The Status of Musicology for Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi

Abstract

Muslim philosophers were interested in music, because they made it an art based on science. In this article, we will try to approach their first foundational works of musicology, especially with al-Kindi and al-Farabi. The oldest scholar treatises on Arabic music are the authoresses and works of the philosopher Al-Kindi who is considered the first to introduce music to Arab culture, which became a component of scientific study programs and mathematical philosophy. The Al-Kindi school was developed later by Al-Farabi who established the foundations of musicology as constructive theoretical and practical knowledge, one of his most famous books is: “The Big Book of Music”. Music became a scientific subject by the middle of the 19th century with the emergence and the effective foundation of musicology, which would has branched out into various and complex sciences and disciplines, which developed that developed their scientific methods of study and analysis.