Music and Astronomy in the Muslim WorldAuthor(s): Jozef PacholczykSource:
Leonardo,
Vol. 29, No. 2 (1996), pp. 145-150Published by: The MIT PressStable URL:
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INSAP CONFERENCEPAPERS
Music
and
Astronomy
in
the
Muslim
World
JozefPadc
SYMBOLISM INISLAM
Islamicart,includingmusic,isdeeply symbolic.It containsacode ofsymbolsthat reflectsandexplainsthetotalityof thecosmos and the essenceof God. Thesymbolsare used asawayofexplainingtheunexplainable.MuchIslamicsymbol-ismdevelopedunderthe directimpetusofGreekphilosophyandscholarship.Manyof itselements,however,canbetracedbackeven furtherto the beliefsof theancientEgyptians,Sumerians,ChaldeansandManicheans.These beliefs wereincorporatedinto Greekthoughtandgainedauthorityandacceptancewithin Islamicphilosophyandscholarship.EarlyIslamicphilosophyandscholarship developedinthecentersof theOmayyad(661-750
A.D.)
and Abbasid(750-1258
A.D.)
empires,such asDamascus,Baghdadand Kufa.MuslimArabs first hadcontactwith the HellenisticworldintheearlydaysofIslam,duringthereignof thefirstdynastyoftheOmayyads,whosecapitalwas establishedinDamascus,theformerseatof theByzantinegovernors.Duringtheruleofthisdynasty,Islamicarmiesconqueredalargeamount ofterritory,from the Iberianpeninsulato the EasternTurkestan(Xinjiang).Someofthisland waspopulatedbyGreeks orbyHellenizedChristians.Duringthisconquest,the Muslimscameintopossessionofa numberofphilosophicalandscien-tific worksbysuch writersasPythagoras,Aristotele,AristoxenesandPlato. Muslimrulersquicklyrecognizedthevalueof these worksandcollectedalargenumberofmanu-scriptsfor theirlibraries.Interestin Greekwritingscontinuedunder theAbbasids,and in theeighthcenturytheBait al-Hikma(HouseofWisdom)was establishedin Kufa andBaghdadto functionasan astronomicalobservatoryandhouseof translation.There thebestminds from all over theempiretranslatedthe works of the GreeksintoArabic(eitherdirectlyfromGreekorthroughAramaic).Thanks to the in-troductionofpaperfromChina,bookswerecopiedinlargenumbers anddisseminatedto themajorcenters of the em-pire.Soon,localandprovincialrulers establishedtheir ownlibraries(Daral-Hikma rDaral-'Ilm,he HouseofScience)incities such asCairo, Toledo,BukharaandSamarqand.These Greekworksin Muslimlibrariesinspiredthe devel-opmentofIslamicphilosophyand science. What startedastranslationsof theworks led to commentariesand,eventually,toindependentscholarshipinmathematics,alchemy,medi-cine,philosophy,geometry,musicand otherdisciplines.The firstmajorinfluencewas thatof Plato.Hiswasessen-tiallyatheoryofideas-thattruthis eternal and canberecog-nizedbyhumansinthemselves.Therealityof the worldis are-flectionof ideasandconstitutesthe entiretruth. For thePlatonists,themostimportantfactorintheunderstandingof
ABSTRACT
InheMuslimorld,herela-tionshipetween usic nd s-tronomyanbe seenon wo ev-els.On neevel,heconnectionisindirect,nvolvingnunderlyingsystemfsymbolismnnumbers,proportionsndeometricigures
thatpenetratesmost areas of Is-
I,,m;,r,. t4,-.. thnrLe, hini; h ..,.
