Friday 21 Friday, April 27, 2018 Lifestyle | Music & Movies Pakistani Qawwali (Sufi devotional music) singer Talha Pakistani devotees Sabri (center) enjoying a Qawwali performs with his (Sufi devotional group during an music) performance event in Karachi. at a shrine in — AFP photos Islamabad. Pakistan’s qawwali music fights to be heard after singer’s death early two years after Pakistan’s lic display of affection in Karachi. “He Pakistan’s most prominent qawwal, be- or elite can afford to pay a qawwali foremost qawwali singer Amjad was a rockstar of the masses,” explained coming a fixture on national television group to perform at parties or weddings. NSabri was gunned down in journalist and musician Ali Raj, who stud- and radio. But now musicians worry that “In the good old times, even a poor man... Karachi, the devotional music of Islam’s ied under Sabri. his murder-and the fear it sparked-has would manage to organize qawwali,” ex- Sufi mystical sect is struggling to survive, His murder was just the latest in a se- hastened the decline of qawwali. plained singer Hashim Ali, saying he is as fears of sectarianism and modern ries of blows in recent years to strike at now lucky to play four or five shows dur- pressures slowly drown out its power- the heart of qawwali, which has thrived in Fear, faith and finances ing religious periods compared to dozens fully hypnotic strains. Thousands poured South Asia since the 13th century. “I am At Cafe Noor in Karachi where in the past. The rise of more globalized into the streets near Sabri’s family home still in shock,” Sabri’s brother Talha told qawwals have gathered for decades, mu- interpretations of Islam has similarly after his death for his funeral, a rare pub- AFP from his family home adorned with sicians said business has been falling for chipped away at qawwali’s popularity, as pictures of his superstar sibling, whose years, with fewer shrines willing to host Muslims in Pakistan increasingly depart fame spanned the subcontinent and be- performances. Sectarian militants have from the subcontinent’s syncretic reli- yond. “Why do they hate qawwali? Why targeted Sufis, a mystical sect of Islam, gious traditions and look to the Middle do they hate music?” Embraced widely for years-with the Taliban and increas- East for guidance. as a part of Pakistan’s national identity, ingly the Islamic State sending suicide “People access... (qawwali music) as a qawwali has played a key unifying role, bombers to attack shrines over what they part of their faith,” said Ahmer Naqvi, with city-dwellers and villagers flocking see as heretical displays of faith. Just chief operations officer for Pakistani to Sufi shrines for concerts. months after Sabri was killed, IS claimed music app Patari. “A lot of the younger Performances traditionally last hours, back-to-back attacks on shrines in the population is abandoning the ways that with a troupe of musicians interweaving provinces of Balochistan and Sindh that the older generations worshipped.” In this file photo Pakistani Qawwali (Sufi soulful improvisational threads under killed more than 100 people combined. Increasing conservatism has also hit devotional music) singer Talha Sabri lyrical, lilting vocal lines to a steady beat Earlier this month, the military approved the genre. Even before Karachi’s Abdul- performs during an event in Karachi. of thundering rhythms on dholak and death sentences for two militants linked lah Shah Ghazi Mazar shrine-famed for But they face an uphill battle. “The youth... tabla drums and hand clapping, sending to Sabri’s killing. But questions linger hosting performances-was attacked by they don’t know what exactly qawwali is,” fans drifting into trance-like transcendent over who ordered the murder-the Pak- the Taliban in 2010, organizers had im- said fan Muhammad Saeed, 24, citing the states. The genre entered a golden age in istani Taliban, or another group-forcing posed restrictions on shows for years as popularity of contemporary music at the 1970s as singers known as qawwals his brother to spend months guarded by part of a campaign against qawwali’s home and from abroad, during a private battled for prestige, with the Sabri Broth- elite paramilitary rangers. Such fears, hashish-smoking fans. The pressure has show in Islamabad. ers-led by Amjad’s father, Ghulam Farid meanwhile, are not the only factors trig- compelled more qawwals to try their hand Sabri-and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan finding gering qawwali’s decline. Inflationary at fusion, or even branch into more finan- ‘Under pressure’ Pakistani performer Abdullah Niazi audiences around the world. Following pressures have also kept the qawwals’ cially viable genres such as pop. Only a After 16 years playing by his brother’s singing Qawwali (Sufi devotional music) the death of Ghulam, Amjad took the working-class fan base from hosting minority have embraced social media to side, Talha Sabri said he has struggled to at a shrine in Islamabad. helm and slowly carved out his place as shows. Increasingly only the middle class promote themselves, journalist Raj said. find his place on stage until Amjad’s own sons are old enough to perform. “We are under pressure,” he said, with his long hair and neatly trimmed beard cutting a stark resemblance to his brother. But even as he fears the possibility of ex- tremists striking again, he refuses to be cowed. “Regardless of these threats, we have to keep on,” he said. For Sabri’s mother Asghari Begum however, the murder of her son marked a turning point for qawwali, ringing the death knell for its future. Her family previously made it through the tumultuous 1980s, when po- litical parties and gangs battled for turf, turning Karachi’s streets into killing fields. But they were respected then, passing unscathed through the city’s numerous pickets. Amjad’s death proved things have changed. “He has gone now,” she Pakistani performers singing Qawwali (Sufi devotional music) Pakistani devotees gather at the shrine of Sufi Saint said. “And the passion of qawwali has at a shrine in Islamabad. Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi. gone with him.” — AFP.