Typology of Musical texts of Iran

Knowing the music of the past of Iran or Persian- Islamic tradition is only possible by studying the texts, since old music is not available to us and cannot be heard today, so the only way of studying old music is studying musical texts. As music is a cultural phenomenon interwoven in the vast network of cultural phenomena, knowing music requires knowing culture in all its aspects; therefore, relying only on the technical texts about music theory is inadequate and deficient. Most of the musical texts, nowadays, are limited to the music theory books from Peripatetic school and Systematic school and other texts types that contain valuable information are neglected and because of that historical musicology is limited to the technical aspect of music theory and chronological approaches to the Maqams, Iqas, Lahns. The present study is about the typology of musical texts and attempts to explain what a musical text is, and which texts are musical; in other words, which type of historical texts can be regarded as musical texts, and each type of musical text is related to which aspect of music as a cultural phenomenon. This study introduces eight types of texts and shows what aspects of music as a cultural phenomenon are illustrated by each type. These types include: 1- music theory books with mathematical- philosophical approach, 2- musical texts in practical context and biographies, 3- religion and jurisprudence books, 4- books of Sama, 5- history books that contain general history and travelogues, 6- literary books, 7- scientific books such as those related to medicine and astronomy, 8- texts about visual arts including miniature, ancient instruments, pottery paintings and reliefs on the walls. These eight types are first layers of cultural texts that can be considered to be musical texts and each of them can shed light on some aspects of music.