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Quarter tone
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"24 equal temperament" redirects here. For other uses, see Arab tone system.
A quarter tone ( play (help·info)) is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone.
Trumpet with 3 normal valves and a quartering on the extension valve (right).
Many composers are known for having written music including quarter tones or the quarter-tone scale (24 equal temperament)—proposed by 19th-century music theorists Heinrich Richter in 1823[1] and Mikha'il Mishaqah c. 1840[2]—including: Pierre Boulez, Julián Carrillo, Mildred Couper, George Enescu, Alberto Ginastera, Gérard Grisey, Alois Hába, Ljubica Marić, Charles Ives, Tristan Murail, Krzysztof Penderecki, Giacinto Scelsi, Ammar El Sherei, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tui St. George Tucker, Ivan Alexandrovich Wyschnegradsky, and Iannis Xenakis (see List of quarter tone pieces).
Contents
[hide]
1 Types of quarter tones
2 Playing quarter tones on musical instruments
3 Music of the Middle East
3.1 Quarter tone scale
4 In popular music
5 Ancient Greek tetrachords
6 Interval size in equal temperament
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Types of quarter tones[edit]
Composer Charles Ives chose the four-note chord above (C–D –G–A ) as good possibility for a "fundamental" chord in the quarter-tone scale, akin not to the tonic but to the major chord of traditional tonality.[3] Play chord (help·info) or Play scale (help·info)
The term quarter tone can refer to a number of different intervals, all very close in size. For example, some 17th- and 18th-century theorists used the term to describe the distance between a sharp and enharmonically distinct flat in mean-tone temperaments (e.g., D♯–E♭).[4] In the quarter tone scale, also called 24 tone equal temperament (24-TET), the quarter tone is 50 cents, or a frequency ratio of 24√2 or approximately 1.0293, and divides the octave into 24 equal steps (equal temperament). In this scale the quarter tone is the smallest step. A semitone is thus made of two steps, and three steps make a three-quarter tone play (help·info) or neutral second, half of a minor third. The 8-TET scale is composed of three-quarter tones ( Play (help·info)).
In just intonation the quarter tone can be represented by the septimal quarter tone, 36:35 (48.77 cents), or by the undecimal quarter tone, 33:32 (53.27 cents), approximately half the semitone of 16:15 or 25:24. The ratio of 36:35 is only 1.23 cents narrower than a 24-TET quarter tone. This just ratio is also the difference between a minor third (6:5) and septimal minor third (7:6).
Quarter tones and intervals close to them also occur in a number of other equally tempered tuning systems. 22-TET contains an interval of 54.55 cents, slightly wider than a quarter-tone, whereas 53-TET has an interval of 45.28 cents, slightly smaller. 72-TET also has equally tempered quarter-tones, and indeed contains 3 quarter tone scales, since 72 is divisible by 24. The smallest interval in 31 equal temperament (the "diesis" of 38.71 cents) is half a chromatic semitone, one-third of a diatonic semitone and one-fifth of a whole tone, so it may function as a quarter tone, a fifth-tone or a sixth-tone.
Composer Ben Johnston, to accommodate the just septimal quarter tone, uses a small "7" ( ) as an accidental to indicate a note is lowered 49 cents, or an upside down "7" ( ) to indicate a note is raised 49 cents,[5] or a ratio of 36:35.[6] Johnston uses an upward and downward arrow to indicate a note is raised or lowered by a ratio of 33:32, or 53 cents.[6]
Playing quarter tones on musical instruments[edit]
A quarter tone clarinet by Fritz Schüller.
Because many musical instruments manufactured today are designed for the 12-tone scale, not all are usable for playing quarter tones. Sometimes special playing techniques must be used.
Conventional musical instruments that cannot play quarter tones (except by using special techniques—see below) include:
Most standard or unmodified non-electronic keyboard instruments, such as pianos, organs, and accordions
Fretted string instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, and ukuleles (though on these it is possible to play quarter tones by pitch-bending, with special tunings, or with customized necks)
Pitched percussion instruments, if standard techniques are used, and if the instruments are not tunable
Western wind instruments that use keys or valves
Woodwind instruments, such as clarinets, flutes, and oboes (though with many of these, it is still possible using non-standard techniques such as special fingerings or by the player manipulating their embouchure, to play at least some quarter tones, if not a whole scale)
Valved brass instruments (trumpet, tuba) (though, as with woodwinds, embouchure manipulation, as well as harmonic tones that fall closer to quarter-tones than half-tones, make quarter-tone scales possible; the horn technique of adjusting pitch with the right hand in the bell makes this instrument an exception)
Conventional musical instruments that can play quarter tones include
Electronic instruments:
Synthesizers, using either special keyboard controllers or continuous-pitch controllers such as fingerboard controllers, or when controlled by a sequencer capable of outputting quarter-tone control signals
Theremins and other continuously pitched instruments
Fretless string instruments, such as fretless guitars, fretless electric basses, ouds, members of the huqin family of instruments, and members of the violin family
String instruments with movable frets (such as the sitar)
Specially fretted string instruments (such as the Turkish bağlama).
