Music in the Court of Caliphs of First Period of Abbasi Dynasty*

Abstract:
The first period of Abbasi dynasty is one of the glorious periods of Islamic culture and civilization, which is known as the golden era of Islamic culture and civilization. Because in this era the power and riches of Abbasi dynasty increased so high that led the Islamic civilization grow in the various fields of science, literature and art especially music. While pretending as firm religious people, the Abbasi caliphs including  Safah (132-136 A.H.), Mansoor(136-156-A.H.), Mahdy (156-169 A.H.), Hadi ( 169-170A.H.), Haroon (170-193A.H.), Amin (193-198 A.H.), Ma'moon (198-218 A.H.), Mo'tasam (218-227A.H.)and Vasegh (227-232 A.H.) were such impressed and attracted by music that supported the singers and musicians to the highest degree and their courts were full of singers and musicians especially the female ones who were venerated and rewarded generously. Like the poets, the caliphs paid them monthly and arranged firm appointments with them and had some in charge of servicing them. The musicians’ situation was such great and they were fully respected that is still remembered as a proverb in Arabic culture. Even some caliphs including Vasegh, Ibrahim ibn Mahdy, Abdollah ibn Amin, Aesa ibn Haroon were acquainted with music and playing music instruments, this shows the great status of music and the importance of the art on those days. Being fully affected by dominating Iranian culture and Sasani kings, Abbasi Caliphs supported their musicians and singers financially and awarded them with various prizes and rewards. Among courtiers, Iranian aesthetician and art-lovers ministers were paying more attention to music and respecting it a lot. So, in the light of those supports, the art of music developed and reached its best level in which great creative singers and musicians like Ibrahim and Isaq Museli, Ibrahim Ibn mahdy, Mansur Zelzal, Zaryab, Ibn Jame, Makharegh, Olayyah came into appear and found the chance to present their talent to the people. Moreover, those great musicians and singers attempted in cultivating and expanding that time’s music and as a result the theoretical music was paid attention and some books were written on the subject. However, the history shows that in that sensitive society of Baghdad, music wasn't considered such valuable, for the musicians are the creators of an art which was considered abominable, offensive or even haram. As a result of this and some social contexts including forbidding qena (music), sometimes, the caliphs were forced to avoid dealing with music. Mostly, in Abbasi court, the art of music led to bad manners, vulgarity, intoxication and therefore being unawareness of important land affairs, which caused the religion scientists and jurists worry about using it in courts. Accordingly, under these conditions, it formed a kind of vagueness and irony for using the art in common sense. The present paper is studying how Abbasi Caliphs dealt with music and musicians of their early time and following a line of investigation about the status of music at that time. The method of researching in this paper is descriptive-analytic