I followed the scent to come upon a 16 year old boy. I smelled something all around me, but a single scent stood out, extremely alluring. Suddenly my vision went red and my senses heightened.

I rubbed my neck gently in pain and the feeling in my throat only got worse. I sighed and got up, starting towards home having woken up in an alleyway. I had checked this morning to see what had caused the severe pain, only to find those marks.

They disappeared within a blink and suddenly an excruciating pain erupted through my neck and everything blurred to black. When I was sure everything was okay again, I started back in my original direction, but when I turned my head, I was met with bright glowing yellow eyes. I looked around, frantic and panicking, but there was nothing. I turned quickly, but it just happened again in another direction. I was walking down the street at midnight because I needed fresh air away from all the stress of home when I suddenly saw a flash of something going past me. It still stung badly from last night, and even then last night isn't very clear, so I'm still not entirely sure what happened. I gently touched my neck were I felt two identical marks a couple centimeters apart and hissed, wincing. My throat feels dry and I'm having an extremely weird craving, for what, I don't know. An important contribution not only to ethnomusicology, but to the discipline of history and the field of nationalist studies.'-James L.A/N: This first chapter takes place in the 997's. Revisionist in the best sense of the word, this book is a case study of how the present creates the past it needs. 'Lucas turns the standard history of Persian music on its head, proving it is not a story of the survival of an ancient tradition, but rather the story of the invention of tradition. Lucas’s research and analysis offer a new basis for understanding the significance of Persian music history in relation to the larger contexts that define Persian history.'-Mohsen Mohammadi, Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles ' Music of a Thousand Years presents an innovative narrative of Persian music history and also provides important new perspectives on how to analyze the meaning of music and culture in historical perspective.

I found answers to many questions I had been pondering for years-not only about technical aspects of the twelve maqam and radif systems, but also about broader historical patterns of change in the music traditions of Iran and the Persianate world.”-Kamran Scot Aghaie, Associate Professor of Iranian History, University of Texas The book is very well written and highly original in its approach and is a major contribution to the field. Lucas very effectively combines historical analysis, ethnomusicology, and musicology to provide a broad, holistic explanation for complex, nuanced processes of change.

A thousand years