Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/45

 22.—Chinese and Siamese Ranats.

13. The Mohammedans.—The music associated with Arabic culture and with Mohammedanism is more widely spread than any other of its class. Yet it is a highly composite type for this very reason. It is doubtful whether there is any real Arabian music, that is, music peculiar to Arabia itself. But in connection with the stupendous extension of Mohammedanism (from the 8th century) along the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, as well as into southern Asia and central Africa, music has often been prominent. Hence types of music called Arabic appear among the Saracens and Moors of the Middle Ages, in modern Egypt and Turkey, and elsewhere. These doubtless include features from Persian sources, from ancient Greek usages, and from all kinds of local sources. The historical puzzle thus presented is insoluble. Yet some general remarks may be hazarded.

Mohammedanism as a religion makes little use of music, though apparently stimulating it as a popular art. There is a large literature about music written in Arabic and by Mohammedan scholars, but it all belongs to the mediæval period and reflects ideas from sources not at all Arabian. This literature is particularly valuable for the light it gives upon the growth of musical theory; it is also notable for acute discussions of the psychical effects of music (see sec. 36).