(b Baghdad, July 779; d Samarra’, July 839). Arab musician. He was a son of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdī and a Persian slave at court called Shikla. He became famous for his fine and powerful voice with its range of four octaves, and first took part in court concerts during the reigns of Hārūn al-Rashīd (786–809) and al-Amīn (809–13). Proclaimed caliph in 817 in opposition to al-Ma’mūn (813–33), he had to abdicate after barely two years and went into hiding. In 825 he was pardoned and became a court musician once more under al-Ma’mūn and his successor al-Mu‘tasim (833–42). He was a follower of the school of Ibn Jāmi‘ and represented a ‘soft’ style, probably influenced by Persian music, which also allowed freedom in rendering older works. His rival Ishāq al-Mawsilī accused him of stylistic uncertainty; fragments of their polemic writings are quoted in the Kitāb al-aghānī al-kabīr (‘Great book of songs’) of al-Isfahānī, and their disputes on questions of musical theory were recorded in a lost treatise by ‘Alī ibn Hārūn ibn al-Munajjim (d 963). Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī’s Kitāb fī l-aghānī (‘Book of songs’) and a collection of his own songs, as well as biographical writings by his son, Hibat Allāh, and by his secretary, Ibn al-Dāya, survive in fragments in al-Isfahānī. He may have written a further musical work with ‘Amr ibn Bāna. Shortly before his death he renounced music and wine on religious grounds.
EI2
C. Barbier de Meynard: ‘Ibrahim, fils de Mehdi’, Journal asiatique, 6th ser., xiii (1869), 201–342
H.G. Farmer: A History of Arabian Music (London, 1929/R), 119ff
H.M. Leon: ‘The Poet Prince Who Became Khalifah’, Islamic Culture, iii (1929), 249–72
M. Husāmī: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī (Beirut, 1961) [in Arabic]
J.E. Bencheikh: ‘Les musiciens et la poésie: les écoles d’Ishāq al-Mawsilī (m. 235 H.) et d’Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Mahdī (m. 224 H.)’, Arabica, xxii (1975), 114–52
G.D. Sawa: Music Performance Practice in the Early ‘Abbāsid Era 132–320 AH/750–932 AD (Toronto, 1989)
ECKHARD NEUBAUER