Patriot Expatriates: Hazhir Meher Afrouz

Hazhir Meher Afrouz

I was 20 years old and had finished a wonderful 9 months bumming around India and Sri Lanka. The route back to America, with a couple of friends, was to be overland by bus and lorry across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.  I was most excited about visiting Iran where I imagined ruined cities in the desert and blue tiled mosques touching the sky.  But I never made it. Anxious parents convinced me to fly back after I fell ill with a stomach bug a couple weeks before I was to leave.   It remains one of the regrets of my life that I allowed myself to be put off.

As some sort of compensation, when I arrived back in Minneapolis and moved into a rooming house on the University campus, an Iranian man became my closest friend. We lived across the hall from each other and shared a love for music, politics and drinking beer.  The Revolution unfolded soon after we met, which my friend NF, completely and wholeheartedly supported. His lifestyle of boozing, schmoozing, rockin’ and rolling would have been anathema to the ayatollahs back home but so deep was his disgust with the Shah that the new religious leadership seemed just the antiseptic his beloved Iran needed.  He married an American lass and in 1980 returned to Iran, with every intention to settle permanently back home. 

Less than a year later they were back in Minneapolis.  He admitted life had become too restrictive for his liking. Booze was definitely out of the question but he was shocked to discover that rock and roll was also banned.  NF was a huge Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Yes and Camel fan. A life in which he would have to listen to this music only in headphones was simply not on.  I’m sure there were many other reasons for his return to America but I never pressed him.  And he never gave up his support for Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution.  In fact, if anything, something happened to him in Iran that made him an even more dogmatic supporter.  Maybe it was guilt.

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist who left Iran to study in America a couple years before the Revolution.  Like my friend NF, she has chosen to settle in America, even though, like him she returned several times after the Revolution.  Her first body of photographic work was called Women of Allah, of which I include two examples below.  This collection of photographs shot her to fame.  What fascinates me about this work is the (to me, an outsider) strong ambiguity and mixed loyalties it demonstrates. As a woman and an artist with a bold vision focused on the exploration of gender roles it would be easy to conclude that her work about women in the Islamic Republic would be overtly critical. Yet, that is not the way she sees it.   

Neshat writes this about the images:

“Four symbolic elements recur in this work: the veil, the gun, the text and the gaze. Despite Western representation of the veil as a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression, the subjects of these images look strong and imposing.  In fact the black veil as a uniform has transformed the feminine body into that of a warrior, determined and even heroic.  The confident possession and firm grasp of the gun, the phallic object of masculine power, not only reiterates this transformation but charges the images with a certain eroticism.”

My point in this article is not to question or judge Neshat.  I love her artistic vision and that she pushes all sorts of buttons.  What interests me is the unexpected attachment she, NF and I’m sure thousands of other Iranians living in the diaspora, have to the Islamic Revolution. Even when it contradicts or constricts significant aspects of their own personality and identity.  Interesting. Makes me want to go to Iran even more now.

What does this have to do with music? I don’t know. But it is perhaps a longish but hopefully, not too boring, introduction to the music of the Iranian singer Hazhir Meher Afrouz about whom I can find little on the internet except that he comes from a musical family and was taught by an uncle, Sayed Khalil.   The music itself is to my mind very Iranian. Grand, some might even say, grandiose, in its vision, triumphal in its scope, the sort of music that should accompany a Revolution. Of course, the Revolution is ancient history now and this is a contemporary recording. But with the opening song Iran, the past is very much updated to the present.

Afrouz has a pleasing voice and uses it well, often scaling impressive octaval heights. The instrumentation is a blend of eastern drums, dotar and western electric guitars and keyboards.    I wish I knew more about this man and I wonder, where does he live?  Whether in Paris or California or Isfahan, there is no doubt that like Shirin Neshat, he loves his country. 

