The Umayyad Dynasty, which had been overthrown in Damascus in 750 A.D., was re-established in the Iberian Peninsula by Abd al-Rahman I.  Under this culture-oriented dynasty, poetry, music and singing reached dazzling heights.   Abd al-Rahman I brought from the Arab east Afza, an accomplished instrumentalist and singer, to set the vogue for his court. 

            Under the rulers Abd al-Rahman and al-Hakam I the court musicians al-Abbas ibn al-Nasa'i, Alun and Zarqun; Qalam, a Biscayan songstress who was a scholar, an excellent scribe, a historian of poetry and versed in literature; Fal, an excellent poetess; and the two singing girls  Muabi and Muta, set the trend for music and song in Arab Spain. They established music schools which could be compared to the best in the cities of the Arab east.  These musicians, poets and singers were the pathfinders of their era.  However, the best was yet to come.

            Ziry~b, one of the greatest teachers of musicians and singers of all times, arrived in Andalusia in 82l A.D. from the court of Baghdad.  He was a marvellous entertainer and enchanted the court of Cordova for years with his wit, music and song.  He was steeped in the knowledge of refined music and established a conservatory of music in Cordova with his daughter as its head - the first in Europe.  His method of teaching his pupils how to sing, even today, still has its students. 

            To him is credited the addition of the fifth string to the ud (lute) and the invention of plectrums made from eagles' talons which replaced the wooden ones in use until his time.  Under his influence, the traditions of Medina and the classical music school of Muili in Baghdad whose pupil he had been, took root in Spain and flourished.

            The Arab music brought to Spain by Ziry~b had borrowed much from the music and song of the neighbouring countries and then contributing to the creation of the distinctive melodies of the Arab east.  In Moorish Spain it was later modified by Greek music and song giving birth to the Arab/­Andalusian type melodies.  In the later centuries, the Arabs of the Middle East held on to their own traditional music and song while in North Africa and Spain the Arab/Andalusian melodies took roots.

            In Cordova's golden years, from the ninth to the twelfth century when this capital of Arab Spain rivalled Baghdad as the richest and most powerful city in the world, all the sciences, including music, were pursued.  Al-Farabi, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Bajjah (Avempace), Ibn al-Arabi and Ibn Sabin, in their writings and teachings, had a part in the development of Andalusian music and song, hence, aiding in the formation of the golden years of music.

            Al-Farabi defined rhythms, Ibn Rushd wrote Kitab al-Musiqi  al-Kabir, which was one of the greatest books on music ever published and Ibn Bajjah wrote a book which is lost but is said to have rivalled Ibn Rushd's.  Ibn al-Arabi  wrote about and taught aspects of music which dealt with mysticism and Ibn Sabin wrote Kitab al-Adwar al-Mansub (book of Related Musical Modes).  In those centuries music was developed into a fine art.  It is said that when al-Mahdi, one of the last caliphs in Cordova, entertained, the sound of a hundred lutes and a hundred flutes would fill the air.

            To the music schools of Arab Andalusia in these golden years, students came from other European countries to study, then returned to their lands, influenced by the music of the Arabs - the finest in the world at that time. 

            In these golden years and long thereafter, Arab-Andalusian music and poetry  belonged not only to the wealthy but also  to the workers and peasants.  A 13th century Arab author, Zakariya  al-Qazwini, describing a village he visited in Muslim Spain, wrote that almost every inhabitant was interested in literature and music and many peasants were capable of improvising poetry and song.

            Even though music flourished under the Umayyads in Andalusia and most of the dynasty's rulers were patrons of the arts, many religious leaders and governing officials were against this genre of entertainment and tried to enact laws against music and singing.  Usually they were not successful.  After the Umayyad Dynasty collapsed, music and singing flour­ished to reach a pinnacle under the awa'if, petty kings who had been nobles and generals under the Umayyads, then seized power, after the central authority broke down.