Fretted string instruments specially tuned to quarter tones
Pedal steel guitar
Wind instruments whose main means of tone-control is a slide, such as trombones, the tromboon, slide trumpet and slide whistles
Specially keyed woodwind instruments
Valved brass instruments with extra, quarter-tone valves, and natural brass instruments that play through the 11th and 13th partials of the harmonic series
Kazoo
Pitched percussion instruments, when tuning permits (e.g., timpani), or using special techniques
Experimental instruments have been built to play in quarter tones; for example a quarter tone clarinet by Fritz Schüller (1883–1977) of Markneukirchen, and a quarter tone mechanism for flutes by Eva Kingma.
Other instruments can be used to play quarter tones when using audio signal processing effects such as pitch shifting.
Pairs of conventional instruments tuned a quarter tone apart can be used to play some quarter tone music. Indeed, quarter-tone pianos have been built, which consist essentially of two pianos stacked one above the other in a single case, one tuned a quarter tone higher than the other.[citation needed]
Music of the Middle East[edit]
See also: Persian traditional music, Arabic music, and Arab tone system
Many Persian dastgah and Arabic maqamat contain intervals of three-quarter tone size; a short list of these follows.[7]
Bayati (بیاتی): D E F G A B♭ C D
Rast (راست):
C D E F G A B C (ascending)
C B♭ A G F E D C (descending)
Saba (صبا): D E F G♭ A B♭ C D
Sigah (سه گاه): E F G A B C D E
‘Ajam (عجم)
Hoseyni
The Islamic philosopher and scientist Al-Farabi described a number of intervals in his work in music, including a number of quarter tones.
Assyrian/Syriac Church Music Scale:[8]
Qadmoyo (Bayati)
Trayono (Hussayni)
Tlithoyo (Segah)
Rbiʿoyo (Rast)
Hmishoyo
Shtithoyo (ʿAjam)
Shbiʿoyo
Tminoyo
Quarter tone scale[edit]
Known as gadwal in Arabic,[9] the quarter tone scale was developed in the Middle East in the eighteenth century and many of the first detailed writings in the nineteenth century Syria describe the scale as being of 24 equal tones.[10] The invention of the scale is attributed to Mikhail Mishaqa whose work Essay on the Art of Music for the Emir Shihāb (al-Risāla al-shihābiyya fi 'l-ṣināʿa al-mūsīqiyya) is devoted to the topic but also makes clear his teacher Sheikh Muhammad al-Attar (1764–1828) was one of many already familiar with the concept.[11]
The quarter tone scale may be primarily a theoretical construct in Arabic music. The quarter tone gives musicians a "conceptual map" they can use to discuss and compare intervals by number of quarter tones, and this may be one of the reasons it accompanies a renewed interest in theory, with instruction in music theory a mainstream requirement since that period.[10]
Previously, pitches of a mode were chosen from a scale consisting of seventeen tones, developed by Safi al-Din al-Urmawi in the thirteenth century.[11]
Composer Charles Ives chose the chord C–D –F–G –B♭ as good possibility for a "secondary" chord in the quarter-tone scale, akin to the minor chord of traditional tonality. He considered that it may be built upon any degree of the quarter tone scale[3] Here is the secondary "minor" and its "first inversion":
In popular music[edit]
The Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental musical instrument builder Yuichi Onoue developed a 24-TET quarter tone tuning on his guitar.[12] Several quarter-tone albums have been recorded by Jute Gyte, a one-man avantgarde black metal band from Missouri, USA[13][14]. Another quartertone metal album was issued by the Swedish band Massive Audio Nerve[15]. Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's album Flying Microtonal Banana heavily emphasize quarter-tones.
