Context
History
Ottoman court music, Persian classical tradition, and Central Asian connections.
- 01Ottoman Court Music: A Living TraditionThe rise, flourishing, and near-destruction of Ottoman classical music — from the Enderun palace school and the meşk tradition to the Mehter military band, the great composers, and the Republic-era suppression that nearly silenced it all.
- 02The Persian Radif: From Court Music to Canonical RepertoireHow a family of Qajar-era court musicians shaped the radif — the canonical body of melodic models that defines Persian classical music — and how oral tradition, notation, and recording transformed it across two centuries.
- 03Safiyüddin al-Urmawi: The Foundation of Ottoman-Persian Music TheoryHow a 13th-century theorist at the Abbasid court produced two treatises that shaped makam and dastgah theory for seven centuries — his 17-tone scale, systematic interval classification, and enduring influence on Arel, Maraghi, and modern conservatory pedagogy.
- 04The Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek System: Codifying Turkish Makam TheoryHow Rauf Yekta, Hüseyin Sadettin Arel, Suphi Ezgi, and Salih Murat Uzdilek gave Turkish makam music its standardized 24-tone theory, and why the system remains both dominant and contested.
- 05Key Figures in Persian Music TheoryThe scholars, musicians, and pedagogues who shaped the dastgah system — from the Qajar court musicians who codified the radif to the modern analysts who made it legible to the wider world.
- 06Kantemiroğlu Notation: The First Ottoman Music ManuscriptHow a Moldavian prince at the Ottoman court created the largest surviving collection of 17th-century instrumental music using an alphabetic notation system — and what his manuscript reveals about pre-AEU makam practice.
- 07Key Figures in Turkish Makam TheoryThe scholars and musicians who shaped the theoretical framework of Turkish makam music — from Safiyüddin Urmevi's 13th-century systematic intervals to the contested modern frameworks of the 20th century.
- 08Modern Developments: Tradition Under PressureHow 20th- and 21st-century political upheaval, institutional reform, and technological change reshaped Turkish makam and Persian dastgah music — from the 1932 Cairo Congress and Atatürk-era bans to UNESCO recognition, digital tools, and the unresolved tension between preservation and innovation.
- 09Music of the Sufi Lodges: Mevlevi and Bektashi TraditionsHow the Mevlevi whirling ceremony and Bektashi hymn tradition shaped Ottoman classical music — from the ney's sacred voice to the saz's folk-mystical role — and what survives after the 1925 closure of the tekke.
- 10Central Asian Connections: Shashmaqam and the Silk RoadHow the modal music traditions of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Xinjiang share deep structural and terminological kinship with Turkish makam and Persian dastgah — tracing the common inheritance from Baghdad through Samarkand to Kashgar.