MSICA DE AFGANISTN

Afghanistan.
John Baily

Country in Central Asia.

I. General.
Musical life in Afghanistan has been severely disrupted by warfare since 1978. By the
end of the 20th century the Taliban movement controlled 90% of the country, including
all major cities. In the areas under Taliban control no musical instruments are permitted
in public or private, and all forms of music save unaccompanied singing are prohibited.
In other areas conditions are little better: most former professional musicians are refugees
in Iran, Pakistan, Europe and North America. This article describes some aspects of
music culture which are currently dormant, but no doubt music will re-emerge in due
course, quite possibly not much changed.

1. Ethnic and geographic distribution.

2.

Map of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is situated at the juncture of three major cultural areas: Central Asia, the
Middle East and India. Each area has exercised a strong influence on Afghanistan at
various points in history. In its ethnic origin, language and topography, Afghanistan is
more clearly related to Central Asia and the Middle East than to India. The present-day
boundaries of Afghanistan (fixed c1895) enclose extensions of the Iranian Plateau to the
west and south, the Turkestani steppe-desert to the north and the foothill boundary region
of India to the east. All these areas surround the great central mountain chain, which links
up with the Pamir in the far north-east (fig.1).
Afghanistans peoples embody this mixed background. The majority of the population is
Iranian, falling into two main groups. Some 50% of the total population are Pashtuns
(or Pathans), who speak a western Iranian language, Pashto. Pashtuns are mainly found in
the south-east. Tajiks constitute perhaps 30% of the total population, concentrated mainly
in a broad band extending from the west (Herat) through the north (Turkestan) to the
north-east (Badakhshan). The term Tajik applies to a variety of Persian speakers of
different origin and dialects. Afghan Persian is officially known as Dari. The Hazaras of
central Afghanistan, a large group, also speak Persian, but are not Tajik. Their origin is
not clear but they are sometimes identified as the remnants of Genghis Khan's Mongolian
army which conquered this region in the 13th century. The two official languages of
Afghanistan are Pashto and Persian; most Afghans can communicate in at least one of
these.
Turkic peoples, predominantly the Uzbeks and Turkmens, constitute perhaps 10% of the
total population, mainly inhabiting the north. Other minority ethnic groups are Baluch,
Turkmen, Aimaq, Nuristani, Pamiri, Pashai, Kirghiz and Kazakh.

2. Historical considerations.
In 1747 Afghanistan was established as a nation-state by the Pashtun military leader
Ahmad Shah Durrani. It was already a region through which Middle Eastern and Central
Asian Islamic culture fed into the Indian subcontinent. There was a reciprocal flow of
musical ideas from India: Hindustani music such as the vocal genre Dhrupad must have
been performed in Afghanistan when the eastern provinces were part of the Moghul
Empire (16th18th centuries).
The political lite of 19th-century Afghanistan who ruled from the capital, Kabul, were
persianized Pashtuns, whose eclectic tastes incorporated Persian classical poetry and
North Indian art music. In the 1860s the ruling monarch, Amir Sher Ali Khan, brought a
number of court musicians from the Punjab to Kabul, where they and their descendants
established a bridgehead for North Indian classical (especially vocal) music in
Afghanistan. Court music reached its zenith in the 1920s, in the time of the progressive
monarch King Amanullah. Thereafter Afghan court music was strongly orientated
towards Hindustani music. Musicians cultivated North Indian styles such as vocal khayl
and instrumental renditions of rgas. They also developed two distinctly Afghan genres
of art music (see 5 below).
Radio broadcasting from Kabul became a viable medium in the late 1940s and had a
powerful influence on music-making in many parts of the country. Its effect is shown in
several ways. Radio encouraged the development of new genres of popular music,
usually Persian texts performed in the Pashtun musical style. This created a pan-Afghan
national music which was copied in many parts of the country and adapted to local
regional styles, leading to a certain homogenization of musical taste, since nomad
shepherds and wealthy town-dwellers listened to the same broadcasts. Radio has played
an important role in the unification of national musical standards and in the creation of an
Afghan national identity. Radio broadcasting also gave music a certain respectability and
encouraged the emergence of a new phenomenon: male and female star singers such as
Nashenas, Hafzullah Khyl, Zaland and Mahwash. Amateur performers also felt
encouraged, and a thriving musical culture developed.
During much of the 20th century, music enjoyed great popularity, being indispensable at
celebrations and entertainments. Before the recent prohibitions, many cities had small
theatres where music, song and dance formed a substantial part of the programme. Music
used to be performed in teahouses, especially on market days. It was also an important
part of the spring fairs regularly held in many parts of the country (most famously in
Mazar, with its 40-day festival), and during Jeshun, the annual celebration of Afghan
independence. In the 1960s it became customary to hold evening concerts during the holy
month of Ramadan in cities such as Kabul and Herat.

