Kitab al-Aghani (Arabic: كتاب الأغاني, The Book of Songs), is a collection of poems an songs with the stories of the composers and singers in many volumes from the oldest epoch of Arabic literature down to the 9th century, written by the Arab scholar Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. The poems were put to music, but the musical signs are no longer readable. Because of the accompanying biographical annotations on the authors and composers, the work is an important historical source. It contains a mass of information as to the life and customs of the early Arabs, and is the most valuable authority we have for their pre-Islamic and early Islamic days.