Rhythmic Patterns in a Treatise on Music Entitled Kulliyat-i Yusufi

Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation

بابک  khazraei ¹ (ندارد)

Received: 2010-01-02 Accepted : 2010-02-24 Published : 2010-02-20

Keywords: Iranian music, Kulliyat Yusufi, rhythmic patterns, Uṣul, Dawr, meter, &#x03, iya’uddin Yusuf,

Abstract :

According to the scribe of its unique manuscript, the treatise entitledKulliyat-i Yusufi, attributed to iya’uddin Yusuf, is written duringFatḥ‘ali Shah’s reign (1212-1250 A.H.). Despite its unoriginality,since very few numbers of Musical works are extant, this short treatisewhich indicates the continuity of writing works on music underQajarids, is very important. The fact that there is a reference to thenames of twelve musical model systems (dastgahs) at the end of theaforementioned treatise, shows an important turning point in thehistorical course of this concept. Like most of Safavid works onmusic, this treatise uses the word Uṣul for the concept of rhythmicpatterns in Music. The last chapter of this work on Uṣul has beendivided to two parts. The first part, under the influence of MirṢadruddin Qazvini (d. 1008 A.H.)’s work on music, commences withthe definition of the terms “Uṣul” and “Naqra”, and describes 5 oldand 17 recent Dawrs, and finally different rhythmic genres. Secondchapter, influenced probably by a treatise entitled Bahjat al-Rawḥ(written probably in the eleventh century) describes 24 rhythmicdawrs.