Ancient Greek tetrachords[edit]
Greek Dorian enharmonic genus: two disjunct tetrachords each of a quarter tone, quarter tone, and major third. Play (help·info)
The enharmonic genus of the Greek tetrachord consisted of a ditone or an approximate major third, and a semitone, which was divided into two microtones. Aristoxenos, Didymos and others presented the semitone as being divided into two approximate quarter tone intervals of about the same size, while other ancient Greek theorists described the microtones resulting from dividing the semitone of the enharmonic genus as unequal in size (i.e., one smaller than a quarter tone and one larger).[16][17]
Interval size in equal temperament[edit]
Here are the sizes of some common intervals in a 24-note equally tempered scale, with the interval names proposed by Alois Hába (neutral third, etc.) and Ivan Wyschnegradsky (major fourth, etc.):
interval name
size (steps)
size (cents)
midi
just ratio
just (cents)
midi
error (cents)
octave 24 1200 play (help·info) 2:1 1200.00 play (help·info) +00.00
semidiminished octave 23 1150 play (help·info) 35:18 1151.23 play (help·info) −01.23
supermajor seventh 23 1150 play (help·info) 27:14 1137.04 play (help·info) +12.96
major seventh 22 1100 play (help·info) 15:80 1088.27 play (help·info) +11.73
neutral seventh, major tone 21 1050 play (help·info) 11:60 1049.36 play (help·info) +00.64
neutral seventh, minor tone 21 1050 play (help·info) 20:11 1035.00 play (help·info) +15.00
large just minor seventh 20 1000 play (help·info) 9:5 1017.60 play (help·info) −17.60
small just minor seventh 20 1000 play (help·info) 16:90 0996.09 play (help·info) +03.91
supermajor sixth/subminor seventh 19 0950 play (help·info) 7:4 0968.83 play (help·info) −18.83
major sixth 18 0900 play (help·info) 5:3 0884.36 play (help·info) +15.64
neutral sixth 17 0850 play (help·info) 18:11 0852.59 play (help·info) −02.59
minor sixth 16 0800 play (help·info) 8:5 0813.69 play (help·info) −13.69
subminor sixth 15 0750 play (help·info) 14:90 0764.92 play (help·info) −14.92
perfect fifth 14 0700 play (help·info) 3:2 0701.96 play (help·info) −01.96
minor fifth 13 0650 play (help·info) 16:11 0648.68 play (help·info) +01.32
lesser septimal tritone 12 0600 play (help·info) 7:5 0582.51 play (help·info) +17.49
major fourth 11 0550 play (help·info) 11:80 0551.32 play (help·info) −01.32
perfect fourth 10 0500 play (help·info) 4:3 0498.04 play (help·info) +01.96
tridecimal major third 09 0450 play (help·info) 13:10 0454.21 play (help·info) −04.21
septimal major third 09 0450 play (help·info) 9:7 0435.08 play (help·info) +14.92
major third 08 0400 play (help·info) 5:4 0386.31 play (help·info) +13.69
undecimal neutral third 07 0350 play (help·info) 11:90 0347.41 play (help·info) +02.59
minor third 06 0300 play (help·info) 6:5 0315.64 play (help·info) −15.64
septimal minor third 05 0250 play (help·info) 7:6 0266.87 play (help·info) −16.87
tridecimal five-quarter tone 05 0250 play (help·info) 15:13 0247.74 play (help·info) +02.26
septimal whole tone 05 0250 play (help·info) 8:7 0231.17 play (help·info) +18.83
major second, major tone 04 0200 play (help·info) 9:8 0203.91 play (help·info) −03.91
major second, minor tone 04 0200 play (help·info) 10:90 0182.40 play (help·info) +17.60
neutral second, greater undecimal 03 0150 play (help·info) 11:10 0165.00 play (help·info) −15.00
neutral second, lesser undecimal 03 0150 play (help·info) 12:11 0150.64 play (help·info) −00.64
15:14 semitone 02 0100 play (help·info) 15:14 0119.44 play (help·info) −19.44
diatonic semitone, just 02 0100 play (help·info) 16:15 0111.73 play (help·info) −11.73
21:20 semitone 02 0100 play (help·info) 21:20 0084.47 play (help·info) +15.53
28:27 semitone 01 0050 play (help·info) 28:27 0062.96 play (help·info) −12.96
33:32 semitone 01 0050 play (help·info) 33:32 0053.27 play (help·info) −3.27
unison 00 0000 play (help·info) 1:1 0000.00 play (help·info) +00.00
Moving from 12-TET to 24-TET allows the better approximation of a number of intervals. Intervals matched particularly closely include the neutral second, neutral third, and (11:8) ratio, or the 11th harmonic. The septimal minor third and septimal major third are approximated rather poorly; the (13:10) and (15:13) ratios, involving the 13th harmonic, are matched very closely. Overall, 24-TET can be viewed as matching the 11th and 13th harmonics more closely than the 7th.
