Al-Maqqarīʹs Ziryāb: The Making of a Myth

This essay compares al-Maqqarīʹs well-known seventeenth-century biography of the famous singer Ziryāb with its eleventh-century source text, Kitāb al-Muqtabis, composed by the Andalusian writer Ibn ayyān. Ibn ayyānʹs text is a complex work with parallel, sometimes contradictory, quotations from seven different sources, all of which were melded into a single narrative voice in al-Maqqarīʹs text. Close analysis reveals that al-Maqqarī systematically eliminated all passages that shed unflattering light on Ziryāb, including references to rival singers, the achievements of his own children, off-colour jokes of which Ziryāb was the butt, and anecdotes where he was portrayed in an undignified manner. Al-Maqqarī drew heavily on one of the sources quoted by Ibn ayyān, the anonymous Kitāb Akhbār Ziryāb. The essay concludes by offering a theory as to the identity of author of the Kitāb Akhbār Ziryāb and the motivations of that author and al-Maqqarī for their ‘mythification’ of the famous singer.