            The kings of Granada, Valencia, Saragossa, Toledo, Malaga, Seville and others vied with each other as patrons of learning.  Toledo boasted of its famous musicians.  Malaga overflowed in its love of music.  In The Heritage of Spain, Nicholson B. Adams cites an interesting story relating to the music-­loving city of Malaga. He writes:

"In the 11th century, when visiting Malaga, Amad ibn Muammad al-Yamani became sick.  Two of his friends took good care of him but at night when he tried to rest the loud noises of musical instruments and vulgar singing, from the neighbouring homes, kept him awake and increased his misery.  This enraged him but one night his feeling for the music and singing, coming from the surrounding buildings, changed.”

             Describing this experience, he wrote:

            'The people are absolutely dominated by their passion for music. One night I awoke after dozing a little, and noticed that the tumult of odious voices and turbulent tunes had calmed down, leaving only a breath of sound, tranquil and lovely.  I felt that my soul understood this music and would find repose in it, with none of the repugnance I had felt             for the other.  It was purely instrumental, without the human voice.  Then it began increasing slowly in volume.  I was drawn to it and disposed to listen, even when it reached the fullest possible strength.  I found myself forgetting my misery in the emotional enjoyment, which almost caused me to imagine that the walls and floor were   floating around me.  And all this time there had been no sound of a human voice.  I said to myself: `For instrumental music, nothing could be more perfect.  What kind of a voice will the musician have? How will it end?'  Scarcely was the question asked before there came the sound of a woman's voice, clear and beautiful.  I could not contain myself and got up, leaving my two companions sleeping.  I opened the door of my room and followed the sound until I reached the part of the house whence I could overlook the neighbours. I saw a large garden with about twenty people in the centre, seated in a row, with sweets, fruits and drinks before them.  The girl who was singing sat apart from the others, and held her listeners spellbound.  She sang and sang, and I, hidden above, could watch without being seen. As she sang a verse, I learned it, until I knew quite a number.  Finally I withdrew to my room, thanking God, as though I had come out of a great trouble and were no longer ill or suffering'."

            The music and song described by al-Yamani was not unique to Malaga.  In that age of awa'if kings, musicians and singers were honoured in every city state as never before in history. According to travellers from other Arab lands, Muslim Spain, in that enlightened era, was a land filled with poets and musicians.  Music, dance and song were not only encouraged in the homes but also on the streets.  Today, the parades and street celebrations in the cities of modern Andalusia are only a continuation of the traditions set by the Moors many centuries ago.

            Each of Arab Spain's city states became noted for excelling in one or the other of the arts, but Seville outshone them all.  Under the Abbadids it became the resort of poets and musicians. Al-Mutamid, the greatest of the  Abbadids, made his court hospitable to poets and literary men and women.  He was also an accomplished singer who accompanied himself on the ud and composed poetry, especially to his queen, Itimad, with whom he was infatuated all of his life. 

            Like the king, so his subjects.  Seville rang with song and music.  The city became the centre for manufacturing musical instruments.  From this city many of the Arab musical  instruments were introduced to the remainder of western Europe.  Arab merchants from Seville were to be found in that part of continent, selling their well-made instruments, many of which can still be seen in historic Spanish paintings.  In the medieval period, and even today, many of these musical instruments can be found under names derived from the original Arabic:                        

Spanish Name                        Arabic Origin                         English Meaning

albogón                                    al-buq                                      brass flute resembling a bagpipe

albogue                                    al-buq                                      pastoral recorder

adufe                                        al-duff                                      Moorish type tambourine

ajabeba or axabeba                  al-shabbabah                            transverse flute

añafil                                        al-nafir                                      Moorish trumpet

atabal                                       al-tabal                                     kettledrum

atambalal                                  tanbal                                       drum

atambor or atamor                    al-tunbur                                   drum

canón                                       qanun                                       an obsolete stringed instrument

carrizo                                      karrij                                        an antiquated music instrument

itara                                         qitarah                                      zither

gaita                                         ghaya                                       Spanish bagpipe

guzla                                         ghazal                                      one string rebec

nácara                                      naqqarah                                  cavalry drum

laúd                                          al-ud                                        lute

nakib                                        naqib                                       flute

panderete                                 bandayr                                   small tambourine

quitarra                                    qitarah                                     guitar

rabel                                        rabab                                       rebec

rota                                          rutah                                        rote - a medieval violin

sonajas de azófar                     sunuj al-sufr                              metal clappers

tambor                                    tanbur                                       drum

tamborete                                tanbur                                      small drum