See also[edit]
Musical temperament
List of quarter tone pieces
List of meantone intervals
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Julian Rushton., "Quarter-Tone", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
Jump up ^ Touma, Habib Hassan (1996). The Music of the Arabs, p.16. Trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.
^ Jump up to: a b Boatwright, Howard (1965). "Ives' Quarter-Tone Impressions", Perspectives of New Music 3, no. 2 (Spring-Summer): pp. 22–31; citations on pp. 27–28; reprinted in Perspectives on American Composers, edited by Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone, pp. 3-12, New York: W. W. Norton, 1971, citation on pp. 8–9. "These two chords outlined above might be termed major and minor."
Jump up ^ Julian Rushton, "Quarter-tone", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
Jump up ^ Douglas Keislar; Easley Blackwood; John Eaton; Lou Harrison; Ben Johnston; Joel Mandelbaum; William Schottstaedt. p.193. "Six American Composers on Nonstandard Tunnings", Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 29, No. 1. (Winter, 1991), pp. 176-211.
^ Jump up to: a b Fonville, John (Summer, 1991). "Ben Johnston's Extended Just Intonation: A Guide for Interpreters", p.114, Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 106-137.
Jump up ^ Spector, Johanna (May 1970). "Classical ʿUd Music in Egypt with Special Reference to Maqamat". Ethnomusicology. 14 (2): 243–257. doi:10.2307/849799. JSTOR 00141836. [dead link]
Jump up ^ Asaad, Gabriel (1990). Syria's Music Throughout History
Jump up ^ "Classical 'Ud Music in Egypt with Special Reference to Maqamat", p.246. Johanna Spector. Ethnomusicology, Vol. 14, No. 2. (May, 1970), pp. 243–57.
^ Jump up to: a b Marcus, Scott (1993)."The Interface between Theory and Practice: Intonation in Arab Music", Asian Music, Vol. 24, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1993), pp. 39–58.
^ Jump up to: a b Maalouf, Shireen (2003). "Mikhiiʾil Mishiiqa: Virtual Founder of the Twenty-Four Equal Quartertone Scale", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 123, No. 4. (Oct.–Dec., 2003), pp. 835–40.
Jump up ^ Yuichi Onoue on hypercustom.com Archived November 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ Jute Gyte's album “Ressentiment” on canthisbecalledmusic.com
Jump up ^ Jute Gyte's album “Discontinuities” on jutegyte.bandcamp.com
Jump up ^ Massive Audio Nerve's Album "Cancer Vulgaris" on blabbermouth.net
Jump up ^ Chalmers, John H. Jr. (1993). Divisions of the Tetrachord. Hanover, NH: Frog Peak Music. ISBN 0-945996-04-7 Chapter 5, Page 49
Jump up ^ West, Martin L. (1992). Ancient Greek Music. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814975-1.
Further reading[edit]
Bartolozzi, Bruno (1967). New Sounds for Woodwind. London, New York: Oxford University Press.
Bousted, Donald (2002). "Microtonality, the Recorder and the Quarter-Tone Recorder Manual". The Recorder Magazine 22, no. 3 (Fall): 99–102.
Bousted, Donald (2005). "Next Step Quarter-Tone Resources: Melody". The Recorder Magazine 25, no. 3 (Fall): 88–91.
Caravan, Ronald R. (1979). Preliminary Exercises and Etudes in Contemporary Techniques for Clarinet: Introductory Material for the Study of Multiphonics, Quarter Tones, and Timbre Variation. [Oswego, N.Y.]: Ethos Publications.
Ellis, Don (1975). Quarter Tones: A Text with Musical Examples, Exercises and Etudes. Plainview, N.Y.: Harold Branch Pub. Co.
