Attaullah Khan Essakhilvi
Attaullah Khan Essakhilvi is a well known folk singer and poet of Pakistan. He has a world record of the highest number of audio albums ever released by a singer. He is traditionally considered a Siraiki artist but mostly he has als recorded albums in the Punjabi language. The reason behind [...]
Music of Hunza
Music is called the food of soul and the people of NAs adopted it as a part of their culture from the rise of their fore fathers on this land. The instruments commonly used in NAs are, Dadang (drum) Damal (Tabla) Surnai (shehnai) while some other instruments like Sitar, Gabi(flut) Rabab and [...]
Syed Waris Shah
Syed Waris Shah (Urdu/Punjabi: وارث شاہ) (1706 – 1798) was a Punjabi Sufi poet, best-known for his seminal work Heer Ranjha, based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha. Heer is considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature. The story of Heer was [...]
Sachal Sarmast
Sachal Sarmast (1739 – 1829) was a renowned Sindhi Sufi poet during the Kalhora era. Abdul Wahab was his real name and “Sachal” was the name he used in his own poetry. Sachu means truth in Sindhi and Sachalu means truthful. Sarmast means mystic in Sindhi and Urdu. Suchal Sarmast literally means ‘truthful mystic’. Sachal [...]
Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Masood Ganjshakar
Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Masood Ganjshakar commonly known as Baba Farid was a 12-th century Sufi preacher and saint of Punjab. He is recognised as the first acclaimed poet of Punjabi language. He was the spiritual disciple and Khalifa (spiritual successor) of Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki who was the disciple and Khalifa of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti who [...]
Allam Lohar
Allam Lohar was born in the small village of Aach Goach outside Gujrat, Punjab, into a family of blacksmiths. He was gifted with a melodious voice and began singing as a child. Strongly attracted to music, he took little interest in his studies and dropped out of school to pursue a singing career, much to [...]
Bulleh Shah
Bulleh Shah (1680 – 1757) whose real name was Abdullah Shah , was a Punjabi Sufi poet, a humanist and philosopher.
Biography
Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch, Bahawalpur, Punjab, now in Pakistan. His ancestors had migrated from Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan .
At the [...]
Reshma
Reshma is a renowned folk singer of Pakistan, who is popular in India too.
Reshman was born to a Pakkhiwas(gypsy) family in Rajasthan one year after Independence. They traded in horses, cows and goats. She belonged to a tribe which had converted to Islam. Her tribe migrated to Karachi shortly after Independence.
Gifted [...]
Shah Hussain
Shah Hussain (1538-1599) was a Punjabi poet and Sufi saint. He was born in Lahore (present-day Pakistan). His tomb and shrine lies in Baghbanpura, adjacent to the Shalimar Gardens.
His urs (annual death anniversary) is celebrated at his shrine every year. It is known as “Mela Chiraghan” (”Festival of Lights”) and is [...]
Abida Parveen
The most famous singer of the works of the Sufi poets, especially Sindhi kafis, is undoubtedly Abida Parveen. Born in 1957 in Larkana, Sindh, she received her initial musical training from her father, Ustad Ghulam Haider. Later, she studied under Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of the Sham Chorassi gharana of [...]