            With this rich background of music in Arab Spain, it is not strange that innumerable types of music, song and dance developed.  The zajal and muwashshaat type of verse and song were the most famous.  Muqaddam ibn Qabri, born in Cabra near Cordova, was the father of this type of verse and song.  His songs and music were widely sung and appreciated by both the Muslims and Christians in all parts of the Iberian Peninsula.  He became famous as his type of verse spread throughout the Arabic-speaking world of his time.  The centuries have not eroded his fame but rather solidified his greatness.  Today his poetry is still sung by famous singers across the whole of the modern Arab world.

            The  muwashshaat were written and sung in classical Arabic but the last verse always ended with two or four lines written in the romance or 'aljamiado' language of the Christians and summarised the entire meaning of the poem.  This last verse was known as a kharja and from it was derived the whole inspiration of the poem.

            The zajal was the colloquial form of the  muwashshaat, written and sung in vulgar Arabic.  It was popular among the masses in both Muslim and Christian Spain and later spread throughout the Muslim world with remarkable rapidity.  The well-known 12th century poet from Cordova, Ibn Guzman, used to boast that his zajal was sung as far away as the eastern Arab world.  This type of verse did not disappear in the subsequent centuries. Today, in Egypt and Lebanon, zajal continues to be a popular folk art.  However, few can who compose and sing this type of poetry in both these countries know that its pattern was established in Moorish Spain many centuries ago.

            It is believed that the zajal gave rise to the villancico, a type of Spanish Christmas carol and from the zajal and  muwashshaat the Spanish cantigas developed.  In the cantigas de Santa María compiled by Alfonso the Wise, the musical form of the zajal is clearly evident.  It is said that the majority of Alfonso's cantigas were direct translations of Arab zajal verses.  In later centuries these cantigas were to have a great impact on all European music.

            After the Muslim defeat in Spain, their music was not lost.  Játiva, a city in eastern Spain, even after the Christian occupation in the 13th and 14th centuries, continued to be famous for its musicians and singers.  From this city, the kings of Castile and Aragon would engage Arab musicians and singers to entertain their courts with the songs of  muwashshaat and zajal, accompanied by musicians playing the ajabeba, canón, rabel and añafil. 

            In that age even the churchmen were delighted with Moorish song and dance.  In Valladolid, a city carrying an Arab name, balad al-Walid, the council of the city, fearing their church leaders had become enamoured with Arabic entertainment, forbade any further hiring of Moorish musicians to enliven Christian vigils or to entertain at Christian feasts.  Well might the church leaders have feared Arab music and song for even in the Christian religion the Arab influence was to leave its mark.

            The romerias, celebrations held near Christian shrines and still to be seen in modern Spain, were originally visits to the shrines of Muslim holy men which were passed from the Moorish to the Christian communities.  In the spring months, when the cities of Andalusia are filled with colourful religious parades, the sad and wavering laments of the saeta punctuates these processions.  Although now sung in Spanish, there is no doubt that its origins go back to the Arabic songs of the Moors. 

            One could argue that these influences are only on the periphery of Christian worship, but there are other influences which are felt in the church itself.  Francesco Salvador-Daniel in his book, The Music and Musical Instruments of the Arabs, cites Naumann who writes in his,  History of Music: "We cannot fail...to be struck with the remarkable similarity which the melodies of the Koran bear to the responses and chants of the Catholic liturgy."

