Aḥmad al-Tifāshī (d. 1253) in his encyclopedic work Faṣl al-khiṭāb fī madārik al-ḥ awāss al-khams li-ʾūlī l-albāb (فصل الخطاب في مدارك الحواس الخمس لاولي الالباب) divided the Andalusi musical tradition into four types: nashīd, ṣawt, muwashshaḥ, and zajal.
[2] Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (d. 1211), author of Dār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwashshaḥāt (دار الطراز في عمل الموشحات), wrote the most detailed surviving musical description of the muwashshaḥ.
[2][3] Some of the muwashshaḥāt had lyrics that fit their melodies (sometimes through melisma), while others had improvised nonsense syllables to fill out the melodic line—a practice that survives to the present with relevant sections labeled as shughl (شُغل 'work') in songbooks.
[2] Mass resettlements of Muslims and Sephardi Jews from Córdoba, Seville, Valencia, and Granada, fleeing the Reconquista, further expanded the reach of Andalusi music, though not without changes.
[4] Moreover, these migrants from the 13th century on encountered ethnic Andalusi communities that had migrated earlier to North Africa, which helped this refined music to take root and spread among wider audiences.
The oldest surviving collection of these texts is found in two chapters from Aḥmad al-Tīfāshī's Mutʿat al-ʾismāʿ fī ʿilm al-samāʿ (متعة الإسماع في علم السماع) (ca.
[10] More recent is a document entitled, al-ʿAdharā al-māyisāt fī-l-ʾazjāl wa-l-muwashshaḥāt (العذارى المايسات في الأزجال والموشحات, "The Virgins Swaying for Zajals and Muwashshaḥs"), which probably dates to the middle of the 15th century and seems to be linked to the Andalusi music of Tlemcen in Algeria.
But the most important collection was Kunnāsh al-Ḥāʾik (the first of several versions is dated 1202/1788), which was revised by the wazīr Muhammad Ibn al-'Arabi al-Jāmi'i [ar] in 1886 (numerous copies are found in libraries in Morocco, Madrid, London and Paris).
The rhythms occur in the following order in a complete nūba (though an entire nūba is never performed in one sitting): Andalusi classical music orchestras are spread across the Maghreb, including the cities of: They use instruments including oud (lute), rabab (rebec), darbouka (goblet drums), ṭaʿrīja (tambourine), qanún (zither), and kamanja (violin).
Further terms fell into disuse in Europe: adufe from al-duff, alboka from al-buq, añafil from an-nafir, exabeba from al-shabbaba (flute), atabal (bass drum) from al-tabl, atambal from al-tinbal,[18] the balaban, sonajas de azófar from sunuj al-sufr, the conical bore wind instruments,[19] and the xelami from the sulami or fistula (flute or musical pipe).
[24] Although the philosopher al-Kindī (d. 259/874) and the author Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (d. 355/967) both mention music writing systems, they were descriptive and based on lute fingerings, and thus complicated to use.
George T. Beech observes that while the sources of William's inspirations are uncertain, he did have Spanish individuals within his extended family, and he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak Arabic.