QAWWALI, a mystic style of Music was started by Hazrat Amir Khusro, RA.
Its primordial name was Sa' maa.When Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti came from Sanjar, Iran, to Ajmer, India,
to preach Islam. He thoroughly studied the Hindu style of preaching
and found that they were very fond of music, and music was in all
rites and rituals of the Hindus Society. The Brahmins used to sing
Ashloks, Shabads and Bhajans with percussion and wind instruments.
So he adopted the same style of preaching among the new Muslims and
after some years, tens of thousands of Hindus embraced Islam in Ajmer
and afterwards it got familiarity and spreaded in every part of the
Sub-Continent. The evolution of Quawwali or Sa 'maa is centuries old.
It came from Khorasan, Iran, where the nomad singers performed their
songs with drum-beats and hand-clapping. A leading singer used to sing
the Persian rhymes and the other partymen accompanied him with hand clapping.
Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti, being an Iranian, experimented the same style,
for the Islamic-cum-preaching style before the Hindus and they came under
the tutelage of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti, RA and embraced Islam one by one.
This way of preaching got the name quawwali in the era of Amir Khusro, the
disciple of Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia, RA, in the l3th, AD. Hazrat Amir Khusro's
Quawwali depicted with Quawwal, Qalbana, Rung, Naqsh, Gul, etc.
The Quawwali was started from 'Quawwal-Bachey', clan of Delhi and it emphasised
the musicians of the era to adopt, especially the Sufis ( mystics ), were much
lured and influenced by this style of singing quaawwali became a must in all
the sects of Islamic preaching.
More pictures comming soon InshaAllah Taala
