PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC IN MUSLIM MEDIEVAL CULTURE

Abstract

Philosophy of music of the most important thinkers in Islam between the 9^th  and the 15^th  centuries A.D. It covers topics ranging from the physics and aesthetics of sound, the nature of music, its place in the total scheme of things and in human life, the relation between music, astronomy, astrology and meteorology, the relation between music and human feelings character and behaviour, to the question of whether a good Muslim should be allowed to listen to music at all, and if so, to which type. This article traces thinking in Islam on music subject, and aims to provide a philosophically coherent statement of thinking of the Islamic the thinkers concerned, a clarification of their central arguments, as well as a critical evaluation of their line of thought.