100 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



the lady ordered 10,000 drachms (229Z. 3^. 4^.) to be 

 given to Jaaffar, and as much to Almouseli ; while 

 the caliph doubled the present to both. 



Abu Mohammed, another musician of Bagdad, 

 flourished in the reign of the Caliph Vathek, who 

 was so enchanted with one of his compositions, that 

 he threw his own robe over the shoulders of the 

 performer, and ordered him a donation of 100,000 

 drachms (0291^. 13s. 6d.). The famous Al Farabi, 

 whose universal attainments have been already no- 

 ticed, was so eminently skilled in music, that he has 

 been styled the Arabian Orpheus. On his return 

 from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he introduced himself 

 at the court of Saifadowlah, the first sultan of Alep- 

 po, whom he astonished with the variety of his 

 accomplishments. After disputing with the most 

 learned doctors of the court, whom he put to silence, 

 he joined a band of musicians that were accidentally 

 performing, and accompanied them with his lute. 

 The prince was delighted, and requested to hear 

 some composition of his own, — one of which in three 

 parts he immediately produced and distributed among 

 the band. The first movement, we are told, threw 

 the sultan and his courtiers into a fit of excessive 

 laughter ; — the second melted them into tears ; — and 

 the last lulled even the performers themselves to 

 sleep. Al Farabi wrote a work on the subject, en- 

 titled the Elements of Music, preserved in the Es- 

 curial, which treats on the principles of the art, the 

 harmony of natural and artificial sounds, and the va- 

 rious kinds of musical composition, besides contain- 

 ing the notes or gamut of the Arabs, and upwards of 

 thirty figures of their musical instruments. Another 

 work on the same subject is the Kitab Al Agani, or 

 Great Collection of Songs, by the celebrated com- 

 poser and poet Abulfaraji. Of two volumes, the first 

 only is extant, which contains 150 ariettas, the lives 

 of fourteen distinguished musicians, and four emi- 

 nent female singers. There is a striking similitude 



