Rhythmic Patterns in a Treatise on Music Entitled Kulliyat-i Yusufi

According to the scribe of its unique manuscript, the treatise entitled Kulliyat-i Yusufi, attributed to iya’uddin Yusuf, is written during Fatḥ‘ali Shah’s reign (1212-1250 A.H.). Despite its unoriginality, since very few numbers of Musical works are extant, this short treatise which indicates the continuity of writing works on music under Qajarids, is very important. The fact that there is a reference to the names of twelve musical model systems (dastgahs) at the end of the aforementioned treatise, shows an important turning point in the historical course of this concept. Like most of Safavid works on
music, this treatise uses the word Uṣul for the concept of rhythmic patterns in Music. The last chapter of this work on Uṣul has been divided to two parts. The first part, under the influence of Mir Ṣadruddin Qazvini (d. 1008 A.H.)’s work on music, commences with
the definition of the terms “Uṣul” and “Naqra”, and describes 5 old and 17 recent Dawrs, and finally different rhythmic genres. Second chapter, influenced probably by a treatise entitled Bahjat al-Rawḥ (written probably in the eleventh century) describes 24 rhythmic
dawrs.