Wooly origins

"Who were the Sufi music greats before Nusrat?" asked my friend Gundu, during one of our many gupshups on my terrace. Frankly, I had no name to quote and that led me to believe that I have been so lost in Nusrat and Abeeda's works that I have not gone much beyond that as far as Sufi music is concerned. Again, I wasn't sure if we should commit the mistake of labelling all that is sung by these masters as Sufi music because we have already done that in the case of Hindustani music by covering everything under it as Indian classical music. This may have happened due to the lack of a better term or as a result of traditional classification done by those concerned in the British administration. Western classical music unlike Indian classical music is an appropriate class since it indicates any piece of music that received patronage from church or nobility in Europe between the 17th and early part of the 20th century. On the other hand Hindustani music cannot be defined within a specific time frame and this is not only because its impossible to find the original manuscripts but more so because it does not have an end date. Hindustani music survives on the exponent's ability to improvise which is a complete departure from the exactly opposite practice in Western classical music where its the degree of precision in reproduction of composed works by an individual or an orchestra which supercedes any other facet of the music. If we were to now imagine the challenge of defining Sufi music in the same way as Hindustani music, it wouldn't be wrong.

Sufi, the word itself is derived from Safaa which means pure and Suf which refers to the woolen cloaks wore by clerics in those times. Sufi is a mystical tradition in Islam and its followers often use music as a means of expressing their ideology. It must have been through the Afghan and Mogul invasions that the sect would have come into contact with Indian musicians. This could have possibly led to the evolution of Sufi songs and Quawwalis as we hear them today. Paimona by Zeb and Haniya is a great example of how music in the Indo Persian region can be clearly analyzed in traditional Hindustani structure of Astai and Antara. The same commonality is found in Nusrat's renditions. One theory also suggests that Amir Khusrou founded the principles of Hindustani music and is hence also responsible for the Persian, Turkish and Afghan influences. The meditative quality of Hindustani music could also potentially be derived from its roots in medieval Indian traditions as well as Buddhist influence in the North Western region.

Hence, I may not be able to answer Gundu's question with a set of names before Nusrat but probably by unravelling the evolution of this music style. I intend to use this blog space to present some hypotheses and ideas which are open to debate and opinions.