Fateh Ali Khan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1901 (1901) |
| Died | 1964 (aged 62–63) |
| Occupation | Musician (Qawwali singer) |
| Known for | Qawwali singing |
| Relatives | Mubarak Ali Khan (Qawwali group partner and brother) |
| Awards | Pride of Performance Award by thePresident of Pakistan in 1960 |
Fateh Ali Khan Jullundhri Qawwal (1901–1964) was a classical singer andqawwali musician in the 1940s and 1950s.[1][2]
He was born inJullundur, Punjab,India in 1901.[1] Fateh Ali Khan was the father of PakistaniQawwali musicians,Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan andFarrukh Fateh Ali Khan. His ancestors had emigrated to Basti Sheikh Darvesh in Jalandhar at the end of the 12th century.[3][4] Their family has an unbroken tradition ofQawwali and is called theQawwal Bacchon gharana, linked closely to theSufiChishti Order for over 600 years.[5][1][2]
Fateh Ali Khan was trained in classical music and Qawwali by his father, Maula Bakhsh Khan (Ali Khan), and he, soon after his training, distinguished himself as a skilled vocalist and instrumentalist. He learned to play traditional Indian instruments such assitar,sarod andvichitraveena as well as Western instruments like the violin.[1] He also mastered thousands of verses inPunjabi,Urdu,Arabic andPersian.
Fateh Ali Khan was the leader of his family's Qawwali party but they were billed asFateh Ali Khan, Mubarak Ali Khan & Party.Mubarak Ali Khan, his brother, shared both singing andharmonium-playing duties with him. They were regarded as among the foremost exponents of Qawwali in their time. They are credited with first popularizing the poetry ofAllama Muhammad Iqbal through their singing.[6]
Allama Iqbal's poetry was regarded as difficult to set musical tunes to, and while he was highly admired in academic circles and by intellectuals, Allama Iqbal did not have much of a popular following yet among the common people mainly due to the radio broadcasting technology still under development back then inBritish India. Fateh Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan, more than anyone else, helped Iqbal achieve popular success as well by first popularizing Iqbal's poem by singing it as their qawwali,Sehar Qareeb Hai Taaron Ka Haal Kya Hoga.[7]
Allama Iqbal paid the ultimate homage to the two brothers by saying: 'I was restricted to schools and colleges only. You (Ustad Fateh Ali Khan) have spread my poetry through India'.[2]
In 1948, his son,Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was born inFaisalabad, Pakistan. Fateh Ali Khan wanted Nusrat to become a doctor or an engineer because he felt Qawwali artists had low social status. However, Nusrat showed such interest in and aptitude for Qawwali that his father soon relented, and began training him. However, Fateh Ali Khan died in 1964 at the age of sixty, when Nusrat was sixteen and still in school. Nusrat's training was completed by Fateh Ali Khan's brothers, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan. Nusrat went on to become a household name and widely respected as the greatest exponent of Qawwali.[2]
"Born into a family that has been associated with qawwali for the last 600 years...