The Black Singer

Ziryab!!

What a delightful, immortal personality, and how important in the history of the letters of civilized peoples. Such is the personality of the singular musician and Persian singer Ziryab.. the artist who, though seldom mentioned in the books of Arabic literature, remains immortal so long as beautiful art endures..

Ziryab was a black slave, far from the Arabs in appearance and in origin, yet near to them in feeling and imagination. This artist exerted a great literary and social influence upon the people of Andalusia, so that the whole land of Andalusia took to imitating his refined habits and his high arts, which afterward became its own habits and arts, and which the Westerners celebrated, giving them the name “Etiquette” — I mean the principles of the science of social conduct.

Among the personalities of his age Ziryab enjoyed a fame few artists have ever won. For he was not merely a polisher of the people's refinements; he was intimate with their taste and their ways. And how difficult a labor such polishing is, and how rarely does he who attempts it succeed! Yet our artist succeeded even with kings, who took his habits and his art as their model; and he was among those persons through whom intercession was sought with them...

His true name was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Nafi; as for his nickname, Ziryab, it clung to him in his country on account of the blackness of his color joined to the eloquence of his tongue and the sweetness of his qualities, for among them he was likened to a black songbird. Reports of his early life are almost wholly absent from the books; all we know of him in this regard is that he grew up in the city of Baghdad and that he was an assistant and pupil of the famous singer Ishaq al-Mawsili.

Ziryab studied singing under Ishaq, mastered his craft, and caught up the greater part of his songs. Indeed he surpassed Ishaq, and Ishaq never sensed it. At one of al-Rashid's entertainments Ziryab was able, through his master, to sing his famous song:

O king whose bird of augury is blessed,
Harun — to you the people come at evening and set out at dawn

When he had finished the piece, al-Rashid was transported with delight, praised him to the skies, and ordered Ishaq to look after him.

When Ishaq heard this, his rancor against Ziryab flared up and jealousy ate at his heart; and when his patience ran out he took him aside and gave him the choice between two things: departure or death. Ziryab judged that his best course was to save himself and his family. So he set out for the West; and there he judged that his best course was to turn to al-Hakam. He wrote to him, informing him that he had chosen him, telling him of his standing in the craft he professed, and asking leave to come to him. Al-Hakam was greatly pleased by his letter and showed a keen desire to make his acquaintance. So Ziryab journeyed toward him with his household and his children. In Andalusia Ziryab was given a reception such as he had never dreamed of in all his life; he was lodged in one of the finest of houses, and lavish stipends were assigned to him and to his children..

In Andalusia fortune smiled upon Ziryab and set him in a lofty place. The emirs began to keep his company over wine and the hearing of song; and the familiarity between him and them grew until he took his meals with them, and at last a private door was opened for him, through which the Emir would summon him whenever he wanted him.

Ziryab's coming brought about a renaissance of song in Andalusia. It was Ziryab who added a fifth string to the strings of the oud, and it was he who invented the oud plectrum made from the pinion-feathers of the eagle. Perhaps the most remarkable thing he accomplished was his school of music. This school was so distinguished in its day that its pupils were looked upon with respect. In this school of his he followed a new method of teaching song, dividing the musical program into three parts, the first of them the teaching of the words of the song to the accompaniment of any musical instrument, versification and meter included.

Ziryab so won the confidence of the people of Andalusia that his dress, his food, and his habits — his and his family's — became a measure of beauty and refinement and a model to be imitated. Among the things he taught the Andalusians was a new way of dressing and arranging the hair. When the Andalusians saw the family of Ziryab cutting their hair short to their ears and letting it fall over their temples, they took a fancy to this fashion and adopted it.

Among the dishes he introduced into Andalusia was asparagus, called in their tongue isfaraj. He likewise taught them a new dish, known among them as al-taqaya, prepared with the juice of fresh coriander and garnished with sanbusak and kebab..

As for the manners and arrangement of the table, Ziryab worked wonders there. For up to that time the Andalusians had used vessels of gold and silver, and he guided them to the use of fine glassware. They used to spread cloths of linen upon their tables, but he preferred instead the spreading of soft, supple leather. It appears that this singer was exceedingly elegant in his dress — so much so that he laid down for the Andalusians themselves rules for the wearing of clothes, which were followed in that age. For he held that every kind of garment should be worn in the season that befits it.

Such is Ziryab: the artist who consecrated his life to art, and to whom art in turn consecrated a page of its immortal book — each did the other justice.