The Connections between Minstrel Music and Chivalry

It seems that there is no Fotovatnameh (Chivalry Epistle) for musicians. The lack of such books can be interpreted as the lack of one united guild for them. And yet, if there has been a guild for them, it is possible that the religious sanctity of music forbade its members to write a Fotovatnameh. But in some treatises on music, some parts or chapters are dedicated to “musical advices” or to the “conduct in this noble art” or “the manner in chamber music” which following Qaboosnameh we will generally name it as “minstrelsy ritual”. These topics can be classified in two categories: first, some suggestions and practices for improving technical abilities; second, moral advices for the manners in chambers and gatherings, like secrecy, cheerfulness, modesty, honesty, and avoiding greed, vanity and jealousy, the sort of which can be found in other guilds’ Fotowatnamehs.