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From 1978, with the onset of civil war, a new politicization of music occurred. Many
musicians became refugees, while the communist government in Kabul sought to
promote music as a manifestation of the new secularism. The communists used music as
a means of propaganda to support the regime. They set up a network of television
stations, and music formed an important part of their output. Outside Afghanistan,
refugees rarely used live music as a form of resistance, but in Pakistan Afghan
entrepreneurs produced many audio recordings of songs about the war for sale within the
local cassette music industry.
In 1992 the communist regime collapsed. Competing religious-based parties took power,
and the public role for music was drastically reduced. Many more musicians left
Afghanistan, especially when the musicians' quarter in Kabul was repeatedly rocketed
(though perhaps not deliberately targeted). As the Taliban movement seized power, all
instrumental music was banned.

3. The role of music in Afghan life.

Afghan people make an important conceptual difference between music and song. Music
implies musical instruments, either used in instrumental music or to accompany song.
Song is in a separate category. Poetry is extremely important in Afghan culture, and
music is in some respects just one way of delivering a poetic text.
In Afghan life there is a clear gender distinction of musical role. In most cases women do
not play or even handle musical instruments except the frame drum and the jew's harp
(the latter is also played by children). Men, on the other hand, may play a variety of lutes
and fiddles, and generally shun the women's instruments. Outside the small group of
professional women singers (urban and radio), there is scarcely any public performance
by women; they perform primarily at domestic festivities such as women's wedding
parties, when they sing to the accompaniment of the frame drum, and use it to play
rhythms for dancing. Despite their limited access to musical instruments, women
constitute by far the largest group of performers.
As in many Muslim countries, music in Afghanistan occupies an ambiguous place in the
value system, often considered a trivial pursuit, or even downright sinful. The intensity of
these negative attitudes has varied over time, and is currently very strong. However, for
many people music has strongly positive connotations, being connected with Sufism
(Islamic mysticism). Traditionally music has always been considered indispensable in the
celebration of rites of passage, particularly weddings, and circumcision and birth
celebrations.
Closely related to the ambiguous status of music is the low standing of the professional
musician. Members of hereditary musician families, in particular, tend to be low in the
social scale. In many parts of the country, musicians are recruited from endogamous
communities of barber-musicians. Until recently Pashtuns would never lower themselves
to play music, even as amateurs. Their barber-musicians (Dom) are Pashto speakers, but
marginalized and not accepted as Pashtuns. However, the hereditary court musicians of
Kabul and their descendants enjoyed a higher status than barber-musicians. Many held
the honorific title of ustd (master musician).
Afghanistan is notable for having many keen amateur musicians, especially among the
educated urban middle classes. There is a well-profiled distinction between amateur
(shauqi) and professional (kesbi) status, which relies on two main criteria: recruitment

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(ascribed or achieved) and economic dependence. The term shauqi implies an
individual's predilection for a particularly absorbing hobby (e.g. gun-collecting, kite-
flying or partridge-fighting). Shauqi musicians emphasized their deep love of music and
the fact of being self-taught, for having a teacher was thought of as a sign of
professionalism. With the new respectability of music engendered by radio broadcasting,
in the 1960s and 70s many amateurs turned to music as a way of making their living, but
they still clung to their former shauqi status. Even a few educated Pashtuns from wealthy
families became well-known radio singers, such as Nashenas and ahmed Zhir, the son of
a former prime minister.

