Safi al-Din al-Urmawi

Safi al-Din al-Urmawi al-Baghdadi (Persian: صفی الدین اورموی‎‎) or Safi al-Din Abd al-Mu'min ibn Yusuf ibn al-Fakhir al-Urmawi al-Baghdadi (born c. 1216 AD probably in Urmia, died in 1294 AD) was a renowned musician and writer on the theory of music, possibly of Persian origin.

Safi al-Din Abd al-Muʾmin ibn Yusof ibn Fakhir al-Ormawi al-Baghdadi (Sufi al-Dīn in some Ottoman sources), renowned musician and writer on the theory of music, was born c. 613 AH (1216 AD), probably in Urmiya (Iran). He died in Baghdad on 28 Ṣafar 693 AH (28 January 1294 AD), at the age of about 80. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam "The sources are silent about the ethnic origin of his family. He may have been of Persian descent Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi calls him afdal-i Īrān (A sage of Iran)". Based on its terminology, Al-Urmawi's 'international' modal system was intended to represent the predominant Arab and Persian local traditions.

In his youth, he went to Baghdad and was educated in the Arabic language, literature, history and penmanship. He made a name for himself as an excellent calligrapher and was appointed copyist at the new library built by the Abbassid caliph al-Mustaṣim.

He had also studied Shafii law and comparative law (Khilaf Fiqh) at the Mustansiriyya Madrasa which opened in 631 AH (1234 AD). This qualified him to assume a post in al-Mustaʿsim's juridical administration and, after 656 AH (1258), to head the supervision of the foundations (naẓariyyat al-waqf) in Iraq until 665 AH (1267), when Nasir al-Din Tusi took over.

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