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Music between Arabic and Greek Texts: A Study of the Science of Harmonics in Islamic Thought (9th-11th c. CE)

Project description

Islamic harmonic science and its Greek sources

From the 9th to the 11th centuries CE, harmonic science emerged as a distinct philosophical discipline within the Ulum Riyadiyyah (Quadrivium). The translation of Greek harmonic texts (4th BC to 4th CE) by Islamic intellectuals was pivotal to this development. With support from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MUSArGre project will conduct a comprehensive study of harmonics in the Islamic philosophical tradition. It will examine and translate six key Arabic texts, including works by al-Kindī, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, the Ikhwān al-Safāʾ (The Brethren of Purity), al-Fārābī, al-Khwārizmī, and Avicenna. These texts will be compared with Greek sources to establish a framework for Islamic harmonics. The project aims to capture the essential features of Islamic harmonic theory and explore the intellectual context in which it developed.

Objective

The project aims at giving a complete and complex study of the science of harmonics within the Islamic philosophical tradition. In centuries 9th-11th CE, harmonic science develops as one of the four mathematical sciences of the Ulum Riyadiyyah (Quadrivium), as a philosophical discipline largely independent of musical practice. The discovery and the translation of the Greek harmonic sources, thanks to the mediation of Byzantine erudition, are the driving force behind the emergence of harmonic science in Islamic thought. Through a philological approach, which involves a critical examination of the six main Arabic texts that represent this phenomenon, their translation, and a textual and content comparison with the Greek sources, an overall philosophical framework of Islamic harmonics will be provided. The six pivotal Islamic sources are al-Kind, Hunayn ibn Ishk, the Ikhwn al-af (The Brethren of Purity), al-Frb, al-Khwrizm and Avicenna. The project includes also the lemmatisation of the selected texts: through the concordance software AntConc, each text will be compared to the lemmas database, enabling linguistic analyses, and enriching the literary inquiry. The overall framework of Islamic harmonic theory aims at being broad in scope: it will encompass the distinctive features of the exposed theories, the ideological objectives, the utilization of Greek sources, and the intellectual context in which the phenomenon develops.

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution

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€ 226 420,56
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 PARIS
France

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Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
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Research Organisations
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