ABSTRACT

The previous three chapters have discussed individual articles as examples of compilation and indicated common elements running through the Aghānī. The last important feature requiring attention is the framework of songs enveloping the whole work. Their importance is obscured in modern printed editions of the Aghānī, where the divisions in the text which stand out most clearly are those between articles, with the title of each article occupying a position similar to that of a chapter heading. But, as has already been pointed out, these articles on poets, musicians or both are preceded by a song they composed, and it is this song which is the true introduction to the article or pair of articles. These songs are usually appended to the preceding article by the printers, so that the relationship between them and the subsequent material is concealed. 1 The greatest obscurity arises when an introductory song comes at the end of one volume, while the articles it introduces are in the next one; for instance, the song from the Top Hundred with lyrics by Qays ibn al-Khaṭīm and a setting by Ṭuways comes at the end of Aghānī vol. II, while the articles on them are the first ones in vol. III. This is the rule in the Dār al-kutub edition of the Aghānī; only vol. XV opens with an introductory song, composed by Ja‘far ibn al-Zubayr, and then continues with the article on him. 2