Born near Paris in 1872 to a rich banking family, and from 1910 to his death in 1932 a resident of Sidi Bou Said to the north of Tunis, Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger set himself the task of editing and translating Arab writings on music from the 9th Century onwards in order to arrive at a general account of Arab musical traditions, theory and contemporary practice. The Baron himself only lived to see the publication in 1930 of the first volume of his projected multi-volume, and ever-growing, work. The remaining five, published at intervals over the next 30 years, are the work of the Baron’s assistant, Manoubi Snoussi (d 1966), and it is unclear how much of the work included in the latter volumes is the work of the Baron and how much is the work of Snossi.

1930—1959年編撰,全六冊。這是一套曆時近三十年的力作。第一捲和第二捲上半部分為阿爾.法拉比的《音樂的大著》法譯本，第三捲是薩菲．阿迪恩的《 鏇律的寫法》全譯，第四捲為奧斯曼帝國時期獻給穆罕穆德二世的《音樂通論》，第五捲是近代阿拉伯古典音樂的理論與實踐相關的研究，其中涉及到音階、鏇法和一些文獻，第六捲為阿拉伯音樂的節奏組織與麯式分析。全書還包含著許多五綫譜的譜例。該書是一部十分係統又全麵論述阿拉伯音樂史的重要著作。