Italian classical music is difficult to do if everyone is singing a melody at the same time; thus, polyphony gave way to homophony, and early opera consisted of relatively simple melodies with texts about Greek mythology, sung in Italian and supported by simple harmonies. The important city in Italy in this development of music in the 16th century was Florence. (See also: Florentine Camerata, Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Peri, Palestrina, Arcangelo Corelli.) Besides Florence, two other Italian cities are particularly worthy of mention in the period around 1600. There is somewhat of a friendly rivalry between advocates of the two cities as to which
Peri by locking them in iron cages. This persecution was brought about by, as the divs perceived it, the peris' lack of sufficient self-esteem to join the rebellion against perversion. With the spread of Islam through Persia, the "pari" (or "peri" in Turkish) was integrated into Islamic folklore. They are often regarded as a kind of good jinn, while the evil ones are often identified by Persians with the divs. The belief in Peri still persist among Muslims in India as a type of spiritual creature besides the jinn, shayatin and the ghosts of the wicked. Turkish Muslims often accept the