Throughout Persian History, the power of Iranian traditional music has been noted. Safvat relates that during the Sassanian period during a musical gathering, the audience was so moved by a composition played by the renown harp master "Nakisaa" that they lost consciousness and tore their clothes. Thus the name of the gushe (A section of the dastgah) Jame-Daran or "garment-rendering" Another story reported by Safvat is as follows:
A famous story about Farabi tells how that one day in the presence of the king, he aroused the king's anger and felt his own life in danger. He immediately picked up his instrument and began to play happy and funny tunes and encouraged everyone to listen. He gradually changed these tunes to sad ones, so that everyone started crying. By another change, he put everyone to sleep and escaped.
Safvat explains that in the old times, they considered music a spiritual art and believed that it could produce all sorts of changes in the soul. The story of Barbad informing the king about the death of his horse through a song has been noted in the section on early music history. From these and other similar tales, it is obvious that music and musicians who were also singers and poets, had a strong influence on the leaders of nations and even the affairs of the realm. But their power was not only political. Safvat writes of the healing powers of correct music noting the case of Homer's Odyssey when a magic chant stopped the flowing of blood from Ulysses wound. He goes on to explain that according to Avicenna in the 11th century, ney music helped in healing typhoid. In his French publication "Iran, les traditions musicales" Safvat lists the curative powers of some of the modes according to historians as follows:
Rast - combat l'humeur qui coule des yeux;
Araq - guerit les palpitations du coeur, le demence, la chaleur de temperament;
Avaz e Esfehan - donne intelligence et acuite d'espirit en meme temps qu'il protege le corps contre les maladies froides et seches;
Rahavi - calme le cephalalgie, les maladies pituitaires sanguines et combat la distortion de la bouche;
Bozorg - guerit les douleurs d'entrailles, les maladies pyretiques et contribue a purifier l'espirit et a redresser la pensee; il protege contre suggestions diaboliques, la crainte, la terreur;
Zangule - est utile aux cardiques;
But cure through music was not solely an ancient phenomenon; according to Safvat, not many years ago Abol Hosein Shahnazi cured a case of typhoid by playing setar a half hour at the bedside of the patient. Another proof of the healing powers of music is cited by Safvat at a panel discussion during the 1973 Shiraz Arts Festival. He related the story of how santur master Habib Soma'i went to visit Prime Minister Forushi who was plagued with high blood pressure and no relief had come from the medical profession. Soma'i played for his sick host and the minister felt better. Upon examining him the doctors found that he had returned to normal.
At the eighth Shiraz Arts Festival, a Baluchi exorcism ceremony involving music was performed. In Baluchestan people can succumb to an illness known as "guat" which means "wind" or "pride" The cure for this type of possession is through prayer chants accompanies by instrumental music furnished by instruments such as flute or double pipe instruments called "do-ney" a variety of the "tambur" called "tambire" which is used as a drone, possibly a bowed instrument such as the "qaichak" or "sorud" and percussion instruments. These ceremonies appear to work and the patients are usually relieved of various possession diseases through music.
