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Music
in the house of a notable (detail),
source: UNESCO: Turkey-ancient
miniatures
"The transfer of terms for lyre and lute
appears more subtly in the myth of the invention of the ud which
has been handed down in two variants from the 9th and 10th centuries, the
first being Iraqi (Robson, 1938) and the second Iranian (Mas'udi, 1874).
They say that the ud was invented by Lamak [sixth grandson of
Adam], a direct descendant of Cain; on the death of Lamak's son, he hung
his remains in a tree, and the desiccated skeleton suggested the form of
the ud.
The myth attributes the invention of the
mi'zaf (lyre) to Lamak's daughter." (Stanley Sadie: The New
Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, vol. 3, p. 688) Other sources
suggest other interpretations such as; God gave to the sons of Cain the
faculty of making musical instruments, Lamak invented the lute, ud,
Tubal the drum daff or tabl, Dilal (the daughter of Noah)
the harp, mi'zaf, and Lot's people the pandore, tunbur.
(Simon Jargy: program notes from Munir Bashir's L'art du ud
CD)
"The ud first appears in Mesopotamia
during the Kassite period (1600-1150 B.C.) with a small oval body."
(Harold G. Hagopian: program notes from Udi Hrant Kenkulian CD)
"It was the favorite
instrument of the Sumerians and the Assyro-Babylonians."
(Simon Jargy: program notes
from Munir Bashir's L'art du ud CD) The ud, in Pharaonic
Egypt was
known as nefer, also appears in the "tomb of Sen-Mut, a
tutor of Princess Neferura, who exercised great influence over the arts
during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut from 1501 to 1479 B.C." (program
notes from H. Aram Gulezyan's The Oud CD) "A larger variety,
similar to the instrument's present day dimension, appeared in a relief at
Alaca Hoyuk in Anatolia dating from the Hitite New Kingdom (1460-1190
B.C.)." (Harold G.
Hagopian: program notes from Udi Hrant Kenkulian
CD)
"In the 9th century, Mawardi, the jurist of
Baghdad, extolled its use in treating illness, a principle allowed and
defended in Arab Spain by the 11th century theologian Ibn Hazm. The
symbolism lived on until the 19th century: 'the ud invigorates the
body. It places the temperament in equilibrium. It is a remedy ... It
calms and revives hearts' (Muhammad Shihab al-Din: Safinat
al-mulk, p. 466) ... In any case it was predominantly in the
secular usage that the ud made its mark, as the only kind of
accompaniment to a form of responsorial song known as sawt,
according to written tradition (the Kitab al-Aghani of al-Isfahani)
and oral tradition (Tunisia and the Arabian
Gulf).
The
emergence of the ud on the stage of history is an equally complex
matter. Two authors of the end of the 14th century (Abu al-Fida, and Abu
al-Walid ibn Shihnah) place it in the reign of the Sassanid King Shaput I
(241-72). Ibn Shihnah added that the development of the ud was
linked to the spread of Manicheism, and its invention to Manes himself, a
plausible theory because the disciples of Manes encouraged musical
accompaniments to their religious offices." (Stanley Sadie: The New
Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, vol. 3, p. 688) Reaching
China, an oud like Chinese instrument, pipa featured in
instrumental ensembles of the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 B.C.). Later in
Japan, it evolved into an instrument called biwa. It also reached
Russia evolving into balalaika, and also to Indonesia where it
evolved into gambus. "But the movement's centre was in southern
Iraq, whence the ud was to spread towards the Arab peninsula in the
7th century. However, the texts mentioning the introduction to Mecca of
the short-necked lute as the ud were all written in the 9th and
10th centuries." (Stanley Sadie: The New Grove Dictionary of Musical
Instruments, vol. 3, p. 688) "The founder of the ud school of
Baghdad [in the 9th century], Ibrahim al-Mawsilli and, above all, his son
Ishaq al-Mawsilli were among the most esteemed and honored people in the
[Abbasid Empire] ... The influence of the grand master, Ishaq, of Baghdad
was such that one of his most brilliant disciples, Ziryab [jealousy and
intrigue on the part of his teacher, Ishaq drove Ziryab to seek refuge in
Andalusia], transported the art of the ud to the banks of the
Guadalquivir in Moorish Spain, at the far extremity of the Empire." (Simon
Jargy: program notes from Munir Bashir's L'art du ud CD) "When
[Ziryab] arrived in [Moorish] Spain, the cities of Cordoba, Seville and
Granada were centers of great cultural, artistic, and religious activity.
These centers, under the inspiration and influence of the Sufis, were to
have a tremendous impact on medieval Europe. Once settled at the court in
Cordoba, Ziryab set about introducing the concepts of a new music, drawn
from Greek, Persian and Arab elements, that was to influence deeply the
foundation of European classical music." (Kavichandran Alexander: program
notes from Hamza El Din's Eclipse CD) Then the ud was
brought to Venice through coastal trade.
Eventually "the ud was introduced into western Europe
by the Knights Templar returning from the Holy Land and by the Troubadours
from Provence. Having reached the Troubadour from Muslim Spain, this
instrument was to play a crucial role in the establishment of the Romantic
Courts. The poetry, music, and ideals that ensued from this great endeavor
became the infrastructure upon which the Renaissance was built. Brought
into the British Isles, the ud was transformed in the Elizabethan
period into the western European lute." (Kavichandran Alexander: program
notes from Hamza El Din's Eclipse CD)
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