A Significant Person in the History of Music Theory: Allame Qutb Al-Din Al-Shirāzi

Abstract

13th century appears as a period when the theory of music in Islamic civilization was considered as one of the Riyadi (ta'limi) sciences based on wisdom and experience, and it was restructured in a comparative way with the works written. Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1311), who was among the first music theorists of the period, dealt with the science of music with theories and calculations that some of which are still in use today and at the same time he was interested in the practical part of music. His work called Durrat al-taj, in which he includes the views of al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Urmawi and criticizes their dis-courses, is in an encyclopedic structure in Persian-Deri dialect, which also including the music section. al-Shirazi, who was educated by the important masters of his time like Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and also distinguished himself as a teacher and music theorist, is a historical figure who was growed by the Iranian geography and played an important role in laying the basies of Turkish-Arabic-Iranian music, and affected many scholars like Ma-raghi after him. It is aimed to bring the musical part of al-Shirazi's work named Durrat al- taj into the theory of music by using historical musicology, analysis, interpretation, sys-tematic musicology, comparative musicology, and source scanning methods. For this purpose, the work has been examined by making an examination on four different copies. With these studies, the theoretical and terminological innovations of the work and its historical value will be examined. At the same time, perception and meaning problems of the period will be put forward theoretically by considering the subjects in detail. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the work is not an Urmawi commentary, and besides, it has many original aspects. It has also been seen that it is a copyrighted work that includes all the basic subjects such as sound physics, sound theory, intervals, pitches, scales, and the genera that make up it, rhythm, in which computational methods are used extensively. The fact that he criticizes the views in some theoretical studies done before him, and the use of his own terminology and his detailed approach to the is-sues add value to the work. It has gained an important position in the music theory literature with its new intervals, scales and originality in the structures of these scales, addi-tions to the writing of notes, the use of nuance, oud training and prosody in the music section. The fact that he gave place to a singing technique that could only be identified in the recent period with its technical details in his own period has been seen as another contribution of the work to our day. For all these reasons, the subjects of the musical part of al-Shirazi's Durrat al-taj work and al-Shirazi's personality, which is compatible with his music will be examined in this paper.