4. Religious singing.
Several types of religious singing exist, most of them far removed from any Afghan
concept of music. Recitation of the Holy Qur'an (qir'at) is a prime example. It is based
on a complex set of precepts embodying phonological principles and the rules of Arabic
grammar. The call to prayer (azn) is also in Arabic; here rather more ornamentation is
acceptable. Other kinds of religious singing are in the languages of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has significant Shia populations, especially in Herat, Kabul and the central
region occupied by Hazaras (Hazarajat). The Shias have their own special kinds of
singing connected with the commemoration of the martyrdom of their saints, Husayn and
Hasan. Rowzekhni is a style of sermonizing which recounts their martyrdom in a highly
emotional manner which leaves the congregation weeping and wailing. This is followed
by nowhe, a form of antiphonal singing with a leader and a chorus of men who beat their
chests in time with their singing, or flagellate themselves with scourges. These
commemorations occur at various points in the religious calendar, most notably during
the month of mourning, Muharram, and the month which follows it (see Iran, III, 2(ii)).
In the past, Afghanistan was an important centre of Sufism. Even in the modern era
various orders were represented, with numerous local brotherhoods organized around
individual pirs (living saints). The principal Sufi ritual is the dhikr, the recollection of
God, in which the Sufis form a circle and recite together a sequence of religious
formulae such as Allah Hu, God is He. The recitation is performed with forced
breathing and complex rhythmic movements of the body and head, and participants may
go into a trance-like state which is experienced as union with God. The ritual is regulated
by the pir, who stands in the centre of the circle, leading the performance and shouting
encouragement to his followers. Otherwise he walks round outside the circle helping
those who have gone into trance, and physically correcting those whose movements have
become uncoordinated. Also outside the circle are one or more singers of religious songs
(na't). They perform these with great passion, spurring on the devotees.
The dhikr does not involve any musical instruments and is not regarded as music, though
it is in many respects highly musical. Other forms of Sufi ritual, however, do involve
musical instruments. The Chisht Sufi order has its place of origin in Afghanistan. Its
founder, Muinuddin Chisht (d 1236), came from the village of Chisht in western
Afghanistan. Chisht Sufism is widespread in Pakistan and North India, but not in
Afghanistan. Its adherents perform or listen to qawwl (see India, VI, 2(ii)(b) ),
religious texts sung to the accompaniment of harmonium, tabl and sometimes other
instruments in a spiritual concert known as sam. Until recently there were several
Chisht gathering places (khnaqh) in Kabul, including one located near the musicians'

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quarter. On Thursday evenings musicians came to sing religious songs in the Kabuli
ghazal and popular music styles. Many Kabuli musicians, especially those from
hereditary musician families, considered themselves as Chisht devotees, espousing an
ideology which gave music an exalted place within a Muslim framework of belief (see
Islamic religious music, II, 6).

5. Afghan art music.

In the 1860s numerous professional musicians were brought from the Punjab, and from
that period two genres of distinctly Afghan art music were developed at the court of
Kabul. These were the Kabuli style of ghazal singing and an instrumental genre known as
naghma-ye kashl.
The ghazal is a principal form in Persian and Pashto poetry, consisting of a series of
couplets following a particular rhyme scheme. Ghazal singing is well-established as a
semi-classical form in Hindustani music, and the Kabuli version is related to the Indian
model, but with certain local features (see India, IV, 2 ; Pakistan). The Kabuli ghazal
generally uses Persian texts, often from great poets such as Hafez, Saadi and Bedil. The
music is based on the rgas (melodic modes) and tlas (metrical cycles) of Hindustani
music. The most distinctly Afghan feature of the ghazal form is a cyclical rhythmic
organization with fast instrumental sections closed by emphatic rhythmic cadences,
interpolated between units of text. The use of parallel and serial polyrhythm and strong
rhythmic cadences are features linked to Pashtun regional music. The Kabuli art of
ghazal singing requires skill in the interpolation of apposite couplets from other poems.
Such an interpolation is called a fard, usually sung in free rhythm. This feature derives
from Persian or Tajik music, and may be compared with the folk genre known as
chahrbeiti (see II, 2(i) below).
The instrumental genre of Afghan art music is called the naghma-ye kashl, literally the
extended instrumental piece or naghma-ye chahr tuk, the four-part instrumental piece.
It is played at the start of a performance of a set of ghazals, and is also favoured as a
vehicle for virtuoso solo performance, especially on rubb. In its use of rgas and tlas,
this genre has obvious connections with Hindustani instrumental music, yet remains
distinctly Afghan.
These two genres of Afghan art music were developed and perfected at the court of King
Amanullah in the 1920s. The principal singer at that time was ustd Qsem, the father of
Afghan music. He was a master of ghazal singing who combined a deep knowledge of
Persian poetry with a broad training in Hindustani music. He and other singers recorded a
considerable number of 78 r.p.m. records in India, and these were very popular with
people of Kabul. From around that period it became usual for the ghazal singer to
accompany himself with the harmonium, backed by a small group including rubb, tabl,
srangi and delrub (both bowed lutes), and the tnpur drone. Apart from the rubb, all
these instruments were adopted from India. Early radio broadcasting in Kabul in the
1920s probably helped consolidate this as an Afghan national music.
In due course, these court genres become more widely disseminated to other cities in
Afghanistan, such as Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, where musicians from Kabul
would perform and acquire local pupils. In recent times the most famous singer from this
court tradition was Ustd Sarhang, who was also well known in India as a classical
singer in the Patiala style. Ustd Mohammed omar was considered the best of the rubb