            The poetry and music of the zajal and  muwashshaat also gave rise to the troubadours, from the Arabic tariba - to sing.  From the very beginning, these entertainers, not only sung Arabic poetry in its authentic and sentimental state but also, in its method and construction.  Later Arabic was abandoned for the languages of southern Europe but the Arabic format remained.

            From the troubadours and their Arabic songs, the serenading of Spanish lovers was born. In Moorish Spain lovers would serenade with lutes the objects of their love.  Through the years, only the language and instrument have changed.  Today, in all Spanish speaking countries, a lover with his guitar can be heard in every city trying to woo the one he desires in the same fashion as the Moorish lover of old.

            Closely associated with the haunting music of the Arabs are the fiery, dances of Spain, the most well-known being the flamenco.  Although not supported by etymologies in most dictionaries, D.E. Pohren in The Art of Flamenco, indicates that, perhaps, flamenco is a mispronunciation of the Arabic, felag and mengu (fallah Manji - fugitive peasant) and that likely this Arabic term was applied to the persecuted people who fled to the mountains.  Through usage in Spanish, felagmengu was transformed into flamenco.  Nina Epton in her book, Andalusia, relates that flamenco comes from Arabic felleh mengu, a peasant song sung by the Moors of Andalusia.          

            Besides its name, the flamenco dance itself, accompanied by the penetrating Moorish tunes of the cante jondo and with its rhythms separated by slight pauses, is of Arab origin.  One can easily hear and see the similarities if one listens to the mawwals of the Arab east, or as some scholars have indicated, to the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, and if one observes the Berber dances of the Atlas mountains in Morocco.

            The canas, jaleo, malaagueña, polos, and tiranas of the flamenco; the zarabanda danced in Spain during the 16th century; the zorongo dance with its Andalusian music; the jota from the Arabic khaa (to step); the sequidillas; the fandango; the folias; the sevillanas; and the bulerias, all have been influenced to some extent by the music, song and dance of the Moors.  Anyone who attends a wedding or spends an evening in any village of modern Andalusia will see with his own eyes dances which owe much to the Arab ancestors of these village people.

            In all the centuries the Arabs were in Spain they were noted for their joyful evening festivities that resounded with music, song and dance.  From these noise-filled evenings of merriment, the Spanish language was enriched by many words.  The peasants of Andalusia cheering the dancers of the flamenco or crying out in joy, often use words from their Arab past. The following few examples will give an idea of some of these words:

Spanish Word                           Arabic Origin                    English Meaning

albórbola                                   al-walwalah                          joyful shouts

alboroto                                    al-buruz                                tumult or uproar

algarabía                                   al- Arabiyah                          clamour or jabbering

algazara                                    al-ghazarah                            din or clamour

alarido                                      al-gharid                                howl or shout

aborozar, aborozo                    al-buruz                                 joy or gaiety

jaleo                                         hallala                                    cheering or noisy time

leila                                          lailah                                      party or fiesta

olé                                          wa-Allah                                 bravo (oh God)

rifirrafe                                   rafrafah                                    squabble or fight

zalagarda                               zaghradah                                 racket or noisy

zambra                                  samar                                       din or uproar

zaragata                                zaghradah                                 brawl or quarrel

             The 900 years the Arabs spent in Spain, first as conquerors then as the conquered have left their mark.  When the Spaniards occupied Granada, the last city held by the Moors, Arab music and singing did not die but actually flourished.  The conquered Muslims, until the first part of the 16th century, were allowed to have their music-filled evenings while their entertainers were in demand in the courts of the king and nobles of the land. 

            The talents of the well-trained Moorish musicians and singers were known throughout all of southern Europe.  However, when the Spanish Inquisition banned everything Arab and Muslim, including music and song, Moorish entertainment faded from the land.  But the haunting melodies of Arab music were not lost.  They evolved into the modern Spanish folk music of our day.

