Dimitrie Kantemir/ Kantemiroğlu (1673-1723)

Dimitrie Kantemir was a Moldavian prince, son of Moldavian ruler Constantin Kantemir, and a polymath—scholar, historian, and philosopher. As part of his education in Moldavia, he received a classical Greek education under the Cretan monk Ieremias Kakavelas. During his years in Istanbul (1693–1710), he continued his studies at the Great School of the Nation at Fener while also immersing himself in Islamic theology, Ottoman-Turkish, and Arabic. Simultaneously, he devoted himself to studying the musical traditions of the Ottoman court, learning from two distinguished Rum musicians for fifteen years: the former Christian convert Kemanî Ahmed Çelebi (d. 1720) and Angelis (Tanburi Angeli). Kantemir became a master of the tanbur and distinguished himself as a composer. His most significant musical legacy is the Kitabu İlmu’l Musiki Ala Vechi’l-Hurufat (The Book of the Science of Music through Alphabetical Notation), a groundbreaking theoretical treatise on Ottoman music. The work includes an extensive collection of compositions transcribed in an innovative alphabetical notation system that Kantemir himself devised.