Arabic Music During the Silk Road Era and Its Influences

Arabic Music during the Silk Road Era and Its Influences

Arabia: an empire that has existed for centuries. It has expanded, risen and fallen. Yet, even though the empire’s socio-political power started to decline as the Silk Road died out, it did not fall out of the history books because it was one of the most influential music cultures of its time. Additionally, traces left of its knowledge became key aspects in other civilizations throughout history. This paper discusses the historical settings leading to the Silk Road Era and explores the most prominent musical traditions of that time. This takes place during the Arabic periods of the Jahiliyah and the Classical Music. In order to understand the music customs, Arabia’s political and economic background will also be discussed over these periods. The influence of the Arabic music culture and customs are also established through their exportation to other continents.

Pre-Islamic Period (Before 632 A.D.)

The first references of lands in the name of Arabia date back during third millennium BC when territory of the Babylonian rule was claimed in defeat of the ruler at the time. Due to its proximity of the Babylonian-Assyrian territory, Arabs were heavily influenced by that culture. This first period was known as the Jahiliyah being referred as ““days of ignorance” of the revelations of the prophet Muhamed.”^[1]

Around the turn of the first century AD, neighbouring civilizations’ markets that interacted with the Arab Kingdoms were in recession. This resulted in an economic recession for Arab commerce because surrounding societies were essential to stimulate its economy. The progress of Roman sea trade further impacted the decline in use of trade routes held by the Arab territories. This resulted in a migration of the population towards the North. In class, it has been said that culture transmission during the Silk Road Era was due, inadvertently, to political and commercial ties and cultures being within a similar region. Similarly, Arabic culture was integrated with other regional ethnic populations due to the interaction of the local and regional merchants and because of the physical proximity of territories belonging to the Hebrew cults, Assyrian and Phoenician. This resulted in a shared regional music culture because the migrating Arab tribes were integrating among the people within the northern Persian and Hebrew territory^[2]. This created a strong impression upon Persian culture. For instance, in the fifth century A.D., a Persian prince was sent to be educated in an Arabic city where one of the many things he studied was Arabic music. Later, one of his first proclamations as king was to improve the status of the Persian court musicians.^[3] This is probably because many kings and chiefs during the Jahiliyah were themselves poets and musicians.^[4] 

Among the sedimentary population, musical customs incorporated famous poetry written by popular authors and sung by women called the Qiyan. Their singing was accompanied by a combination of Arab instruments falling under the categories of string, wind and percussion instruments such as drums and bells. The Qiyan, had a dual role of a being virtuoso singer and a servant for sensual pleasures. They performed musical poetry for men for the purpose of lighthearted entertainment or to convey themes that opposed spiritual propriety such as pride, arrogance and impudence. This custom evolved into a school of musical artistry and a form of tradition that continued on into the next period. Some of the most popular Qiyan received individual recognition for their talent and for their songs.^[5] However, not all female performers were part of that lifestyle. Alternatively, “the women of the tribes got together in bands, playing upon their lutes [as a custom at weddings.]”^[6] In contrast, the Bedouin nomadic population lived in the desert and held a separate custom of singing during their travels. The rhythm of their music went in time to a camel’s steps.^[7] 

Arabian Classical Music Period (632-1500 A.D.)

In seventh century A.D., the Islamic conquests brought into the Arab metropolises a diverse population from different cultural backgrounds which introduced different artistic expressions into Arab music. The conquests also brought foreign music works into Arab possession initiating their translation by court scholars and literates. This generation of foreign knowledge resulted in the formation of a music system based on a combination of works from Greek, Persian and Indian cultures.^[8]

Historically, Spain was conquered by the Arabic Empire and renamed Al-Andalus in the ninth century. This resulted in two major music hubs: Cordova situated in Al-Andalus and Baghdad situated in the East of the Arabic Empire. Both artistically competed with each other and sustained different regional influence. This resulted in the Eastern part of the empire altering their music system to be solely based from the Greeks, dropping Arab-Persian theory while the music in the west did not theoretical change, continuing on to the fourteenth century.^[9]

At the onset of the classical tradition, there was an emergence of male singers that followed the performance and artistic methods of the Qiyan.^[10] Singing dominated the early classical Arab music tradition and was transmitted orally from one generation to the next. The art form was so popular in certain regions that performances grew into bigger affairs with large choruses and instrumental ensembles. Their staging grew in size akin to music festivals.

The Influences from These Periods

During the Muslim conquests, the ruler claimed possession of numerous works from other societies such as the Greek. A Muslim scholar translated the term ‘music’ from Greek music texts to categorize “all the different states and sensations of the art as al-musiqi.”^[11] This term was a novel reapplication and its root meaning had not been fully applied to this concept before by any the other civilizations that existed at the time.^[12] Based on the historical timeline, the Silk Road helped carry music and its modern-day association west to Al-Andalus and then to other parts of Europe where it is now incorporated into multiple European languages and cultures.^[13] From this point, Arabic music theory influenced the European music system where changes to the latter occurred during its medieval period.^[14]