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The Connections between Minstrel Music and Chivalry
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Babak Khazraei *   |
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Abstract: (14525 Views) |
| It seems that there is no Fotovatnameh (Chivalry Epistle) for musicians. The lack of such books can be interpreted as the lack of one united guild for them. And yet, if there has been a guild for them, it is possible that the religious sanctity of music forbade its members to write a Fotovatnameh. But in some treatises on music, some parts or chapters are dedicated to “musical advices” or to the “conduct in this noble art” or “the manner in chamber music” which following Qaboosnameh we will generally name it as “minstrelsy ritual”. These topics can be classified in two categories: first, some suggestions and practices for improving technical abilities second, moral advices for the manners in chambers and gatherings, like secrecy, cheerfulness, modesty, honesty, and avoiding greed, vanity and jealousy, the sort of which can be found in other guilds’ Fotowatnamehs. The other topic in musical treatises, which resembles that of Fotowatnamehs, is the attribution of an authority or some techniques to the prophets or wise men and philosophers, accepted as such in Islamic cultures, like Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle. This is a typical feature in Fotowatnamehs and reminds one that the source of every guild can be traced back to a prophet or wise man. In this article we try to explore what has been said about music under the title of minstrelsy (and the like) in Qaboosnameh (5th cent) and in musical treatises of Kanz-ol-Tohaf (8th cent), Jame’-ol-Alhan (9th cent), Behjat-ol-Rooh (11th cent) and musical treatise of Amir Khan Gorji (12th cent) to finally compare them to moral advices in other Fotowatnamehs. |
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| Keywords: minstrel ritual, Fotowatnameh, moral advice, comparative study |
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Full-Text [PDF 217 kb]
(3163 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Special
Received: 2012/08/1 | Accepted: 2020/12/13
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