Meraj Ahmed Nizami Qawwal

About Ustad Meraj Nizami

Born and raised in a Sufi family, Meraj Ahmed Nizami Qawwal belongs to the community of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, birthplace of qawwali and tomb of its founders.

He owns the kalifa of the lineage of the Qawwal Bacche, sons of the original qawwal singers trained by Amir Khusro. His family continued the tradition over 700 years and 30 generations.

Ustad Meraj Ahmad Nizami started his training in classical music as a child, under the rigorous tutelage of his father, Ustad Yaqub Ali Khan (Piarey Khan Sahib). Today, he is in charge of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah in Delhi and has been performing at the Dargah of Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan every week for the past 40 years.

Ustad Meraj Nizami's memory is as legendary as his knowledge of languages and poetry. He knows over a thousand qawwali's and many more poems by heart in many languages: Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, etc. He masters various genres of classical music, such as Dhrupad, Khayal, Tarana, Thumri and Dadra, which he blends beautifully during his performances of Qawwali. His style of singing is at once tender, direct and pure.

By his sincerity and his complete devotion to the Sufi way, he has become a reference in his community and has received four times the Khilafat, (a title that gives him the rank of a spiritual guide).
He has been declared Bulbul-e-Chisht (the nightingale of the Chishti lineage, a rare dinstinction) by Khwaja Hasan Nizami.

After an extended period of poor health Meraj Ahmed died on Oct 18th, 2015

Legacy

Singing Qawwali is very much a family tradition, passed on from fathers to sons. The music is never written down, the words only in recent times - and still only incompletely.  

That Ustad Meraj Nizami educated his children in the tradition goes without saying. His eldest son, Gulam Hasnain, now often sits beside him, assisting him as lead singer, during the mehfil.
Not self evident at all, however, is that he shares his knowledge freely with others outside the family, Indian singers and even Westerners. Many Indian singers (the famous Abida Parveen among them) have recognized their debt to the old master.

Complementing his oral legacy, over 200 hours of audio and video recording of his work are archived in the U.S. Ethnomusicological Archives in Delhi.
The content of two authoritative books about Qawwali music is for a large part based on his prolific memory: Sufi Music of India and Pakistan,  Sound, context and meaning in Qawwali by Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, and Qawwali, la musique des maitres du soufisme by Claire Devos.

The roots of Qawwali can be traced back from 8th century in Persia (today's Iran and Afghanistan). During the first major migration from Persia, in the 11th century, the musical tradition of Sema migrated to the Indian subcontinent, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Amir Khusro Dehelvi of the Chisti order of Sufis is credited with fusing the Persian and South Asian musical traditions to create Qawwali as we know it today in the late 13th century in India (Hindustani classical music is also attributed to him). Hazarat Amir Khusro trained 12 children in the performance of qawwalis; they are known as "Qawwal Bachche" and the families associated with them are known as Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana (The household of Qawwal Bachche).

Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami is the most senior amongst the descendents (4th Generation) of Tan Ras Khan Sahib (founder of Delhi Gharana and teacher of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar), who is a descendant of Mian Samad Bin Ibrahim, the first pupil of Hazrat Ameer Khusro and the Group Leader of the Qawwal Bachoon Ka Gharana.

The word "Qawwali", by the way, is derived from the Arabic word "Qaol" which means "axiom" or "dictum".

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