            Track Listing:

            01 Iran

02 Hamrah

03 Khamyaze Faryad

04 Rahi Be Sooye Khoda

05 Majnoono Parishane Toam

06 Mosallas

09 Ayan (Coming)

08 Jane Jan

07 Sooge Tanbore

here

The Source: Amir Khusrau (Fresh Link)

Ameer Khusrau

Hazrat Ameer Khusau was a phenomenon that just came off seven centuries ago. His was indeed a multi-splendored life of 72 years. A versatile scholar par excellence, Khusrau was  also a singer, poet, author who left an everlasting impact of his personality on whatever he touched.

His deep insight into Persian and Indian music inspired him to evolve and enrich Turko-Hindustani music: it acquired new facets. It assumed new dimensions.

His name is traditionally associated with the innovations qawwali, qual, qalbana, tarana and khayal, in ragas like Sazgiri and Farghana or their variations, in instrumental music, the sitar and the tabla, while in ghazals, he was the pioneer of Dogana (fusion of Persian and Hindustani lines into one). He wrote songs of sawan and of the parting daughter. He invented Do Sukhne, versified puzzles and Kah Mukarni. And because of all this Mir Khusro is still a name to conjure with in far flung villages of north India.

Born of a Turk father, a chieftain, and an Indian mother, Abul Hassan Yaminuddin Khusrau was brought up in maternal lineage. Khusrau called himself Turk-e-Hindustani and was proud of being an Indian. His love of the motherland filled him with a sense of fulfilment and pride which is so evident in his writings.

Author of five romantic masnavis (long narratives) in succession, he wrote them voluminously-18 thousand couplets on the pattern and theme of Nizami. He added five historical masnavis to the treasure of source material of medieval India.

Selections from his five Persian divans, compiled by himself, have appeared in five countries, namely Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, USSR and India.

Khusrau was a courtier and he held high positions in the courts of five emperors. He moved with the royal entourage and yet, was averse to blood-shed and flattery. He was a spiritual disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddim Aulia Chisti (1234-1325). The Chistia School of Sufism made Khusrau truly catholic and humane in his outlook. Therefore, in his normal life, he was very close to the masses and shared their hopes and aspirations, travails and tribulations.

The greatest Persian lyricist, Hafiz of Shiraz transcribed thousands of his lines and described him as Tooti-e-Hind (Songbird of India). European orientalists rated him among the world’s eminent poets. Iranians recognised him as an integral part of the history of their literature. He infused into Persian ghazals the amorous touch of Indo-Iranian music. Afghanistan owned him as Khusrav-e-Bulkhi, known as Dehlavi. His ghazals are sung in Soviet Asia and form a par of the curricula there.

While Khusrau could bravely stand the loss of his mother and youthful brother (1299) and continue to compose poetry, he could not bear the loss of his spiritual mentor, the 92 year old Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. He burst out with only one doha and later the same year, followed in the footsteps of his Master to the heavenly abode:-

            Gori Sove Sej pe Mukh par Dare Kes

            Chal Khusrau Ghar Apne Sanjh Bhayee Chahun Des

Dr. Zoe Ansari (1975) 

From the liner notes of this wonderful LP. Full of everything from qawwali to khayal by some of the greatest of India’s musicians. 

            Track Listing:

01 Dohe (Nizamuddin Peer Auliya /Chakwa Chakwi do Jaane) [Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan]

02 Bandish (Jo Piya awan kah gaye) and Sawan Geet (Amman mere baba ko bhejo ji) [Sudha Malhotra, Krishna Kalle, Dilraj Kaur and Pushpa Paghdare]

03 Ze haal-e-miskin makun taghaful durae naina banae batiyan [Mukesh and Sudha Malhotra]

04 Yaar-e-man beaa beaa (Ektaal) [Kankana Banerjee]

05 Mukarniyan [Vani Jairam and Krishna Kalle]

06 Raga Zilaf [Pandit Jasraj]

07 Raga Emen Kalyan [Pandit Pratap Narayan and Kankana Bannerjee]

08 Man kunt-o-maulaho fa aliyun maulah [Shankar Shambu Qawwal]

09 Aaj Ranj hai [Shankar Shambu Qawwal]

10 Dohe (Khusrau rain suhag ki Gori sowe sej pe) [Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan]

HERE

Old Persian Love Story: Mohammed Reza Shajarian and Kayhan Kalhor

Farhad and Shirin

There is a place I know, high up in the mountains of Kurdistan where the crow roams freely and the snow finally meets the sun. Where you can fall wild like a mountain and run with a stone in your hand. This is where our story takes place.