MacDonald, John (1822). A Treatise on the Harmonic System Arising from the Vibrations of the Aliquot Divisions of Strings According to the Gradual Progress of the Notes from the Middle, to the Remote Extremes: Explaining Simply, by Curved Delineations, the Manner in Which the Harmonic Tones, Half and Quarter Notes, Are Generated and Produced on Every Corresponding Part of the String; and under a Copious Explanatory Description Illustrated by Musical and Appropriate Plates, Giving an Easy and Familiar Adaptation of the Whole to the Purposes of Composition and Instrumental Music, and More Particularly, to the Practice of the Violin, Tenor, Violoncello and Double Bass, on All the Strings, and in Every Compass of These Instruments, by Every Practical Mode of Execution; with Some Musical Animadversions Introductory of the General Subject, Briefly Alluding to the Rise and Progress of Music, and to the Corrections of Temperament: and Stating Various Improvements of Instruments, Experimentally Ascertained: Concluding with an Application or Two of the Principle of Musical Notes, to Purposes of Utility, and a Reference to Terms Less Generally Noticed. London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by T. Preston.
Möllendorff, Willi, and Joe Monzo (2001). Music with Quarter-Tones: Experiences at the Bichromatic Harmonium. [United States]: J. Monzo.
Rees, Carla (2007). "Eva Kingma and the Quarter-Tone Flute". Pan: The Flute Magazine 26, no. 4:23-29.
Rewoldt, Todd (2000). "Altissimo Quarter-Tones for the Alto Saxophone". Saxophone Symposium 25:56–69.
External links[edit]
"quarter-tone / 24-edo", TonalSoft.com.
show
v
t
e
Intervals (list)
Numbers in brackets are the number of semitones in the interval.
Fractional semitones are approximate.
Twelve-
semitone
(Western)
Perfect
unison (0)
fourth (5)
fifth (7)
octave (12)
Major
second (2)
third (4)
sixth (9)
seventh (11)
Minor
second (1)
third (3)
sixth (8)
seventh (10)
Augmented
unison (1)
second (3)
third (5)
fourth (6)
fifth (8)
sixth (10)
seventh (12)
Diminished
second (0)
third (2)
fourth (4)
fifth (6)
sixth (7)
seventh (9)
octave (11)
Compound
ninth (13 or 14)
tenth (15 or 16)
eleventh (17 or 18)
twelfth (18 or 19)
thirteenth (20 or 21)
fourteenth (22 or 23)
fifteenth (24)
Other
systems
Neutral
quarter tone (1⁄2)
second (1 1⁄2)
third (3 1⁄2)
major fourth (5 1⁄2)
minor fifth (6 1⁄2)
sixth (8 1⁄2)
seventh (10 1⁄2)
7-limit
quarter tone (1⁄2)
chromatic semitone (2⁄3)
diatonic semitone (1 1⁄6)
whole tone (2 1⁄3)
subminor third (2 2⁄3)
supermajor third (4 1⁄3)
harmonic (subminor) seventh (9 2⁄3)
Higher-limit
Minor diatonic semitone (17-limit)
Other
intervals
Groups
Microtone
5-limit
Comma
Pseudo-octave
Pythagorean interval
Subminor and supermajor
Commas
Pythagorean comma
Pythagorean apotome
Pythagorean limma
Diesis
Septimal diesis
Septimal comma
Syntonic comma
Schisma
Diaschisma
Major limma
Ragisma
Breedsma
Kleisma
Septimal kleisma
Septimal semicomma
Orwell comma
Semicomma
Septimal quarter tone
Septimal third tone
Measurement
Cent
Centitone
Millioctave
Savart
Others
Quarter tone
Wolf
Ditone
Semiditone
Holdrian comma
Secor
Incomposite interval
show
v
t
e
Microtonal music
Composers
Easley Blackwood Jr.
