Music in the Safavid Era (1501-1736)

This volume presents four Persian musical texts from 16th- and 17th-century Iran, each offering invaluable insights into the musical norms and repertoire of the Safavid court. Their well-established dates of composition and places of origin further allow us to trace the trajectory of musical development over nearly two centuries. The first text, Resāla-ye Karāmiya, is an important musical treatise written by Dawra Beg Karāmi in the 1580s in Herat. The second was authored by Mir Ṣadr al-Din Moḥammad Qazvini (d. 1599), a distinguished court music theorist and composer active in the latter half of the 16th century. The third treatise, Zamzama-ye vaḥdat, was penned by Bāqiyā Nāʾini (d. c. 1658), a renowned composer who initially trained in Iran before relocating to India, where he completed his work in 1654 and dedicated it to Shāhjahān (r. 1628-1658). The final text in this collection is the Codex of Amir Khān Gorji, a Georgian court composer in Isfahan during the second half of the 17th century. This codex also includes the musical treatise and song-text collection of Āqā Moʾmen Moṣannef. While the first three texts focus exclusively on music theory, Amir Khān’s codex stands out for its diverse collection of song texts composed by Safavid musicians throughout the 17th century.