About

Dwight F. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of Arabic Language & Literature in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialization includes Arabic Language & Literature, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology. Reynolds holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, obtained in 1991. He is an affiliate faculty member of several departments and programs, including Music, Theater and Dance, Latin American and Iberian Studies, and Comparative Literature. His research focuses on medieval and modern Arab music, oral epic traditions, and the cultural history of al-Andalus, with a particular interest in interreligious and intercultural negotiations, gender roles, and social dynamics in Islamic and Iberian contexts. Reynolds has authored and edited numerous influential publications, including 'The Musical Heritage of al-Andalus' and 'Medieval Arab Music and Musicians,' which have received awards such as the Premio del Rey Book Prize and the Early Music Book Prize. His work makes significant contributions to understanding the musical and literary traditions of the Arab world and medieval Iberia, and he actively engages in digital humanities projects related to oral and musical traditions.

Research topics

• History
• Art
• Classics
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Literature
• Visual arts
• Ancient history

Selected publications

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  2023-11-15

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Interpreting the Self

  2023-11-15

  book
  PublisherDOI

• The Musical Modes of al-Andalus

  Oriens · 2023-05-04

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The 13th-century Tunisian author Aḥmad at-Tīfāšī describes in his work Mutʿat al-asmāʿ fī ʿilm as-samāʿ a system of melodic modes used in al-Andalus. This essay represents a preliminary attempt to situate at-Tīfāšī’s Andalusi modes within the broader historical development of medieval Arab modal systems and to explore their relationship to the modern modes of North Africa commonly referred to as Andalusi. This is, however, primarily an exploration of terminology or nomenclature rather than of the melodic characteristics of the modes themselves, since the sources examined here give little to no information about the internal features of the individual modes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Index

  Manchester University Press eBooks · 2022-08-12

  paratextOpen access

  Adam and Eve 125-7 adb (man of letters) 25

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Medieval Arab Music and Musicians: Three Translated Texts

  2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Literature
  • History
  • Art

  "Medieval Arab Music and Musicians offers complete, annotated English translations of three of the most important medieval Arabic texts on music and musicians: the biography of the musician Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī from al-Iṣbahānī's Kitāb al-Aghānī (10th c), the biography of the musician Ziryāb from Ibn Ḥayyān's Kitāb al-Muqtabis (11th c), and the earliest treatise on the muwashshaḥ Andalusi song genre, Dār al-Ṭirāz, by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk (13th c). Al-Mawṣilī, the most famous musician of his era, was also the teacher of the legendary Ziryāb, who traveled from Baghdad to al-Andalus and is often said to have laid the foundations of Andalusi music. The third text is crucial to any understanding of the medieval muwashshaḥ and its possible relations to the Troubadours, the Cantigas de Santa María, and the Andalusi musical traditions of the modern Middle East"

  Publisher

• Introduction

  2021-12-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The House of Brocade on the Composition of Muwashshaḥāt

  2021-12-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Contents of Dār al-Ṭirāz fī ʿAmal al-Muwashshaḥāt

  2021-12-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2021-12-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Biography of Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī

  2021-12-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Virginia Danielson

  2 shared

• Craig Cosden

  Devereux

  1 shared

• Devin J. Stewart

  Emory University

  1 shared

• Jamal J. Elias

  1 shared

• Consuelo López‐Morillas

  1 shared

• Michael Cooperson

  York University

  1 shared

• Joseph Lowry

  1 shared

• Nasser Rabbat

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Premio del Rey Book Prize 2022 (American Historical Associat…
• Early Music Book Prize 2022 (American Musicological Society)