5
players, an expert exponent of the naghma-ye kashl. Ex.1 shows his most celebrated
naghma-ye kashl composition, in rg Yaman, with its four principal parts: sti, antar,
bhog and sacri.

Naghma-ye kashl in Yaman mode

6. Musical instruments.
Afghanistan has many instruments, being particularly rich in lutes. Some instruments are
widespread, others of very limited distribution, and many are shared with surrounding
regions.

(i) Chordophones.
The Afghan rubb, a short-necked fretted lute with sympathetic strings, is the prototype
of the Indian sarod. Afghans consider it with great pride as their national instrument. It is
found in all urban areas, used in ensembles and for playing solo instrumental pieces. It
has a special connection with Pashtun regional music.
The term dutr (literally two strings) applies to several types of long-necked lute. The
Herati dutr, of western Afghanistan, originally had two strings and a system of fretting
which gave certain neutral 2nds. From the 1950s this instrument underwent various
modifications (size, number of strings, system of fretting), developing into the three-
string and 14-string Herati dutrs (the latter having many sympathetic strings). The
original two-string dutr (with its neutral 2nd intervals) exists in eastern Iran as the
Khorasani dutr (see Iran, III, 3 ). In northern Afghanistan, the Uzbek dutr is
organologically distinct, mainly found in Uzbekistan. The Turkmen dutr has a small
distribution in Afghanistan; it is found principally in neighbouring Turkmenistan.
The tanbur (fig.2a [not available online]) is distinctly Afghan, a long-necked fretted lute
with sympathetic strings beside the melodic strings. It is particularly found around Kabul
and Mazar-i Sharif. The dambura of the north is a long-necked, two-string unfretted lute
played largely by Uzbeks and Tajiks but adopted by numerous other ethnic groups. It is
also termed dombra (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan) and dombrak (Tajikistan). The Pamir
rubb, marginally used in Afghanistan, is distinct from the Afghan rubb.
Bowed lutes are also played. The ghidjack (ghichak) is a two-string spike fiddle with a
tin-can resonator, widely used by the Tajiks of Badakhshan and perhaps originating with
them. It differs markedly from the Transoxanian ghidjack. The Pashtun and Baluch
bowed sarinda (or saroz) is shared with the Pashtun and Baluch populations of Pakistan.

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(ii) Aerophones.
The sorn, a type of double-reed shawm found throughout the Muslim world, is widely
distributed in Afghanistan. It is played only by barber-musicians and has many negative
connotations, sometimes being called the penis of Satan. The hand-pumped Indian
harmonium (armonia) is widely used for urban music-making in all parts of the country.
Block-flutes, side-blown flutes and end-blown flutes occur in a variety of shapes and
sizes. Long open end-blown flutes are played by the Turkmens (tidk), Pashtuns and
Baluch (nal, ney), and by some Nuristanis. Flutes can be found among some Hazaras
(Bamian area), in Kohistan (north of Kabul) and Badakhshan (north-east). Single-reed
pipes are represented only by the Turkmen dili-tidk.

