music in sanāyi’s view

abstract despite the existence of long-standing ties between poetry and music, sanāyi, the famous poet of the sixth century, was a serious opponent unlike many other poets. he overtly blamed music as erotic art and composed poems blaming music. the author describes sanāyi’s opinion about music in this paper and explores the terms of his disagreement. in the meantime, social backgrounds of his opposing views including his knowledge of and participation in ceremonies of joy and cheerfulness before his spiritual change are highlighted. his moral decrees on music and his general opposition with music are discussed in relation to his psychology of samā’ music. in his belief, when man’s spirit descends to nature, it loses the original elevated status and seeks what matches the new worldly temperament. to him, the devil produces the joy in music and uses ears as the instrument to contaminate the soul, so veil is considered as stumbling block. sanāyi’s view about music and samā’ are not, of course, much welcome by other poets. keywords: sanāyi of ghazneh, music in sufism, persian poetry, criticisms of music, the psychology of samā’.