Barbad

Barbad or Bārbad ( fa, باربد; various other names; ) was a Persian poet-musician, lutenist, music theorist and composer of Sasanian music who served as chief minstrel-poet under Shahanshah Khosrow II (). A '' barbat'' player, he is among the major figures in the history of Iranian/Persian music and was the most distinguished Persian musician of his time. He appears frequently in later Persian literature, most famously in Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh''. The content and abundance of such references demonstrate his unique influence on the music and culture of his time, with some sources declaring him the "founder of Persian music".

Despite scarce biographical information, Barbad's historicity is generally secure. Purportedly born in Merv or Jahrom, Barbad served most of his career under Khosrow, who held him in high regard. He interacted closely and rivaled with other musicians of his time, such as Sarkash. After Khosrow's assassination, sources vary as to whether Barbad was murdered, or if he murdered another musician himself.

Barbad is traditionally credited with various inventions in Persian music theory and practice; however, the attributions remain tentative due to being ascribed centuries after his death. Though a single poem is extant and the titles of some of his works are known, none of Barbad's musical compositions are extant. No Sasanian sources discuss Barbad, suggesting his reputation was preserved through oral tradition, until at least the earliest written account by the poet Khaled ibn Fayyaz ( ). His work survived until at least the 10th century, inspiring musicians such as Ishaq al-Mawsili and being described as a "model of artistic achievement". Barbad remains a celebrated figure in modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Name

Posthumous sources refer to the Sasanian musician with little consistency. Persian sources record "Barbād" while Arabic scholars use Fahl(a)bad, Bahl(a)bad, Fahl(a)wad, Fahr(a)bad, Bahr(a)bad and Bārbad/ḏ. Modern sources most often use "Barbad", a spelling that Danish orientalist Arthur Christensen first asserted to be correct. However, the German orientalist Theodor Nöldeke suggested that spellings from Arabic commentators such as "Fahl(a)bad" were really an arabicization of his actual name, probably Pahrbad/Pahlbad. Nöldeke furthered that "Bārbad" was a mistake in the interpretation of ambiguous Pahlavi characters. The Iranologist Ahmad Tafazzoli agreed with Nöldeke, citing a Sasanian seal which includes the name "Pahrbad/Pahlbad" and the earliest mention of the Sasanian musician, which uses a spelling—"Bahrbad/Bahlbad"—that suggests the name had been arabicized.

Context and sources

The music of Iran/Persia stretches to at least the depictions of arched harps from 3300–3100 BCE, though not until the period of the Sasanian Empire in 224–651 CE is substantial information available. This influx of Sasanian records suggests a prominent musical culture in the Empire, especially in the areas dominated by Zoroastrianism. Many Sasanian Shahanshahs were ardent supporters of music, including the founder of the empire Ardashir I and Bahram V. Khosrow II () was the most outstanding patron, his reign being regarded as a golden age of Persian music. Musicians in Khosrow's service include Āzādvar-e Changi, Bāmshād, the harpist Nagisa (Nakisa), Ramtin, Sarkash (also Sargis or Sarkas) and Barbad, who was by-far the most famous. These musicians were usually active as minstrels, which were performers who worked as both court poets and musicians; in the Sasanian Empire there was little distinction between poetry and music.

Though many Middle Persian (Pahlavi) texts of the Sasanian Empire survive, only one—''Khusraw qubadan va ridak''—includes commentary on music, though neither it or any other Sasanian sources discuss Barbad. Barbad's reputation must have been transmitted through oral tradition, until at least the earliest source: an Arabic poem by Khaled ibn Fayyaz ( ). In later ancient Arabic and Persian sources Barbad is the most discussed Sasanian musician, though he is rarely included in writings dedicated solely to music. A rare exception to this is a brief mention in Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Muhammad Nishābūrī's music treatise ''Rasaleh-i musiqi-i''. Ancient sources in general give little biographical information and most of what is available is shrouded in mythological anecdotes. Tales from the poet Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'', written during the late 10th century, include the most celebrated accounts of Barbad. Other important sources included Ferdowsi's contemporary, the poet al-Tha'alibi in his ''Ghurar al-saya'', as well as '' Khosrow and Shirin'' and ''Haft Peykar'' from the poet Nezami Ganjavi's '' Khamsa of Nizami'' from the late 12th century. Despite this plethora of stories depicting him in a legendary context, scholars generally consider Barbad a wholly historical person.

Biographical fragments and legends

Early life

There are contradictory ancient accounts as to the location of Barbad's birthplace. Older sources record the city of Merv in northeastern Khorasan, while later works give Jahrom, a small city south of Shiraz in Pars. Tafazzoli postulated that the writers who recorded Jahrom were referencing a line of Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'' that says Barbad traveled from Jarom to the capital in Ctesiphon when Khosrow was murdered; the modern historian Mehrdad Kia records only Merv.

