View source for Kitab al-Aghani

{{italic title}}
{{Short description|Arabic encyclopedic collection of poems and songs}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Kitab al-Aghani
| title_orig    = كتاب الأغاني
| translator    = 
| image         = Kitab al-Aghani 01 (cropped).jpg
| caption       = Illustration from Kitab al-Aghani (1216-20)
| author        = [[Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani]]
| country       = [[Abbasid Caliphate]]
| language      = Arabic
| subject       = Arabic poetry and songs
| genre         = Encyclopedic collection
| published     = 10th century
| media_type    = [[Manuscript]]
| pages         = Over 10,000
| isbn          = 
| oclc          = 
}}

'''''Kitāb al-Aghānī''''' ({{langx|ar|كتاب الأغاني|kitāb al-‘aghānī|The Book of Songs}}), is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions, attributed to the 10th-century Arabic writer [[Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani|Abū al-Farāj al-Isfahānī]] (also known as al-Isbahānī).<ref>Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, ''Kitab al-Aghani'', 25 vols., Beirut, Dar Sader Publishers: 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Abulfaraj |volume=1 |page=79 |first=Griffithes Wheeler |last=Thatcher}}</ref>

== Content ==
Abū al-Farāj claimed to have taken 50 years in writing the work, which ran to over 10,000 pages and contains more than 16,000 verses of [[Arabic poetry]]. It can be seen as having three distinct sections: the first deals with the '100 Best Songs' chosen for the caliph [[Harun al-Rashid|Harūn al-Rashīd]], the second with royal composers, and the third with songs chosen by the author himself.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Making the great Book of songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abû I-Faraj al-Isbahânî's Kitâb al-aghânî|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415595841}}</ref> It spans the period from [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic times]] to the end of the 9th century CE. Abu al-Faraj importantly included performance directions for many of the songs included in Kitāb al-Aghānī. Due to the accompanying biographical annotations on the personages, the work is an important historical and historiographical source; it is also useful for those interested in the sociology of [[Arabic literature]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Abū l-Faraǧ's Profiles of Poets: A 4th/10th Century Essay at the History and Sociology of Arabic Literature|journal=Arabica|date=1997|volume=44|issue=1|pages=94–128|doi=10.1163/1570058972582641|jstor=4057271}}</ref>

==Reception==
The 14th-century historian [[Ibn Khaldun|Ibn Khaldūn]] 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".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sawa|first1=George Dimitri|title=Erotica, Love and Humor in Arabia : Spicy Stories from The Book of Songs by al-Isfahani|date=2016|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|isbn=9781476663654|page=2}}</ref>

==Manuscripts==
The earliest known manuscript dates to 1131, and is located in the Feyzullah Library, Istanbul. It is without miniatures.<ref name="DSR"/>

===Illustrated manuscript (1217–1219)===
The second known manuscript is dated to the 13th century, with some of the volumes inscribed to the year 1217. The manuscript comprises 20 volumes, four of them now being in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo (II, IV, XI, XIII), and two more in the Feyzullah Library, Istanbul (XVII, XIX). It had several miniatures, only six of which have remained.<ref name="DSR"/> This edition was made in [[Mosul]] in around 1218–19 for the [[Zengid dynasty]] Governor [[Badr al-Dīn Lū'lū']], who appears prominently in several of the miniatures.<ref name="DSR"/> Six of the twenty volumes have frontispieces, with no other illustrations.<ref name="DSR">{{cite journal |last1=Rice |first1=D. S. |title=The Aghānī Miniatures and Religious Painting in Islam |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=1953 |volume=95 |issue=601 |pages=128–135 |url=http://warfare.tk/Turk/The_Aghani_Miniatures_and_Religious_Painting_in_Islam-D_S_Rice.htm |issn=0007-6287}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Kitab al-Aghani, 1219, Volume II miniature.jpg|Female attendants, dancing and bathing at the court.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ettinghausen |first1=Richard |title=Arab painting |date=1977 |publisher=New York : Rizzoli |isbn=978-0-8478-0081-0 |page=62 |url=https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/62/mode/2up}}</ref> ''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol II. Cairo, Egyptian National Library, Ms Farsi 579
File:Kitāb al-aghānī (“The Book of Songs”) by Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī.jpg|''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol IV. Cairo, Egyptian National Library, Ms Farsi 579 
File:Frontispiece Vol XI. Cairo, Egyptian National Library, Ms Farsi 579.jpg|''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol XI. Cairo, Egyptian National Library, Ms Farsi 579
File:Kitab_al-Aghani_01_(cropped).jpg|''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol XVII. Istanbul, Millet Library, Ms Feyzullah Efendi 1566. 
File:Badr al-Din Lulu frontispiece.jpg|''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol XIX. Istanbul, Millet Library, Ms Feyzullah Efendi 1565
File:Equestrian Portrait of Badr al-Din Lu'lu from Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) of Abu-l-Farraj al-Isfahani, Mosul 1217-19, David Collection.jpg|''Kitāb al-aghānī'', Mosul, 1218–1219. Vol XX. David Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark
</gallery>

== Modern editions ==
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Kitāb al-Aghāni | year=1900 |language=ar| volume=1-7|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalagani01alib/ }}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Kitāb al-Aghāni | year=1900 |language=ar| volume=8-14|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalagani08alib/}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Kitāb al-Aghāni | year=1900|language=ar|volume=15-21|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalagani15alib/}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Kitāb al-Aghāni | year=1900 |language=ar| volume=22|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalagani22alib/}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Kitāb al-Aghāni | publisher=[[Brill publishers|Brill]] | place=[[Leiden]] | year=1868 | volume=21}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣbahānī | first=Abū al-Faraj ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn | title=Tables alphabétiques (Kitāb al-Aghāni) | publisher=Brill | place=Leiden | year=1900}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣfahīnī|first=Abū al-Faraj|title=Kitāb al-Aghānī; 21 parts & Index in 9 vols., equiv. to Cairo ed., 1322/1905–5|publisher=Dār al-Fikr}}
* {{cite book| last=al-Iṣfahīnī|first=Abū al-Faraj|title=Kitāb al-Aghānī| publisher=Dar Sader Publishers|place=[[Beirut]]|volume=25|year=2004}}

==See also==
{{Commons category|Kitab al-Aghani}}
{{Arab culture}}
*[[Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani]]
*[[Kitab al-Hamasah|Hamasah]]
*[[Imru' al-Qais]]
*[[Maqama]]
*[[Mu'allaqat]]
*[[Mufaddaliyat]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Music of the medieval Islamic world]]
[[Category:10th-century Arabic-language books]]
[[Category:10th-century encyclopedias]]
[[Category:Arabic non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Encyclopedias in Arabic]]
[[Category:Arabic anthologies]]
[[Category:Biographical dictionaries]]
[[Category:Encyclopedias of music]]
[[Category:Medieval Arabic literature]]
[[Category:Medieval Arabic poems]]
[[Category:Medieval music manuscript sources]]

{{Islamic manuscripts}}
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{{arabic-lang-stub}}