Heinz Bohlen
Wendy Carlos
Julián Carrillo
Mildred Couper
John Eaton
Alois Hába
Lou Harrison
Christiaan Huygens
Charles Ives
Ben Johnston
Joel Mandelbaum
Joe Maneri
John Schneider
Ezra Sims
Nicola Vicentino
Elaine Walker
Ivan Wyschnegradsky
Inventors of microtonal instruments
Glenn Branca
Ivor Darreg
Adriaan Fokker
Yuri Landman
Harry Partch
Tunings and
scales
Non-octave-
repeating scales
Alpha scale
Beta scale
Gamma scale
Delta scale
Lambda scale (Bohlen–Pierce scale)
Equal temperament
15
17
19
22
24
31
34
41
53
58
72
Just intonation
Harry Partch's 43-tone scale
Triple diatonic
Concepts and
techniques
Limit
Otonality and Utonality
Semitone
Sonido 13
Xenharmonicity
Tonality diamond
Groups and
publications
Boston Microtonal Society
Genesis of a Music
Huygens-Fokker Foundation
Tonalsoft
Xenharmonic Bulletin
Compositions
Beauty in the Beast
quarter tone pieces
just pieces
Mother
Sonata for Microtonal Piano
Suite for Microtonal Piano
Twelve Microtonal Etudes for Electronic Music Media
Other topics
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Cent
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Interval
Interval ratio
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List of meantone intervals
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Euler–Fokker genus
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Hexany
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19-tone
22-tone
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31-tone
34-tone
41-tone
53-tone
58-tone
72-tone
Linear
Meantone (quarter-comma, septimal)
Schismatic
Miracle
Magic
Regular diatonic
Irregular
Well temperament/Temperament ordinaire (Kirnberger, Vallotti, Werckmeister, Young)
Traditional
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Shí-èr-lǜ
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Maqam
Arabian maqam
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833 cents scale
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Lambda scale (Bohlen-Pierce)
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Alhamdulillah
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God in Islam
Allah Jalla Jalālah
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Al-ḥamdu lillāh (Arabic: الحَمْد لله) or alḥamdulillāh, also known as Tahmid is an Arabic phrase meaning "Praise be to God", sometimes translated as "Thank God!"[1] It is frequently used by Muslims of every background, due to its centrality to the texts of the Quran and the words of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but also spoken by some Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews.
The meaning and in-depth explanation of the phrase have been the subject of much exegesis.
Contents
[hide]
1 Meaning
2 Translation
3 Use in other historical sources
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Meaning[edit]
The phrase has three basic parts:
al - The definite article, "the".
ḥamdu - literally meaning "praise", "commendation".[1]
li-llāh - preposition + noun Allāh. Li- is a dative preposition.
The word "Allah" means "God." It is a contraction of the definite article al- and the word ʾilāh (a god, deity). Like in English, the article is used here to single out the noun as being the only one of its kind, "the god" (the one and only) or "God". Therefore, "Allah" is the Arabic word for "God". "ʾilāh" is the Arabic cognate of the ancient Semitic name for God, El.
Alhamdulillah written in Sini-Arabic script on an incense box, Qing dynasty, 19th century, China. Adilnor Collection, Sweden.
The phrase is first found in the first verse of the first sura of the Qur'an (Al-Fatiha). So frequently do Muslims and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians invoke this phrase that the quadriliteral verb hamdala (حمدل), "to say al-ḥamdu li-llāh" was coined, and the derived noun ḥamdala (حمدلة) is used as a name for this phrase.[1]
The triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D (ح م د), meaning "praise," can also be found in the names Muhammad, Mahmud, Hamid and Ahmad.
Translation[edit]
Alhamdulillah
Arabic
الحمد لله
Romanization
al-ḥamdu li-llāh
Literal meaning
Praise to God
English translations of "Alhamdulillah" include:
"All praise is due to God alone" (Muhammad Asad)
"All the praises and thanks be to Allah" (Muhammad Muhsin Khan)
"Praise be to Allah" (Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Marmaduke Pickthall)
"All praise is due to Allah" (Saheeh International)
Use in other historical sources[edit]
Jabir ibn Abd-Allah wrote in a hadith that Muhammad, said: "The best remembrance of God is to repeat lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh and the best prayer (du'a) is al-ḥamdu lillāh." (Narrated by Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, and Hakim who declared its chain 'sound'.)
Abu Huraira wrote that Muhammad said: "Any matter of importance which is not begun with al-ḥamdu lillāh remains defective." From Abu Dawood
Anas bin Malik wrote that Muhammad said: "God is pleased with his slave who says, al-ḥamdu lillāh when he takes a morsel of food and drinks a draught of water."
See also[edit]
Islam portal
Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin
Dhikr
Ash Shakur
Glossary of Islam
Hadha min fadli Rabbi
Hosanna
Subhan Allah
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c Hans Wehr, J. Milton Cowan (1979). A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (4th ed.). Spoken Language Services.
External links[edit]
AlHamdulillah - Detailed Explanation from Tafseer Ibn Katheer - Surah Fatiha
Health benefits of saying Alhamdulillah
Everyday duas in Arabic with transliteration and translation
Alhamdulillah-Commentary
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alhamdulillah&oldid=805009945"
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values: アルハムドゥリッラー – Japanese

values: Хьамдалат – Chechen

values: Аль-Хамду ли-Ллях – Russian

values: Альхамдулілля – Ukrainian

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