Dzhani-Zade T.M. Reflection of the Maqam Concept in the Islamic Civilization: Genesis of the Music Phenomenon

Abstract: The object of this research is the category of Maqam, which is ambiguously understood in the process of the description of "classical" music traditions of the Muslim East nowadays. To identify the genesis of this category the researcher has involved historical data about mode systematization in the medieval culture of the Islamic civilization (VII-XVII century). The researcher has also introduced the concept of the three stages in the development of music in the Islamic civilization, defined by the birth of the literary languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish) with the domination of Iranian culture in the XI-XIVth centuries. Features of musical creativity of Barbad, Ibrahim al-Mawsili, Safi ad-Din, Qutb ad-Din and others are considered; these musicians took part in the formation of the modes. The analysis of musical terms, which describe the medieval modes, their names, nomenclature, helps to understand the following: the term Maqam began to be used not in Arabic, but in Persian and Turkish treatises after the XIVth century, along with similar terms (shadd, angam, parde, dawr) designed for determining interval patterns – scales. However, the category of Maqam/Maqamat is not analogous to the category of "mode"/"folk modes", it expresses the essence of a new civilization, the disclosure of which contributed to the system of modes (12 shudud and 6 avazat) developed in the XIII century by Safi al-Din. This system was based on the idea of “ta’sir” ("ethos") – emotional impact of twelve modes (not single tones) on the person and the character of the nations. Anthropopathetically the character of this teaching connects music with astrology and therapy, and develops the concept of musical art that was enriched with esoteric experience with the help of the widespread term 'Maqam' (meaning 'place' or 'station'), which was introduced into the Sufi teaching, therapeutic and musical treatises. For musicians the Maqam concept has become rather the basic concept for determining the place of music in the culture of Muslims than the theoretical category to signify a mode. The main research methods used include historical and cultural analysis. These methods allow to define peculiarities of the Muslim culture as well as to develop an adequate understanding of Muslim musical art when analyzing historical data and facts about music and theoretical interpretation of authentic musical categories which refer to the development of the ideas about modes in general and Maqam in particuylar. For the first time in the academic literature Maqam is studied from the historical point of view and as a an object of musicological research. The researcher also describes the later genesis of that category in musical treatises and analyzes its theoretical concept in the writings created before the XVth century. These findings provide an opportunity to study the contemporary regional (national) musical events associated with the phenomenon of Maqam and to make the comparative studies in a more adequate way. 

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