            Stanwood Cobb in his book, Islamic Contributions to Civilization, discussing the effect of Arab cultural influences on Spanish music, writes:

"The feeling, tempo and the lilt of Spanish music is more akin to Arabic than to European music, and the guitar, the most 'Spanish' of all instruments, was an Arab invention.  As the Christian population accepted the lyric models of the Muslims, Arab songs grew more popular throughout the peninsula.  Muslim musicians flourished at the courts of the kings of Castile and Aragon.  Long after the fall of Granada, Moorish dancers and singers    continued to entertain the natives of Spain and Portugal.  The recent researches of Ribera tend to show that the popular music of Spain, in fact, of all southwestern Europe, in and after the 13th century, like the lyric and historical romance of that region, is to be traced to Andalusian and thence through Arabic, to Persian, Byzantine and Greek sources."

            Before and after the Reconquest, Arab musicians, singers and dancers were in demand to perform concerts and other forms of entertainment in the palaces of the wealthy.  Sharif Yusuf writing in the Iraqi magazine, Afaq Arabiyah, reinforces Stanwood Cobb's theory of Spanish music and song.  He writes:

            "The songs and dances of the Arabs were never forgotten by the Spaniards but remained united to their souls even, many centuries, after they had disappeared from Spain.    Likewise, the majority of Spanish musical love plays have their roots in the Arab era of Spain..."

            He continues:

 King Alfonso X was one of the greatest advocates of Islamic learning in Spain. To him goes the credit for recording an excellent collection of poetic-songs whose music is of Arab-Andalusian origin.  During his reign, the works of al-Khwarizmi, which   had a special section on music, were translated into the languages of Europe.  Also the        works of: al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Bajjah, all had parts of their writings       relating to music and this helped in the diffusion of Arabic melodies to the countries of Europe...When there appeared in Europe a new musical system based on notes and definite time values, it was attributed to a specific personality whose identity was virtually unknown.  This man, Franco of Cologne, lived in the 12th century.  His theory of musical time values was known as the Franconian musical time system.  His musical value system does not differ essentially from that of modern musical systems.  However, it was closer to the Arabic measured music, which constituted a type of music in itself, and was known as iga' or rhythmical music..."

            Sharif Yusuf is only one of the many authors who have written about the Arab contribution in the field of measured music.  Also supporting the impressive contribution of measured music made by the Arabs, in the Legacy of Islam it is indicated that in mensural notation, particular kinds of notes bearing such names as elmuarifa and elmuahym are of Arabic origin.  Rodney Gallops writing in A Book of the Basgues, as cited by S.M. Imamuddin in Some Aspects of the Socio-Economic and Cultural History of Muslim Spain, writes:

            "The most important legacy in the field of music left to Europe by the Arabs is mensural music. Before the close of the 12th century measured song was unknown to the Europeans; but under the name iqaat or rhythm, it had been known to the Arabs even in       the 7th century.  The medieval 'hocket' is a combination of notes and pauses and is             derived from the Arabic iqaat."

            As attested to by these authors, even though the Arab contribution to Europe of measured music was extremely important there were other contributions in related fields.  In their last years in Granada, the Moors were the first people in Europe to use the letters of the alphabet to denote finger position on the guitar.  This method was taken over by the conquering Spaniards then passed on to the remainder of Europe.  Further, the Arabs introduced into Europe frets, from the Arabic fard (notch), bars on the finger-boards of stringed instruments to regulate the fingering.  According to Professor H.G. Farmer in the Legacy of Islam:

            "The Arabs brought to Europe their lutes, pandores, and guitars, with the place of the notes fixed on the finger-board by means of frets."

            The lutes, pandores and guitars with their accompanying songs were in a few centuries considered to be as Spanish as the soil of Spain itself.  According to Ann Livermore in A Short History of Spanish Music, the peasants as they gather the olives for which Spain is renowned, sing songs which still carry Arab rhythms and the esquileos, shearing songs, are even today sung in the Arabic scale.  Further, it is believed that the classical nauba, a musical performance with many instruments, which was common in Arab Spain, is the forerunner of the European military bands and symphonies.  Indeed, the Arab influence in the field of classical music has been barely researched.

