ProvenioArt Intelligence
Sign InExplore
abbasid caliphateabbasid caliphate

Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs), 1217–1218 CE

The Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, illustrated manuscript copy produced in Mosul c. 1217–1218 CE. One of the earliest and most significant surviving illustrated Arabic manuscripts, with frontispiece miniatures showing musicians, court scenes, and rulers. The 1217 Mosul copy (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, MS B 44 inf.) is the most celebrated surviving example.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor early Abbasid-era Arabic illuminated manuscript tradition with the Kitab al-Aghani — the most important surviving illustrated Arabic manuscript from before the Persian miniature tradition.

Notes

  • ·The Kitab al-Aghani was compiled by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 967 CE) over decades; it is an encyclopaedic anthology of Arabic song poetry with biographical and historical commentary, in 24 volumes.
  • ·The 1217–1218 Mosul copy is the earliest extensively illustrated copy. Its miniatures are painted in a distinctive style sometimes called the 'Mosul school': dark-skinned figures with large eyes, bold colours, and a spatial flatness that differs from contemporaneous Byzantine or Seljuk manuscript painting.
  • ·The frontispiece miniatures show court musicians, lute players (ud players), and singers in registers; additional miniatures illustrate individual poets and caliphs.
  • ·The Mosul school of painting (active c.1200–1260) also produced illustrated copies of Maqamat of al-Hariri (the Paris and Vienna copies) and the Dioscorides herbal (Vienna, 1229).
  • ·The Kitab al-Aghani manuscript tradition represents the apex of Arabic (as distinct from Persian) illustrated manuscript production, which largely ceased after the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258.