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PESHAWAR: The trio of popular Pashto folksingers — Gulzar Alam, Ahmed Gul and Almas Khan Khalil — recorded an impressive Qawali show and vowed to revive mystical tradition in Pashto.
The senior folk vocalists presented Sufi poetry of Hamza Baba, Abdur Rahman Baba, Fida Mutahir and Khatir Afridi and enthralled a select gathering.
The Qawali tradition seeps deep in Sufi poetry and dates back to the times of Pir Roshan (1525-1585), who lived in the 16th century. A major portion of Pashto poetry in its classical age carries Sufi thoughts borrowed from earlier Persian mysticism. Khushal Khan Khattak and Abdur Rahman Baba in the early 17th century covered the subject of mystic thoughts in a different manner. They made its language easier for common Pakhtuns. Centuries after the death of Abdur Rahman Baba, Qawali singers used to arrange Mehfil-e-Sama on the shrine of the great Sufi poet. During the last decades, the Qawali tradition suffered when drugs addicts occupied the shrines of the Sufi saints.
In the early 40s when recording facilities were introduced in the undivided India, most Pakhtun singers including Gulistan Baba, Abdullah Jan Ustad and many others sang Sufi numbers of the classical Pashto poets. Late Rafiq Shinwari was the first folksinger and music composer who had launched Qawali tradition on the state-run radio and television in the 60s. Gulzar Alam said that in the early days of his career, he used to accompany Rafiq Shinwari under whose guidance Fida Hussain, Moen Ali, Hidayatullah, Khayal Mohammad, Gulnar Begum, Kishwar Sultan, Ahmed Khan, Mahjabeen Qazalbash and Rahat Shah were groomed and became perfect Qawali maestros. “But only a few of them kept up the golden tradition of Sufi Kalam,” he said.
The senior folk vocalists presented Sufi poetry of Hamza Baba, Abdur Rahman Baba, Fida Mutahir and Khatir Afridi and enthralled a select gathering.
The Qawali tradition seeps deep in Sufi poetry and dates back to the times of Pir Roshan (1525-1585), who lived in the 16th century. A major portion of Pashto poetry in its classical age carries Sufi thoughts borrowed from earlier Persian mysticism. Khushal Khan Khattak and Abdur Rahman Baba in the early 17th century covered the subject of mystic thoughts in a different manner. They made its language easier for common Pakhtuns. Centuries after the death of Abdur Rahman Baba, Qawali singers used to arrange Mehfil-e-Sama on the shrine of the great Sufi poet. During the last decades, the Qawali tradition suffered when drugs addicts occupied the shrines of the Sufi saints.
In the early 40s when recording facilities were introduced in the undivided India, most Pakhtun singers including Gulistan Baba, Abdullah Jan Ustad and many others sang Sufi numbers of the classical Pashto poets. Late Rafiq Shinwari was the first folksinger and music composer who had launched Qawali tradition on the state-run radio and television in the 60s. Gulzar Alam said that in the early days of his career, he used to accompany Rafiq Shinwari under whose guidance Fida Hussain, Moen Ali, Hidayatullah, Khayal Mohammad, Gulnar Begum, Kishwar Sultan, Ahmed Khan, Mahjabeen Qazalbash and Rahat Shah were groomed and became perfect Qawali maestros. “But only a few of them kept up the golden tradition of Sufi Kalam,” he said.