nature wastheideaofnumbers.mathematics,eomtr,alchmathematics,eometry,lchemyMathematicsrepresented pure,andmedicine.tcanbeunder-absolutetruth,in its most beauti- stood s aunifyinglement ithinful form. This idea wasbroadlyac-Islamiculture. n notherevel,theconnectionetween usiccepted byMuslimphilosopherstheconnectionetween usicd apt edbMulhielos, gandstronomysdirect,ith s-andappliedto allfields,includingtronomicalonceptsirectlyp-thearts,regardlessof medium.pliedo music nd omemusicalEqually strongwasthe influ-conceptsppliedoastronomy.nenceofthePythagoreansandboth ases herelationshipanbe
understoodnlynhecontextfNeo-Pythagoreans.Liketheeo-Pythagoreans.ikethetheIslamiculture,tsphilosophyPlatonists, they gave importanceand rt.to the roleof numbers inexplain-ingnature,butdevelopedaphi-losophythatgavenumbers anesotericsignificance.Thisphilosophy developedintoaphi-losophyofarithmeticandarithmology. By attributingal-chemicalandmagicalvalues tonumbers,arithmologyat-temptedtoexplain metaphysicsandtheology.Thisideawasappliedto avarietyoffields,suchasastrology, alchemyandmedicine,and had aprofoundinfluenceonthedevelopmentof the Muslim worldview. Itespeciallyinfluenced thegnosticbranches of Islam: Shi'a andsufism.Numerologybecamean essentialpartof the entiresufimovement,inwhichesoteric and hermetic secretknowledgecouldbepassedononly throughgradualinitiation. Numer-ologyis bestexplainedin theencyclopedicwork of the tenthcentury bythe Ikhwanas-Safa'(theBrotherhood ofPurity),whichis asynthesisofPlatonic,Pythagorean,Neo-Pythagoreanandgnosticideas.Thissignificanceof numbers can be summarizedasfollows[1]:*Onesymbolizesthe Creator:one,eternal, indivisible,un-changeable.*TwosymbolizesIntellect('aql).It allows forpairsofoppo-sites(light/darkness,good/bad,form/matter,spirit/body,etc.).*Threesymbolizesthe Soul(nafs).?FoursymbolizesMatter(hayyula).Ithas mathematicalcompleteness.It contains all numbers that adduptothedecade(1+2+3+ 4=10),the baseofthe entire decimalsystem.It isaperfectnumber.*FivesymbolizesNature(tabi'ah).*SixsymbolizestheBody (jism).*Sevenrepresentsthe sevenplanets.
JozefPacholczyk (ethnomusicologist),UniversityofMaryland/Baltimore County,5401WilkensAvenue,Catonsville,MD21228,U.S.A.E-mail:<pacholcz@umbc.edu>.Originally presentedatthe conference "TheInspirationofAstronomicalPhenomena,"VillaMondoMigliore,RoccadiPapa, Italy, 27June-2July1994.
LEONARDO,Vol.29,No.2,pp.145-150,1996 1451996 ISAST
*Eight representseight qualities(ac-tuallyfourqualitiescombined twobytwo with fourelements):Earth: coldanddry;Water: cold andwet;Air:warm andwet;Fire: warmanddry).*Ninerepresents Beings,such as min-erals,plantsand animals.This hierarchical model contains ananalogyto the Islamic model of the cos-mosrepresentedinastronomicalcatego-ries. In thismodel,the Earth is at thecenter,surroundedbynineconcentricspheres:sevenspheresofplanets(themoon,Mercury,Venus,Sun,Mars,Jupi-ter,Saturn),aneighth sphereoffixedstars,and aninth,outersphere(muhit)of the Zodiac. At the bottom of the hier-archyis theEarth,on whicheverythingisorganizedin tetrads(elements,sea-sons, winds,cardinaldirections,fluids inthe humanbody,etc.);atthetopis theZodiac,with itsnumerical value of12.Between the Zodiac and the Earththere aresevenplanets,with thespiri-tualpowertochangematter within theirdomains. Seven is also aperfectnumber.Sevenisconnected to theMoon,thefe-maleaspect,andisopposedto theSun,which is masculine. Inthecosmologicalmodel,the female Moon is closest to theEarth and is anintermediarybetweentheEarth and all otherspheres,includ-ingthe Zodiac. Seven is thesymbolofthe UniversalMan,himself thearche-typeof the Universe[2].Amongthenumbers,the "mostnoble" are4, 7, 9,12and28.These numbers eithercorre-spondto the "mostnoblebeings"(4=the number oftetrads;7=planets;9=
muhit;12=theZodiac;28=number of
mansions of theMoon)andareuniquebecausetheycan begenerated bythearithmeticaloperationsthat usethenumbers associated with those noble be-
ings(7=3+4;12=3x4;28=7x4or 7