(iii) Membranophones.
Four types of drum are used. A large single-headed frame drum (direh, doira, daria,
daf) is widespread as a women's instrument, used to accompany singing and to play
rhythms for dancing. Other drums are the domain of men. A large double-headed frame
drum called dohol is played with sticks and used to accompany the sorn. Both
instruments are played exclusively by barber-musicians. The goblet-shaped single-headed
zirbaghali (under the arm) is usually made of pottery, though wooden specimens can
also be found. This drum is of Middle Eastern provenance. The two-headed barrel drum,
dohol or doholak, is closely related to the Indian drum of the same name, and is used
mainly for Pashtun music. Very large drums of this kind are also played with the sorn.
The North Indian tabl drum pair is widely used for urban music-making.

(iv) Idiophones.
Idiophones are principally represented by the popular metal jew's harp (Persian chang,
Uzbek changkouz) and, in the north, by the small finger cymbals used by singers to mark
the beat (Persian zang, tl; Uzbek tsak). A pair of stone castanets, qairq, is rarely
found today. Northern lutenists often use the zang-i kaftar (dove bells), a set of small
metal crotals tied around the right hand, to accentuate rhythmic patterns. Dancing boys
wear sets of ankle bells (zang), the sound of which has strong associations with
clandestine parties involving bachabzi (boy play). The duzanga is a pair of rattles,
each with a wooden handle projecting into a wider cylinder of wood, to which are nailed
a number of small bells. They are shaken or stamped on the ground to imitate the bells of
the dancing boy.

II. Regional styles.

1. Pashtun (south and south-east).
The Pashtuns (the true Afghans) have been politically and culturally dominant in
Afghanistan. They are a people divided into two populations by the political border
between Afghanistan and Pakistan (established with the Durrand line of 1893). Those on
the Afghan side of the border mainly speak the soft dialect (Pashto), while those on the
Pakistani side speak the hard dialect (Pakhto). The cultural centre of the former group is
the Afghan city of Kandahar; that of the latter, the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The
Pashtuns constitute a so-called tribal people, and range in lifestyle from city-dwellers to
pastoral nomads.

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In the past, before the recent imposition of prohibitions against music, Pashtuns were
great patrons of music. Traditionally music performance was relegated to their barber-
musicians. The typical Pashtun music group consists of a singer who also plays
harmonium, accompanied by rubb, sarinda and dohol (or tabl). Often there are two
singers (both playing harmoniums), who alternate verses.
The Pashtun musical style became the national style of Afghanistan, a development much
encouraged through radio broadcasting. Pashtun song style shows a regular alternation
between verses and short instrumental sections, played at a fast tempo, with heavily
emphasized rhythmic cadences, characteristics which were transferred to the Kabuli
ghazal. The tonal system used in Pashtun music is essentially diatonic, with a simple
system of melodic modes corresponding approximately to the Ionian, Dorian and
Phrygian modes of the Greek system.
Pashtun vocal music has a number of genres including the dstn, landai, chahrbeita
and loba. Urban Pashtuns, particularly those from Kabul, have long adopted Persian in
addition to their own language, and have added the repertory of Persian poetry and songs
to their own.
The dstn is an epic form, recounting tales from the distant, semi-legendary past, as in
the saga of Adam Khan and Durkhana. Equally it could be concerned with historical
events such as the Anglo-Afghan wars or, more recently, the holy war (jihd) against the
Soviet Union.
A folksong genre common to nearly all Pashtuns is the landai, defined by the Afghan
scholar Saduddin Shpoon as a non-rhymed two-lined catalectic verse with five anapestic
paeon feet, two in the first line and three in the second, ending in ma or na. As with
another brief poetic form, the Japanese haiku, the landai depends on the opening section
to set a scene or mood which is then consolidated in the concluding section. Here are two
landais on common topics, love and war, transcribed and translated by Shpoon: Orrai de
yakh kavel keter kerr
Pe meni rraghle salaamat ghwarre guloona. You spent all summer in cool Kabul;
You return in the fall and want your flower intact? Ke pe maiwand ke shaaid ne shwe
Khudaaygo laalaya be nangi la de saatina. Young love, if you do not fall in the battle of
Maiwand,
By God, someone is saving you for a token of shame.Most landais are apparently
composed by women, as they express the woman's point of view; yet they are frequently
sung by men. Landais are sung to a handful of stock melodies, which vary regionally. In
a landai performance a group of couplets, usually on a given topic, is strung together by
the singer. This creative assembly of free-standing elements is an important principle in
much Afghan music-making.