Ferdowsi and al-Tha'alibi both relay a story that Barbad was a gifted young musician who sought a place as a court minstrel under Khosrow II but the jealous chief court minstrel Sarkash supposedly prevented this. As such, Barbad hid in the royal garden by dressing in all green. When Khosrow walked by Barbad sang three songs with his lute: ''Dād-āfrīd'' ("created by god"), ''Peykār-e gord'' ("battle of the hero" or "splendor of Farkar") and ''Sabz dar sabz'' ("green in the green"). Khosrow was immediately impressed and ordered that Barbad be appointed chief minstrel, a position known as the ''shah-i ramishgaran''. In Nizami's ''Khosrow and Shirin'', Khosrow II is said to have had a dream where his grandfather Khosrow I prophesied that he would have a "have a minstrel called Barbad whose art could make even poison taste delicious".

Stories with Khosrow

Since his appointment at court, Barbad was Khosrow's favorite musician, and many stories exist about this prestige. His relationship with Khosrow was reportedly such that other members of the court would seek his assistance in mediating conflicts between them and the Shahanshah. A story in Nizami's ''Khosrow and Shirin'', tells of Khosrow and Shirin as previously together, but forced to separate for political reasons; Khosrow marries someone else, but is soon reminded of Shirin. The two later met and arranged for the Nagisa to sing of Shirin's love for Khosrow, while Barbad sung of Khosrow's love for Shirin. The duet reconciled the couple and was recorded by Nizami in 263 couplets. The idea of setting music to poetry in order to represent the emotions of characters was unprecedented in Persian music. According to the 10th-century historian Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani's ''Kitab al-buldan'', Khosrow's wife Shirin asked Barbad to remind Khosrow of his promise to build her a castle. To do so, he sung a song and was rewarded with an estate near Isfahan for him and his family. According to the Seljuk scholar Nizam al-Mulk, Barbad visited a courtier who had been imprisoned by Khosrow and upon being scolded by the Shahanshah, a "witty remark" was enough to resolve the situation.

In the literary scholar Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's '' Kitab al-Aghani'', a jealous rival musician once untuned the strings of Barbad's lute during a royal banquet. Upon returning to perform, Barbad began to play; royal rules forbade the tuning instruments in the Shahanshah's presence, but Barbad's skill was such that he could adapt to the untuned strings and play the pieces regardless. Al-Isfahani attributed this story to Ishaq al-Mawsili (776–856)—a renowned minstrel under Harun al-Rashid—who purportedly relayed the story to friends.

Among the most popular legends about Barbad involves Khosrow's beloved horse Shabdiz. In this story, Khosrow declared that when Shabdiz died, anyone who announced the news would be executed. Upon Shabdiz's death, no members of the court wished to risk conveying the news. To resolve the issue, Barbad sang a sad song, and Khosrow, understanding the purpose of the song, stated "Shabdiz is dead"; Barbad responded "Yes and it is your majesty who announced it", thereby preventing any possibility of death.
This story was relayed earliest by the poet Khaled ibn Fayyaz ( ), with later accounts by al-Tha'alibi and the 13th-century writer Zakariya al-Qazwini. Many similar ancient stories originated in Iran, Turkey and Central Asia that pertain to musicians using music to express the death of a ruler's horse, as to avoid the ruler's wrath against the announcer. Various pieces for the Khwarazm ''dutar'', Kyrgyz '' komuz'' and Kazakh '' dombra'' relay equivalent stories. Tafazzoli asserts that the story demonstrates Barbad's unique influence on Khosrow, while musicologist Lloyd Miller suggest that this and similar stories suggest that music and musicians in general exerted a significant influence on their political leaders.

Death

Like his birthplace, there are conflicting accounts surrounding the final years of Barbad's life. According to Ferdowsi, upon the murder of Khosrow by Kavad II, Barbad rushed from Jahrom to the capital of Ctesiphon. After arriving he sang elegies, cut off his fingers and burned his instruments out of respect. Al-Tha'alibi's account holds that Sarkash, who had remained at the court since being ousted from the chief minstrel position, poisoned Barbad. The 9th-century geographer Ibn Khordadbeh's ''Kitāb al-lahw wa-l-malahi'', however, records the opposite, stating that Barbad poisoned Sarkash but was spared from Khosrow's punishment by way of a "witty remark". The 9th-century scholar Ibn Qutaybah's ''‘Uyūn al-Akhbār'' and the 10th-century poet Ibn Abd Rabbih's ''al-ʿIqd al-Farīd'' state that Barbad was killed by a different musician, variously recorded as Yošt, Rabūst, Rošk and Zīwešt.