There was a brave man called Farhad, who loved a Princess named Shirin, but the Princess did not love him. Farhad tried in vain to gain access to Shirin's heart, but no one would dare betray the fact that a stonecutter loved a lady of royal blood. Farhad, in despair, would go to the mountains and spend his days without food, playing sweet music in praise of Shirin on his flute.

At last people devised a plan to alert the Princess of the stone-cutter's love. When she at last noticed him the same love which lived in his bosom began to breathe in hers as well. But she dared not imagine how a mean laborer could win the hand of a princess? It was not long, however, before the Shah himself heard the rumors of this extraordinary love. He was indignant, but as he had no child other than Shirin, and Shirin was also pining away with love, he made a proposal to his daughter. Farhad, being of common birth, must accomplish a task such as no man had yet been able to do, and then, and only then, would he win the Shah’s favor.

The Shah made Shirin demand that Farhad dig a canal in the rocky land among the hills. “The canal must be six lances in width and three lances deep and forty miles long!”

Farhad immediately shouldered his spade and started off to the hills to commence the gigantic task. He worked hard and broke the stones for years. He would start his work early in the morning when it was yet dark and never ceased from his labor till, owing to darkness, no man could see one yard on each side. Shirin secretly visited him and watched her hard working lover sleeping with his taysha (spade) under his head, his body stretched on the bed of stones. She noticed, with all the pride of a lover, that he cut her figure in the rocks at each six yards and she would sigh and return without him knowing.

Farhad worked for years and cut his canal; all was ready but his task was not yet finished, for he had to dig a well in the rocky beds of the mountains. He was half-way through, and would probably have completed it, when the Shah consulted his courtiers and sought their advice. His trap had failed. Farhad had not perished in the attempt, and if all the conditions were fulfilled as they promised to soon be, he was bound to give his daughter in marriage. The Viziers suggested that an old woman should be sent to Farhad to tell him that Shirin was dead; then, perhaps, Farhad would become heart broken and give up.

It was an cruel trick, but it promised success and the Shah agreed. So an old woman went to Farhad and wept and cried till words choked her; the stone-cutter asked her the cause of her sadness.

"I weep for a deceased," she said, "and for you."

"For a deceased and for me?" asked the surprised Farhad. "What do you mean?"

"Well, my brave man," said the woman, "you have worked so well, and for such a long time, too, but you have labored in vain, for the object of your devotion is dead!"

"What!" cried Farhad, "Shirin is dead?"

Such was his grief that he cut his head with the sharp taysha (spade) and died as  his own blood streamed into his canal. When Shirin heard the news she fled in great sorrow to the mountains where her wronged lover lay. It is said that she inflicted a wound in her own head at the precise spot where Farhad had struck himself, and with the same sharp edge of the spade which was stained with her lover's blood. No water ever flowed into the canal, but the two lovers were entombed in one and the same grave.

"There's a place where now the two lovers sleep. Side by side. Shirin and her Farhad. That place is very high up in the mountains of Kurdistan. And can only be reached when the snow comes washing down in spring and stains the cheeks of maidens blood red. If you want to meet the two of them, you will have to ask the crow to take you there." (http://dooroodiran.blogspot.com.au/2004/02/ancient-persian-love-story-shirin-and.html)

Here is some sad Iranian music to accompany this sad Persian love story.

         Track Listing:

         01 Silence Of The Night (Sokout-e-Shab)

02 Desert (Kavir)

03 Instrument & Vocal (Saz va Avaz)

04 Desert Night (Shab-e-Kavir)

05 Rain (Baroun)

06 Festive Occasion (Sharang)

07 Dotar Instrumental (Hajigholagh)

08 Setar Instrumental (Torgheh)

09 Instrument & Vocal (Saz va Avaz)

10 Lover's Plight (Ey Asheghan)

Listen here.