+9 +12).Thenumericalimplicationsinmath-ematics,astronomy, geometryand al-chemyareperhapseasier tounderstand.Those inthe arts are moredifficult.Al-thoughit isbeyondthescopeof thispa-perto mention all thewaysthatnumeri-calsymbolismisreflectedinthearts,Iwill mention a fewaspects.LITERATUREInliterature,themysticaland numero-logicalconnections areverystrong.TheArabicalphabethas28letters,corre-spondingtothe number ofmansions oftheMoon,whichcould beinterpretedas thesum of 7(planets),9(spheresoftheuniverse),and12(Zodiacconstella-tions),as wellas the result of themulti-plication7 x 4. This numbersupportstheidea of itsperfectionas thealphabetofQur'an.Sufipoetry, especiallythat ofPersia,isfull oftheimageryof terrestrial andsen-suous love and thedrinkingofwine(inIslam aforbiddendrink).It canbe readonseveral levels. To theuninitiatedreader,a textmayappeartodeal withearthlymatters of humanrelationshipsandlove. To asufi,the same text canhave adifferentmeaning, referringtotherelationshipbetweenman andGod.Love,wine andintoxicationrepresentthelove of man for God and theraptureofmysticalunionwithGod,as in thebe-ginningof thispoem byHafiz:
Saqiyabarkhiz-o-dardejamraKhakbarsarkunghameayyamraSagar-e-meyarkafamneta ze barBar kasham ndalq-e-azraqamraGarchebadnamistnazde'aqilanMa name khwahimnangonamra
Oh,winebearer,standupandpourthe wine intomycupThrowdirt on the sorrows fdaysBringmethecupof wine andyouwillseeHow I will takeoffmybluegarbIfdoingso in front ofthe wise manisbadThen we do notneed honor orrespect[3]Thetruemeaningof thepoem,hid-den to theuninitiatedreader,can beunderstood from thenumericalsymbol-ism of theindividualletters of thealpha-bet. ThenumericalinterpretationofArabicwords canbe seen in theex-ampleof thewordsufi.Four letters ofthis word:Sad,Waw,Fa andYahave thenumericalequivalentsof90, 6,80 and10. The sumofthose numbers is 186.186 isalso the sumof100,80and6,numbers thatcorrespondtothe lettersQaf,Fa andWaw. Thesethree lettersform theArabic wordFUQ,meaning"above" or"transcending."Sufism isthus meant to beatranscendentphi-losophy[4].Numerology,ascience ofthe numeri-calsymbolismofletters('ilmal-jafr),gavebirthto theso-called balabailanan-guage.Schimmel[5]said thatsufi po-etrycannot befullyunderstoodand en-joyedwithoutknowledgeofthenumericalmeaningofthe letters.THE ART OFMINIATURE
PAINTING
Thesymbolismofnumbers in Islamicminiaturepaintingsisrelated tothesymbolismofgeometricalfiguresandcosmologicalmodels.Papadopoulodis-covered that in theminiatures ofPersiaand India fromthe thirteenthcenturyon,spaceisorganizedinsuch awaythatthe mostimportantelements of thepaintings,such asfigures,facesand/orhands,areplacedso thattheycan beconnectedbyaspiralorarabesque.Sometimes twopaintings placedonop-positepagesof abook create aspiralto-gether.Sometimesfiguresareplacedbehindmountains tocompletethecurve ofthespiral[6].Thespiral representsdescendinganddiminishingseriesofcircles,paralleltothecircles(spheres)ofheaven,whichbecome smallerastheyapproachtheEarth[7].It is thus amodel of the cos-mos,but it alsohas other esotericsignifi-cance. Itrepresentsthe arcof descentfrom Godto man and thearc of ascentfrom man toGod,which is sopromi-nent in the shi'a[8].Itsymbolizedthe"GreatSouthWind,"or"Whirlwind,"known to bothChristian andMuslimgnostics.Itsymbolizesthecircumam-bulation(ofKa'ba)of asanctuaryandenteringit. ItrepresentsthealchemicalOpus[9].Itis associatedwith the vineand,throughit,intoxication(insufism,the entrance tothe state ofecstasy,themotivestronglyvisible in thesufipo-etry).AsPapadopoulosaid,"Thespiralbecame in a realsense the materializa-tion ofesoterism,the secret mandalaor-ganizingatone and the same timeuni-verse and art"[10].ARCHITECTUREInarchitecture,which isintimatelyre-lated togeometry,theforms ofsomeedifices aretherepresentationsof cos-mic models.Someminarets arebuiltinthe form ofaspiral-forexample,theminaret oftheGreatMosque,theMawliya,nSamarra.Inothermosques,thespiralsare in-corporatedinside theminarets intheform ofmultiplestaircases,invisiblefrom the outside.ManyMuslimmausoleums andtombsof themarabouts,ufisaints,inNorthAf-rica arebuiltina form ofa cubewith acupolaintheshapeofthehalf-sphere.The baseof the cube of thebuildingisasquarerepresentingtheearth,with fourseasons andfour cardinaldirections. Itrepresentsterrestrial life. Intheupperpartthesymbolismisintensifiedbyin-terlockedsquares-thatis,octagons.Thestructure istoppedwith thedome.Based onthecircle,itrepresentsthe ce-lestialaspectoftheuniverse,the firma-146
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