The care to establishing good disposition of soul and body through the therapeutic use of music was central to the great masters of Ancient Greek and Islamic thought, who analysed in detail how the different types of music correspond to the different conditions of the soul. Music performance was constantly adjusted to the ‘inner instrument of the soul’ - in the person playing and in the listeners -in accordance with the theory of makam (the Ancient Greek tropos, or the Byzantine ihos). The aim was to bring all persons involved in the music event to inner spiritual harmony. Among the most illustrious representatives of the venerable music therapy tradition are: Pythagoras (580-500 BC), Saint Romanos Melodos (died c. AD 556), Al-Faraby (AD 870-950), Avicena (Ibn Sina, AD 980-1037) and Mevlana Rumi (AD 1207-1273). This article focuses on the Islam tradition which developed the earliest most systematic exposition of the therapeutic use of music.