RT Article
T1 Learning and Patronizing the Science of Music among the Elite of Medieval Baghdad
JF Journal of Abbasid Studies
VO 6
IS 2
SP 123
OP 149
A1 Ansari, Mohammad Sadegh
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1698659288
AB Scholarly writings on music during the medieval period were often composed at the request of private patrons or were otherwise dedicated to members of the Baghdadi elite (e.g., caliphs and other rulers) who were not professional musicians. The existence of such treatises suggests that this Baghdadi elite had an interest in learning and/or patronizing the science of music. In this article, I examine the various functions which learning the science of music fulfilled for the elite of medieval Baghdad (third/ninth-seventh/thirteenth century), and which in turn prompted their interest in the patronage thereof. The two most important of these functions were to enhance the appreciation of performed music and to evince a status marker in a culture that celebrated mastery of the Greek-inspired sciences as a sign of one having socially arrived.
K1 Baghdad
K1 elite culture
K1 Music
K1 Patronage
K1 Science
DO 10.1163/22142371-12340048