[Risālah fī khubr taʾlīf al-alḥān] [رسالة في خبر تأليف الألحان] Kindī, Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq كندي، يعقوب بن إسحق

Content

Unique copy of the earliest extant Arabic treatise on music, by Ya‘qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (يعقوب بن إسحق الكندي; d. ca 873), imperfect at the beginning. It is apparently a summary of an earlier and more extensive work by al-Kindī, no longer extant, entitled Great Book on the Composition of Music (الكتاب الأعظم في التأليف; see Shiloah, Amnon, The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings (c. 900-1900): Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Libraries of Europe and the U.S.A. (Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1979), pp. 256-57). A title added above the incipit of the text calls it ‘[Extract] from the book of Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī on Composition – three folios’ (من كتاب يعقوب بن إسحاق الكندي في التأليف سه ورق).

The copy was completed on 17 Rabīʿ II 1073/29 November 1662 from a manuscript written in Damascus and dated late Shawwāl 621/November 1224, which was itself copied from another manuscript described as defective and unreliable (see colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. , f. 168r, transcribed below).

Begins (f. 165r, lines 1-2)

وك إلى ا كله وثمن كله وقد بينا أن فضل الذي بالخمسة على الذي بالأربعة كل وثمن كل فإذن بعد و التي هي مطلق

المثلث من ا التي هي أول دساتين المثنى هي البعد الذي بالخمسة...

Ends (f. 168r, lines 12-13):

...وهذا فيما سألت كاف كفاك الله المهم من أمر

دنياك وأخريك والحمد لله رب العالمين كملت رسالة يعقوب بن إسحاق الكندي في خبر تأليف الألحان

Colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. (f. 168r, lines 14-16):

وفرغنا من تحريره ١٧ شهر ربيع الثاني سنة ١٠٧٣ وكان المنقول

عنه مكتوبًا في أواخر شوال سنة ٦٢١ بمدينة دمشق

من نسخة سقيمة غير معتمدة

Extent and format

Ff. 165r-168r

It is part of

A collection of fourteen treatises on music theory in Arabic and Persian

556 images

Ref: Or 2361

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript item

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 2361, ff 165r-168r

History of this record

Date(s)

17 Rabīʿ II 1073 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Related material

Finding aids

• Farmer, Henry George, The Sources of Arabian Music. An Annotated Bibliography of Arabic Manuscripts which Deal with the Theory, Practice, and History of Arabian Music , (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), No. 53, p. 9
• Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 823, VIII, p. 559
• Shiloah, Amnon, The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings (c. 900-1900): Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Libraries of Europe and the U.S.A . (Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1979), pp. 256-57

Select Bibliography

Editions:

• Shawqī, Yūsuf, Risālat al-kindi fī khubr sināʻat al-taʼlīf (al-Qāhirah: Maṭba‘at Dār al-Kutub, 1969)
• Yūsuf, Zakarīyā, 'Risālah fi khubr ṣināʻat al-taʼlīf', Muʼallafāt al-kindī al-musīqīyah , ed. Zakarīyā Yūsuf (Baghdad: Maṭba‘at shafīq, 1962), pp. 45–66

Translation and facsimile:

• Cowl, C., ‘The Risāla fī Ḫubr Tāʼlīf al-’Alhān of Ja’qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (790–874)’, The Consort , 23 (1966), pp. 129–66

Study and partial edition:

• Wright, Owen, 'Al-Kindi's Braid', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , 69 (2006), pp. 1-32

People & organisations

Kindī

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[Risālah fī khubr taʾlīf al-alḥān] [رسالة في خبر تأليف الألحان] Kindī, Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq كندي، يعقوب بن إسحق, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 2361, ff 165r-168r, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100131607039.0x00000a> [accessed 29 June 2026]

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