Amjad Sabri: Qawwali ‘rock star’ who upset the Taliban
1970-2016
AMJAD Sabri, who has been shot dead in Karachi aged 45, was one of Pakistan’s most famous singers; a master of qawwali, a form of Islamic devotional music, he gained a following throughout South Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, and among diaspora communities from the subcontinent.
Qawwali music has its roots in Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam that has numerous followers in Pakistan and is based on a philosophy of tolerance and peace. The early Muslim preachers who came to the Indian subcontinent tended to assimilate with the local culture, and created a more colourful version of Islam, embracing art, music and dance, which contrasts with the puritanical creed of today’s Taliban.
Qawwali involves the repetitive and intensely emotional singing of spiritual poetry, usually in praise of Allah, or of Muslim teachers and saints. Songs often convey a relationship between the singer and God that is intensely personal, almost as if they are lovers.
The singing is accompanied by a portable harmonium and a tabla, a sort of drum. Performances of qawwali often involve the audience clapping and swaying in time to the music.
Born in Karachi on December 23 1970, Amjad Farid Sabri hailed from a long line of qawwali singers. His father, Ghulam Farid Sabri, and uncle, Maqbool Ahmed Sabri, had risen to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, when they reworked the traditional style of qawwali and also introduced the genre to the West, becoming the first qawwali singers to tour the US.
The family traces its musical lineage to the 16th century, claiming to be direct descendants of Mian Tansen, a famous musician at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great.
The family migrated to Pakistan in 1947, since when it has been based in Karachi.
Amjad Sabri carried on the tradition established by his father and uncle, travelling widely to India, the US and Europe, and becoming known as the “rock star” of qawwali due to the contemporary touches he added to the songs.
Qawwalis such as Bhar Do Jholi and Taajdar-e-Haram, which he performed at shows in India and Pakistan, became popular hits.
In recent years, however, Sufi followers in Pakistan (and further afield in countries such as Bangladesh) have been targeted by the more militant forms of Islam that have gained a foothold.
Sabri appears to have become a target of the militants in 2014 when the High Court in Islamabad, responding to a petition filed by a group linked to the city’s hardline Red Mosque, issued a notice of blasphemy to two private television channels which had played a qawwali, sung by Sabri, that referred to the Prophet Mohammed, during a morning show. Sabri was named in the complaint.
On Wednesday, Sabri was travelling by car to a television studio in Karachi when he and a companion were fired upon by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, leaving them critically injured. Both men died later in hospital. The Hakimullah Mehsud faction, a splinter group of the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the murders. A spokesman for the group said it had killed Sabri because he was a “blasphemer”.
He is survived by his wife and five children. — © The Daily Telegraph, London
In recent years, Sufi followers in Pakistan have been targeted by the more militant forms of Islam