom the song was attributed. And the person would find in this endeavor many who cooperated along the same lines, wishing that the learning of such repertoire would become more accessible to them; and the person disliked what was difficult and what had slow cycles, and he found the time he should spend to learn the good older singing repertoire too long, because of his limited musical knowledge.

And if this continues without interruption, then the composition belongs to whoever is doing the singing at the time and not to the predecessors, because if the new singers change what they have learned as they please, and the one from whom they learned has also, in turn, changed it, and this latter has also learned from others who have changed it - until this process covers a span of five or so generations - then the audience in our era does not recieve from the original generation of composers any ancient singing in its original form at all." (Sawa 2002, side 355-356)

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