In his minute description of the lute – the earliest which...

In his minute description of the lute – the earliest which we posses – “the four gold things” dominated all else. There are four strings, tunes in fourths, and four frets.

The strings from the lowest to the highest were four-ply, three-ply, two-ply and one-ply.[^18] His disciples, the Ikhwan al-Safa (fourth/tenth century), followed him in most things, but made the strings compounded of 64, 48, 36, and 27 strands respectively.[^19] They assigned to every melodic and rhythmic mode a specific influence (tathir) , a doctrine which held sway in Islamic lands up to the 14th/20th century. His most illustrious student was al-Sarakhsi (d.

288/899), but this five books on music have not survived.[^20] Thabit ibn Qurrah (d. 288/901) is credited with eight treatises on music, yet not a page has come down to us.[^21] Other theorists were Mansur ibn Talhah (d. c. 299/910), a follower of al-Kindi, ibn Tahir al-Khuza’i (d. 300/913), one of the most learned in the philosophy of music,[^22] ibn al-Munajjim (d. 300/912) whose “Treatise on Music” (Risalah fi al-Musiqi) still exists,[^23] Qusta ibn Luqa (d. c.

300/912),[^24] and Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 313/925) who penned a “Book of Summings-up of…