2. Tajik
(west and north-east). The term Tajik embraces most of the Persian-speaking populations,
though not the Hazaras of central Afghanistan. Tajiks are primarily concentrated in a
broad band extending from the west (Herat) to the north-east (Badakhshan). In the north
(Turkestan) Tajiks are closely associated with the Uzbeks (see 3 below).

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(i) Herat.
The Herat oasis lies near the Iranian border in an area that was formerly part of eastern
Iran (Khorasan). The city of Herat was an important cultural centre in the past, reaching
its apogee under the Timurids in the 15th century. Since 1747 Herat has been part of
Afghanistan, though enjoying a great deal of autonomy in the 19th century. In the early
part of the 20th century, Herat city was much influenced by the music of Iran. The
Iranian tr (a plucked lute) was an important instrument, and the dastgh principle of
Persian art music was understood and performed (see Iran, II, 3 ). From the 1930s Herat
fell under the influence of Kabuli classical music, with the North Indian idea of rga and
tla, the ghazal form, and use of harmonium, tabl and rubb. Persian modes with
microtonal intervals were replaced with a system of modes that ultimately derived from
Pashtun music.
The most important local instrument is the Herati dutr (long-necked lute), which has
developed into two new forms. The three-string dutr is played by amateurs to
accompany their singing, whereas the larger 14-string dutr with sympathetic strings has
been adopted within the typical professional urban ensemble.
The most characteristic local music of Herat is the style called chahrbeiti. This refers to
the singing in free rhythm of quatrains (chahrbeiti, also termed dobeiti), and has a clear
connection with classical vz and regional singing styles of Iran (see Iran, II, 4(i) ).
Chahrbeiti may be performed as a vocal or instrumental piece (usually with the dutr).
There are several standard chahrbeiti melodies. The best known is Chahrbeiti Sih Mu
wa Jalli, a sequence of quatrains composed by the folk-poet Jalli to express his
unrequited love for Sih Mu. Jalli 'asheq-e ru-ye Sih Mu,
Asir-e cheshm-e jdu-ye Sih Mu.
Konad sujd-e Jalli az sar-e sedq
Be mehrb-e du bru-ye Sih Mu. Alas, Jalli is in love with Sih Mu,

Captivated by the bewitching eyes of Sih Mu.

Jalli sincerely prostrates himself
Before the prayer-niche of Sih Mu's eyebrow.

(ii) Badakhshan.
Badakhshan lies at the juncture of the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges in a
rugged, isolated region shared by Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The music and culture of
the Badakhshan Tajiks is nearly identical on both sides of the border. The distinctive
mountain Tajik style has influenced the music of the Pamir peoples to the east and that
of Turkestan (through the intervening area of Kataghan) to the west.
The principal instruments of Badakhshan are the dambura (unfretted two-string lute) and
tula (wooden flute which tapers towards the lower finger-holes). Others are the ghidjack
(spike fiddle), chang (metal jew's harp) and daf (frame drum), the latter two being
primarily played by women.
The predominant genre is the felak (firmament, fate), an alternative local term for the
chahrbeiti quatrain of Afghanistan and Iran. Felaks can be solo songs, accompanied
songs, or solo instrumental pieces. The basic style uses free rhythm or a 2 + 2 + 3 metre,
a narrow tonal range, and extreme prolongation of the tonic (often at the end of the

9
melodic line). The vocal quality tends to be rasping and strained. There is little sub-
regional variation (see Tajikistan, 1).