Music and poetry

Barbad was active as a poet-musician, lutenist, music theorist and composer. His compositions included panegyrics, elegies and verses. These were performed by himself at festivals such as Nowruz and Mehregan, as well as state banquets and victory celebrations. While none of the compositions are extant, the names have survived for some, and they suggest a wide variety in the topics he musically engaged with. Ethnomusicologist Hormoz Farhat has tentatively sorted them into different groupings: epic forms based on historical events, ''kin-i Iraj'' (), ''kin-i siavash'' (), and ''Taxt-i Ardashir'' (); songs connected to the Sasanian royal court, ''Bagh-i shirin'' (), ''Bagh-i Shahryar'' (), and ''haft Ganj'' (); and "compositions of a descriptive nature", ''roshan charagh'' (). According to both scholars Ibn al-Faqih and the 13th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, Barbad wrote ''Bag-e nakjiran'' () for workers who had recently finished the gardens of Qasr-e Shirin.

A single poem by Barbad survives, though in a quoted state from the ''Kitab al-lahw wa al-malahi'' by Ibn Khordadbeh. The work is a 3-hemistich panegyric in Middle Persian, but with an Arabic script; none of its music is extant. The poem is as follows:

Christensen suggested in 1936 that the text ''Khvarshēdh ī rōshan'' () is from a poem that was written and performed by Barbad himself or another poet-musician of his time. The text is found in a group of Manichaean manuscripts in Turpan, Xinjiang, China and is written in Middle Persian, which Barbad would have used. It has four 11-syllable lines and its title recalls the Sasanian melody ''Arāyishn ī khvarshēdh'' ().

Barbad is traditionally regarded as the inventor of numerous aspects of Persian music theory and practice. Al-Tha'alibi first credited him with creating an organized modal system of , known variously as ''xosrovani'' ( fa, سرود خسروانى), ''Haft Ḵosravāni'', or ''khosravani''. This attribution is later repeated by scholars such as al-Masudi and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi. From these royal modes, Barbad created , and 360 melodies (''dastan''). The structure of seven, 30 and 360 variations corresponds to the number of days, weeks and months of the Zoroastrian calendar. Farhat notes that the exact reason for this is not known, though according to the 14th-century poet Hamdallah Mustawfi's ''Tarikh-i guzida'', Barbad sang one of the 360 melodies each day for the Shahanshah. Al-Tha'alibi recorded that the seven royal modes were still in use during his lifetime, from 961 to 1039. Further information on the nature of these subjects, theories or compositions has not survived. In her analysis of the historical and literary sources concerning Barbad, musicologist Firoozeh Khazrai stated that "until a new independent source on the subject comes to light, many of these attributions should be regarded as authorial inventions". She noted that many of the attributions to Barbad date centuries after his death and the 30 modes in particular are first connected to Barbad by Nizami, who lived in the 12th century. In addition, in his divan (collection of poems), the 11th-century poet Manuchehri names a few of the modes that Nizami mentioned but does not associate them with Barbad, even though he references the Sasanian musician elsewhere.

Reputation

Barbad's lute was the four-stringed '' barbat''. It had been popular in his time, but no traces of the instrument survive and it was eventually substituted for the Oud. Musicologists Jean During and Zia Mirabdolbaghi note that despite the instrument's gradual disuse, "the term ''barbat'' survived for centuries, through classical poetry, as a symbol of the golden age of the Persian musical tradition, served by artists such as Bārbad." Later sources regularly praise Barbad and some offer him the epitaph as the "founder of Persian music". He is regarded as the most significant musician of his time, being among the major figures in the history of Iranian/Persian music. In ''Sharh bar Kitāb al-adwar'', the 14th-century writer al-Sharif al-Jurjani—whom the work is attributed to—says:

The preponderance and frequent transmission of stories involving Barbad attest to his popularity long after his death. In modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Barbad continues to be a celebrated figure. In 1989 and 1990 the cultural establishment of the Tajik government encouraged their people to find pride in Barbad's achievements; the panegyrics given for Barbad are part of a larger effort by the Tajik government to pass off the "achievements of pre-Islamic Iranian civilization" as Tajik ones. The largest musical hall of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is named "Kokhi Borbad" after Barbad. Musicologist Firoozeh Khazrai sums up Barbad's legacy as such:

References

Notes

Citations

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Further reading

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External links

"Barbad and Nakisā"
a song inspired by Barbad performed by the Tanbur player Nur ʿAli Elāhi on ''Encyclopædia Iranica''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbad
Musicians from the Sasanian Empire
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Shahnameh characters
People from Jahrom
People from Merv
Persian musicians
Eastern lutes players
7th-century Iranian people