Persian Protest Music: Mohammed Reza Shajarian

I was introduced to the voice of Mohammed Reza Shajarian about 25 years ago.  At the time I was employed by the United Nations in Pakistan to work with refugees and asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq. These were the final years of Ayatollah Khomeini and the grinding horror of a brutal war between the two arch enemies. The revolutionary euphoria of the previous decade had for many Iranians turned to bitterness and despair.  Many of the people who I worked with in those years were politically aware and active (often with Leftist parties).  They had fled Iran after years of imprisonment or in fear of being imprisoned by the Imams  who continued to tighten all social and political screws.

One young man from Tabriz in the northwest part of Iran one day gave me a grimy cassette tape.  It had no case and the label had been written over and erased many times.  He had recently been released from 6 years in Evin Prison, one of Iran’s most infamous jails. He had been tortured horribly during his time but seemed not to too think too much of the experience. It just was one of the twists in his journey and now, thanks to the UN, he was off to Scandinavia to finally re-start his young life.  “This is who we listened too in prison,” he said. “He gave us courage and great hope that one day we would be freed.”

The music got to me instantly. The voice was of a man who seemed to be lamenting some deep injustice. It came from a place of great pain; each verse fell from his mouth exhausted but somehow liberated.  I found out the lyrics were poems of the great Iranian poet Hafez of Shiraz. The owner of the tape referred to the singer only as Shajarian.

Mohd Reza Shajarian

Mohammad Reza Shajarian was born in Mashad, on the Afghanistan border and got his introduction to singing from listening to devotional recitations. His father refused to let him sing songs of the classical Iranian repertoire but as a young man he sought out living masters and immersed himself in the poetry and music of old Iran.

BIrds of Dawning?

Like many great artists his music is universally loved and he is proudly promoted as one of Iran’s greatest living musical artists. And yet, like my friend the political refugee, millions have found in Shajarian’s music a mighty prophetic voice of protest.  Every concert ends with the song Morgh-e-sahar (Bird of Dawning) in which the singer asks the bird to sing, so the night of oppression can come to an end, and the day of liberation can begin.

During the violent turmoil that followed the 2009 elections, as a vote of protest and solidarity with the protestors,  he refused to allow his music to be played on national radio and now rarely performs in public in Iran.

Hafez of Shiraz

The music I heard on that cassette I recently traced again. It is Bidad (Injustice) a collection of songs based on the mystical poetry of Khwaja Shamsuddin Mohammad Hafez of Shiraz.

Bear with me for a bit longer as I tie up one more string of this ragged and overlong introduction.  A few months after my refugee friend left for Scandinavia I received a package postmarked, Tabriz.  Inside was the famous Diwan-e-Hafiz a gorgeous collection of the 14^th century poet’s works translated into 7 languages! Inside was a short note. “Dear Sir, For rescuing my son and enabling him to reach a country of safety, I am deeply grateful.  Please accept this book as a token of my love.”  It was signed by my friend’s mother.

            Track Listing:

            01 Moghaddame

     02 Saz o Avaz - Bidad, Bayat Raje, Oshagh, Gharche,       Forood be  Bidad be Shooshtar

    03 Ghate Sooz o Godaz

    04 Edame Saz o Avaz - Edame Shooshtari (2),          Forood be Homayoon

   05 Tasnif Yad Bad

  06 Peesh Daramad Homayoon

  07 Chahar Mezrab Homayoon

  08 Sav o Avaz - Daramad Homayoon, Homayoon (2), Segah o Homayoon (1), Chakavak

  09 Chahar Mezrab Bidad

  10 Edame Saz o Avaz - Bidad, Bayat Raje, Oshagh

  11 Chahar Mezrab Oshagh

  12 Edame Saz o Avaz - Oshagh o Gharche

  13 Saz o Avaz - Gharche, Razavi, Hejaz, Jame Daran, Kord Bayat (1, Abu Ata

  14 Tasnif Halak Man

Listen here.