3. Uzbek
(north). Afghan Uzbek folk music has evolved as an important regional style within
Turkestan (a general term for the northern steppe-desert region). This music is strictly
local in origin and mainly performed in public teahouses or at large parties. It does not
occur in Uzbekistan. Dance tunes from Turkestan are known all over the country, and
called Uzbeki. The principal instrument of this tradition is the dambura (unfretted two-
string lute); the ghidjack (spike fiddle) is also often played.
The standard Uzbek teahouse ensemble consists of two singers, seated cross-legged face
to face with a dambura player between them. The singers mark time with a pair of small
finger cymbals and alternately sing quatrains in which they compete in wit, often using
members of the audience as targets for satire. This practice is reminiscent of the singing
contests common throughout Central Asia.
The purely instrumental tunes of the Afghan Uzbeks are usually associated with dance.
They consist of repeated strings of small melodic motifs, with very slight variations of
rhythm, pitch and accentuation setting off the repetitions. The dambura player guides the
dancer, the variations indicating different stances, gestures or tempo.
The Persian-speaking Tajiks of Turkestan are closely associated with the Uzbeks and
have contributed much towards a joint musical culture containing elements from both
ethnic groups. The most widespread instrument, the dambura, is mostly made by Tajiks
living near Samangan (south-eastern Turkestan). The musicians of Tashqurghan (or
Khulm), a town near the juncture of major Uzbek and Tajik populations, have been
particularly important in creating a shared Uzbek-Tajik music culture. Tashqurghan has
traditionally produced a large number of wandering minstrels who are bilingual in Uzbek
and Persian and who have composed and disseminated most of the repertory common to
modern Turkestan. Singers might alternate quatrains in Uzbek and Persian or intersperse
lines or even single words from one language into the other throughout their
performance.
An interesting instrumental form reflects this mixture of cultures: it consists of a series of
tunes of diverse origin played on the dambura, sometimes with the ghidjack. The
melodies are taken from four basic sources: Radio Afghanistan, Indian films, local Uzbek
and local Tajik music, all of which may be combined in a single piece.
The distinctive Turkestani style has influenced the music of minority groups in the area.
Teahouse music is often performed by Turkmens in towns such as Aqchah and Andkhui,
and northern Pashtuns can be heard playing Uzbek-Tajik pieces. Turkestani music and
musical instruments have also spread to the Hazaras of central Afghanistan and as far
south-east into Pashtun territory as Ghazni and Jalalabad.
Distinct from this regional music is the immigrant (Transoxanian) classical style of
Uzbek art music (shash makom). The two genres are differentiated by their instruments,
repertory and audience. Classical Uzbek music is largely performed in homes, and is
restricted to immigrant circles in certain northern towns and Kabul. It relies on traditions
brought from cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara (see Uzbekistan). The main
instrument used is the Uzbek dutr. The town of Andkhui is considered the centre of the
classical style.

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4. Hazara
(centre). The Hazaras, who number perhaps a million, live mostly in the folds of the
massive Koh-e Baba and Hindu Kush ranges of central Afghanistan. Hazara music is
predominantly vocal; the dambura lute is occasionally used as an accompanying
instrument. The chang (jew's harp) is played only by women, as elsewhere in
Afghanistan and Central Asia. Women, men and children have separate repertories which
include various genres, but the Hazara recognize only two classes of songs as music:
lullabies (female) and love songs (male). Lullabies are most often cast in octosyllabic
couplets.
Hazara men's songs, which may be termed beit (poetry) or simply ishqi (from ishq,
love), consist of short quatrains (chahrbeiti or simply beit) connected together. Song
texts are basically syllabic: the melodic line follows a combination of everyday speech
stress and poetic metre. The following example is a typical Hazara quatrain: Ma qorbn-a
shawom ai duriala
Tangak shishta-i zeri nihala
Tangak shisht-i aena ba dastat
Sharra medehat chesma-e mastat.

May I be sacrificed to you O Sublime Pearl;

You sit alone under a sapling;
You sit with a mirror in your hand;
Your eyes sparkle intoxicatingly.

Hazara music is most often heard at domestic festivities; there are very few urban centres
with teahouses. The main occasions for music-making used to be weddings, Afghan
independence celebrations (Jeshun) and major Muslim holidays.

