The Science of Music: Knowledge Production in Medieval Baghdad and Beyond (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) - Hardcover

Book 57 of 57: Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization

Ansari, Mohammad Sadegh

 
9781009502542: The Science of Music: Knowledge Production in Medieval Baghdad and Beyond (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1009502549 ISBN 13: 9781009502542
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

How did the medieval Islamic intellectual tradition conceptualize, produce, and disseminate scientific knowledge? What can we learn about medieval Islamic civilizations from the way they examined and studied the universe? In answering these fundamental questions, Mohammad Sadegh Ansari provides a unique perspective for the study of both musicology and intellectual history. Widely considered to be an art today, music in the medieval Islamic world was categorized as one of the four branches of the mathematical sciences, alongside arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy; indeed, some philosophers and scholars of music went as far as linking music with medicine and astrology as part of an interconnected web of cosmological knowledge. This innovative book raises fascinating questions about how designating music a 'science' rather than an 'art' impacts our understanding of truth and reconstructs a richly holistic medieval system of knowledge in the process.

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About the Author

Mohammad Sadegh Ansari is Assistant Professor of History of the Pre-Modern Islamic World at SUNY Geneseo. He has previously contributed articles to journals including the Journal of Abbasid Studies as well as Philological Encounters.

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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
2025
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1009502549
ISBN 13 
9781009502542
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
246