By The Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Herat, Afghanistan
Musicians Playing (2009) by AKTCThe Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Afghanistan’s panoramic musical heritage encompasses the artistic legacy of myriad peoples, cultures, and civilizations whose cultivation of song, poetry, and performance on musical instruments is documented from early antiquity.
Gandhara-style friezes dating from the Kushan Empire (2nd century BCE – 3rd century CE) depict dancers and musicians playing instruments that resemble the long-necked lutes and frame drums of our own time.
Later empires also cultivated poetry and music, in particular the Samanids, who ruled the territory of present-day Afghanistan in the 9th and 10th centuries CE and served as patrons to the immortal poets of Khorasan and Transoxania: Ferdowsi, author of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), and Rudaki, who during his lifetime was celebrated as a singer and harp player.
The Resonance of Music
In the late 15th century, the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqara turned the city of Herat into a locus of artistic patronage centered around the poet-polymath Ali-Shir Nava’i (1441-1501), whose verse has been set to music by generations of singers and remains popular today.
The Resilience of Culture
Music became one of the many casualties of the political and social turbulence that enveloped Afghanistan during more than two decades of internecine conflict and war, culminating in the total ban of music in the mid-1990s.
Musicians at the Aga Khan Music Initiative school in Herat (2009) by AKTC / Christian RichtersThe Aga Khan Trust for Culture
As a congeries of orally transmitted traditions, Afghan music has depended for its survival on lineages of tradition-bearers who pass on their musical knowledge to subsequent generations through a form of oral pedagogy known as ustad-shagird ('master-apprentice' or 'master-disciple').
Passed Down through Generations
By 2001, with many master musicians deceased or living in exile, a dearth of usable musical instruments, and dim prospects for earning a livelihood as a musician, the country presented daunting challenges to institutional efforts to reanimate the ustad-shagird system and revitalize musical life.
Future Inspiration
It was in this context that the Aga Khan Music Initiative establish its musical training program in Afghanistan in 2005, first in Kabul and then expanded to Herat, employing the ustad-shagird system through which more than 1200 young Afghans were trained over 15 years.
Public performance at Bagh Babur (2013) by AKTCThe Aga Khan Trust for Culture
The principal objectives of this initiative were threefold: first, to raise awareness among a cross-section of the Afghan public—especially the younger generation—about their traditional musical heritage.
Second, to build on the training regime provided through the Aga Khan Music Initiative’s schools to encourage the emergence of a new generation of Afghan musicians with an understanding of traditional performance styles.
Lastly, to foster links with and among far-flung and little-known rural musicians whose skills might otherwise remain unrecognized, and who might benefit from interaction with one another.
Ustads and students at the Aga Khan Music Initiative school in Herat (2010) by AKTC / Simon NorfolkThe Aga Khan Trust for Culture
The music accompanying this exhibition was first recorded through a project to document the folk music of Herat, led by professional musicians and researchers, and carried out under the auspices of the Aga Khan Music Initiative.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) wishes to express its appreciation, first and foremost, to its staff and consultants for their tireless efforts and commitment towards preserving Afghanistan’s rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
In addition to resources provided directly by AKTC, the restoration of heritage sites shown in this exhibition were supported through financial contributions made by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the United States and its Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.
This online exhibition was made possible through the efforts of Theresa zu Leiningen, Mohammad Baqir Yaqubi and Dr. Arash Boostani.
