Scholar
and composer (B. 1360, Meraga / Azerbaijan- D.
1435, Herat / Afghanistan). He is one of the most
reputable figures in national and international sources after Farabî and
Avicenna. He is also known as Meragalı Abdülkadir, Meragalı, İbn-I Gaybî, Hoca Abdülkadir,
Hace and Abdülkadir bin Gaybiyü’l-Hafız el-Meragî. His father is one of the
learned men of his age, Gıyaseddin Gaybî. When he mentions his father, he says,
“He had a superior knowledge in numerous
branches of science, he was especially master in practical and theoretical
branches of music”, which shows the environment he was raised in. After
Meraga he went to Tabriz and served Ilkhanids. There, he became a conversation
friend of Sultan Hüseyin and later of Ahmed Celâyerî. At that time, he won a
music competition organized by the musician Rızaeddin Rıdvan Şah and gained
reputation. Even if there are uncertainties about his life, it is possible to
find certain information in indirect sources. It is not correct that Western
researchers persistently call him a Persian scholar and musician.
Abdülkadir Meragî was taken captive
by Timur during his invasion of Azerbaijan. He entered his service and was sent
to Samarkand. Until the year 1397 he served as the chief singer and stayed in
the palace as a conversation friend of Timur. Meanwhile Timur began to hold physicians
and scholars around him responsible for the death of his mentally ill son who
was being treated in Samarkand Palace and to kill them. Meragi escaped to
Baghdad upon this (1399). However, he was captured by the men of Timur and
condemned to execution. Sources claim that Meragi started to recite a surah
from the Holy Koran at that moment and in a very emotional way which impressed
Timur and made him forgive Meragi. Meragî asked for Timur’s permission to go to
Samarkand after a while. Timur gave him a document of permission and sent him
off.
Meragî came to Bursa after Samarkand
in 1421. He presented a musical work to Murat II who just came to the throne.
Murat II who was also a musician appreciated and complimented him, but since
the Ottoman state was quite chaotic at that time, he returned to Herat. He was
protected by Sultan Halil Mirza who took the rule from Timur when he died and
from Sultan Şahruh Mirza when Halil Mirza died. Using the name İbn-u Gaybî, the
great composer and scholar of music Abdülkadir Meragi produced magnificent
works of first classical period. In the same time he is regarded as the pioneer
of classical period in Turkish music. He was primarily known as an oud player
and his beautiful voice made him famous in the whole Islamic world at a young
age. His young son Abdülaziz presented to Fatih Sultan Mehmet his book on music
theory titled “Nakavetü'l-Edvâr” and
his grand child Mahmut Çelebi to Bayezid his book in the same field titled “Makasıdü’l-Edvâr”. Numerous works are
attributed to him, but some of them belong to Turkish composers of following
periods. At the moment, there are about 30 compositions, which are known to
belong to Meragi.
Meragî, aside from his native
language Turkish also could speak Arabic and Persian very well. Sources prove
that he was also known as composer, singer, theoretician, poet, painter, hafiz
and calligrapher. His works show that he was mainly influenced by and nourished
from Farabi. His thinking the art of music like a modern physicist deeply
impressed a Western scholar called Helmholtz who lived about 500 years after
him. Helmholtz in his great work titled “Physiologie
der Tonempfindungen” says that he read all works of Meragi, analyzed them
deeply and benefited from them a lot. The famous historian Hammer also
benefited from works of Meragi. Thanks to his skills in the field of music all
authors and researchers who mention his name used expressions such as; “A
person to exalt past times” or “The most competent person in the theory of
music”.
“Urmevî School” is the first school to analyze
our music in the field of theory in a systematic approach. We see that there
was not any theoretical system in our music before this school. The second
great architect of this system which was established and started by Safiyüddin Abdülmümin
Urmevî was Abdülkadir Meragi who came about 70 years after him. With him,
fundaments of the school were constructed according to the essentials in the
application and the system turned into a perfect monument. This perfection was
so influent that our music continued its life for about 700 years within this
system.
Meragi also invented certain music
instruments. He recorded his works using “Ebced Notes” and made it possible
that they reached the present. However most of these records are missing
because Meragi did not pay enough attention to his records and sources could
not be protected in the required manner until the present.
The main ones between his
compositions are following: Rast Sofyân Kâr-I Hayder-Nâme, Rast Devr-i Hindi
Kâr-I Muhteşem, Rast Muvaşşah, Rast Fer Nakış Beste, Rast Devri Hindi Nakış Beste,
Rast Hafif Nakış Beste, Rast Nakış Aksak Semai, Rast Nakış Yürük Semai, Pençgâh
Hafif Kar-I Murassa, Pençgâh Aksak Semai, AcemYürük Muhammes Kar, Acem Nakış Yürük
Semai, Irak Düyek Kar, Irak Yürük Nakış Semai…
He also has works on music theory. A
manuscript sample of his book “Cami-ül Elhan” (1405) he gave to his son Nureddin Abdurrrahman
as a present is in Istanbul Nuruosmaniye Library.This work which was written in
Persian contains some notes of his compositions. Abdülkadir Meragî passed away
because of plague disease.
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