A Jewish Sufi on the Influence of Music

The Judeo- Arabic treatise “Al Murhid ila al- tafarrud” includes fragments of musical scores. The entire piece, dated here to the 14th century was very much influenced by Islamic Sufism and mystical speculations. Sufi ideas about music influenced Jewish- Egyptian Pietists especially during the 13th and 14th centuries. When mentioned in Jewish literature these ideas were attributed to prophets, to the music of the Levites and King David. The manuscript is translated here and is influenced by Neo-Plutonian and Aristotelian sources.