            There is no doubt that the music of the West is saturated with the rhythms of Arab melodies and the future will reveal much that which has been surreptitiously obscured over time.  The West which for centuries fought the Crusades, first physically then later in history through their literature and historical works, for hundreds of years denied the Arab contributions to western civilization. 

            This is quite evident in the field of music.  Western scholars have for many centuries denied that the Arabs contributed greatly to the melodies and dances of Europe.  But research by honest scholars, in the last century, has established that not only measured music but the popular Spanish music and, in fact, the folk music of all south­western Europe, was taken from Arab-Andalusian sources.

            The contributions made by the Arabs to Spanish music, song and dance permeates the life of modern Spain.  In his book, Moorish Spain,  Enrique Sordo discussing life in today's Spain, writes:

            "....an inner room in an Andalusian tavern; glasses of golden wine, a guitar; a voice....     The ole of the cante hondo is still the wa-Allah 'oh God' with which the Arabs cheered       every poetic recitation."                                                                                    

                                                                                                Habeeb Salloum

REFERENCES

Adams,  Nicholson B.,  The Heritage of Spain, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1943.

Al-Faruqi, L.I., "muwashsha : A Vocal Form in Islamic Culture" Ethnomusicology, Vol. X1X, Number 1, Jan. 1975, The Society for Ethnomusicology, Inc., Ann Arbor, pp 1 to 29.

Burckhardt, T.', Moorish Culture in Spain, Translated by A. Jaffa, George Allen,& Unwin Ltd., London, 1972.

Chejne, A.G., Muslim Spain - Its History and Culture, The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1974.

Cobb, Stanwood, Islamic Contributions to Civilization, Avalon Press, Washington, 1963.

Daniel, F. S., The Music and Musical Instruments of the Arab, cites Naumann,  History of Music, Longwood Press, Portland, Maine, 1976.

Gallop, R., A Book of the Basques, B. Blom, New York, 1971.

Hole, E.C., Andalus: Spain Under the Muslims, Robert Hale Ltd., London, 1958.

Imamuddin, S. M., Muslim Spain, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1981.

Imamuddin, S.M.,  Some Aspects of the Socio-Economic and Cultural History of Muslim Spain, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1965.

Lewis, B., Islam and the Arab World,  Faith,  People,. Culture, McClelland and Stewart Ltd., Toronto, 1976.

Livermore, A., A Short History of Spanish Music, Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London, 1972.

Lowe, A., The South of Spain, Collins, London, 1973.

Nykl, A.R., Hispano-Arabic Poetry and Its Relations With the Old Provençal Troubadours, J.H. Furst Co., Baltimore, 1970

Al-Makkari, Ahmed Ibn Mohammed, The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,  Johnson Reprint Co., London & New York, 1964.

O'Callaghan, J .F., A History of Medieval Spain, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1975.

Payne, S.G., A History of Spain and Portugal, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1973.                                                            

Pohren, D.E., The Art of Flamenco, Editorial Jerez Industrial, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 1962.

Read, J.,  The Moors in Spain and Portugal, Faber and Faber, London, 1974

Russell, P .E., Spain - A Companion to Spanish Studies, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1973.

Seman, K .1.,  Islam and the Medieval West, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1980.

Sordo, Enrique, Moorish Spain, Elek, London, 1963.

Wasserstein, D., The Rise and Fall of Party Kings, Politics and Society in Islamic Spain,           Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1985.

Watt, W.M., A History of Islamic Spain, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1965.

Arnold, T. and Guillaume, A.,  Legacy of Islam, Oxford University Press, London, 1931.

Shar§f Yusãf , the magazine, }f~q Arab§yah, Ramzi Publications, April 1979, pp. 38-43, Bagdhad, Iraq.

            Dictionaries

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 13&l7, Edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillian Publishers Ltd., London, l980.

The New Oxford History of Music, Ancient and Oriental Music, Vol. 1, Edited by Egon Wellesz, Oxford University Press, London, 1957.