5. Other minority groups.

There are a number of other ethnic groups living in Afghanistan, some very small. They
include the Baluch, Turkmen, Aimaq, Nuristani, Pamiri, Pashai, Kirghiz and Kazakh
peoples.
The Baluch live in contiguous regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, and there is also
a small population in Turkmenistan. They are closely associated with Pashtuns and have
adopted some Pashtun folk customs. They have three principal musical instruments: the
open end-blown nar flute (akin to the Pashtun nal), the saroz fiddle (like the srind) and
the dambiro four-string long-necked lute. The chief vocal forms are ballads, sung to the
accompaniment of the dambiro, and short love songs (dstngh) played on the flute.
Among both Afghan and Iranian Baluch the flute can produce solo two-part music; the
player holds a low fundamental hum while fingering a high-pitched tune.
The Turkmens live mostly in a narrow strip of land extending some 80 km south from the
Turkmenistan border. Though Turkmens have lived on Afghan soil for a long time, the
majority arrived between 1917 and 1940 from what was then Soviet Turkmenia. They
generally live in villages clustered about a local market town, and maintain their own
culture. The three main Turkmen instruments are the tidk, a long end-blown flute
related both to the Middle Eastern ney and Central Asian flutes; the dili-tidk, a small

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single-reed pipe; and the Turkmen dutr, a lute similar in structure to the Uzbek dutr but
considerably smaller. Turkmen song is highly distinctive. After a long instrumental
introduction, the singer begins with an extremely intense, high-pitched passage in
parlando rubato, after which the melody gradually descends. The songs are strophic,
terminated with a variety of uniquely Turkmen ornaments often based on short, repeated
guttural tones (see Turkmenistan, 2).
The Nuristanis, supposedly the descendants of Alexander the Greats Macedonian army
which invaded Afghanistan in the 4th century bce, inhabit a remote mountain area in the
north-east. They were converted to Islam in 1895. Nuristani music is remarkable for both
its instruments and styles. In addition to the rare vaj, or waji, an arched harp with no
nearby counterpart, Nuristanis also play a small leather-covered fiddle and a short end-
blown flute. Stylistically, traditional Nuristani music is in part based on a complex
stratification of vocal and instrumental lines. A piece may begin with an ostinato figure
on the harp underlying two soloists, who are later joined by a chorus holding an interval
of a 2nd and, finally, by syncopated hand-clapping.
Melodies constructed over an ostinato figure also occur in pieces for two solo flutes. Here
the lower flute may maintain a repeated figure with some melodic and rhythmic
variation; the upper flute has its own motif revolving mainly around two notes,
occasionally touching on a third. This results in a rhythmically complex stratification
similar to that of the larger harp and chorus repertory. Such instrumental counterpoint,
like the vocal polyphony, is not found anywhere else in Afghanistan or Central Asia.

Bibliography
and other resources
J. Baily: Recent Changes in the Dutr of Herat, AsM, viii/1 (1976), 2964
M. Slobin: Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan (Tucson, AZ, 1976)
J. Baily: Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Popular Music: the Case of Afghanistan,
Popular Music, i (1981), 10522
J. Baily: A System of Modes Used in the Urban Music of Afghanistan, EthM, xxv
(1981), 139
H.L. Sakata: Music in the Mind: the Concepts of Music and Musician in Afghanistan
(Kent, OH, 1983)
J. Baily: Music of Afghanistan: Professional Musicians in the City of Herat (Cambridge,
1988)
V. Doubleday: Three Women of Herat (London, 1988)
J. Baily: The Role of Music in the Creation of an Afghan National Identity, 192373,
Ethnicity, Identity and Music, ed. M. Stokes (Oxford and Providence, RI, 1994), 4560
V. Doubleday and J. Baily: Patterns of Musical Development among Children in
Afghanistan, Children in the Muslim Middle East Today, ed. E.W. Fernea (Austin,
1995), 43144
J. Baily: The naghma-ye kashl of Afghanistan, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, vi
(1997), 11763

recordings
Afghanistan: the Rubab of Herat: Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz, rec. J. Baily, VDE
Gallo AIMP 25 (1993)

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Afghanistan: Traditional Musicians, World Network 28 (1994)
Musics and Musicians of the World: the Traditional Music of Herat, rec. J. Baily,
Auvidis/UNESCO D 8266 (1996)
Musics and Musicians of the World: Female Musicians in Western Afghanistan, rec. V.
Doubleday (forthcoming)

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