SOAS Research Online

Abstract

There are two main aims. The first is to review and evaluate the descriptions of modal structures in the Kitab al-Sifa, while the second is to locate them in relation to the definitions given by both earlier and later theorists. The analysis of Ibn Sina's descriptions takes account of previous scholarship but, on the basis of a close reading of the text, in some cases reaches rather different conclusions, partly based on proposed emendations. (The resulting edition of this passage is presented as an appendix.) The findings are then considered in terms of their combinatorial possibilities, that is, as representing in some sense a potentially cohesive set rather than a random collection of disparate entities. Contextualization is concerned in the first instance with contemporary sources which are seen to suggest similar (but not identical) types of modal development. Attention is then turned to the second aim, examining first the ways in which Ibn Sina's account may be related to what can be deduced from al-Farabi - in particular from his discussion of instruments - and, beyond that, to the outline of the earlier modal system provided by Ibn al-Munaggim. Later developments are then discussed, with attention also being given to problems of regional differentiation, before a final review of the available evidence spanning the whole period from Ibn al-Munaggim to Safi-al-Din al-Urmawi. Ibn Sina's account can then be seen as representing a particular stage in the development from modal categories that are primarily classificatory towards a complex array of interlinked but individual modal entities endowed with specific melodic properties.