Hm. Who is The Greatest Khan? Some might think Shahrukh. or Salman. or Aamir. or Saif. or Genghis? All wrong.

The Greatest Khan is the man who made sufi music popular among the masses, who became the most popular Pakistani artists in the world. It’s none other than Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Khan was recently selected as one of the 50 Greatest Voices of All Time by NPR. This made me think of the legacy he left. Not only was he one of the most inspiring performers of all time, he also mastered the technique of bringing various forms of music together  and intertwining them in a way that had never been done before.

To imagine monumental classical music singers such as Ghulam Ali, Pandit Jasraj or Farida Khanum collaborate with London based DJ Bally Sagoo, or with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder  is laughable. But Khan did it all. Not only did he bring the east and west together through music, he reunited Hindustani and Sufi music in a way that had never been done before.

In my last post, I wrote about the new wave in contemporary music that is now experimenting with mixing different sounds from all around the world to create global and original pieces. Khan was the pioneer who paved this path for future musicians. The best example of his melody of Hindustani raaga and Sufi music was through his incorporation of sargam in his qawwalis. Sufism is the mythological branch of Islam, and music plays a huge role in the religion. Qawwalis are the best known form of Sufi devotional music.

Sargam, on the other hand, is an innate quality of raagas. The sargam represents the scale in raagas, and consist of seven notes: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa. Each sargam has a different sound. They symbolize Hindustani music. Khan incorporated Sargam into his qawwalis.

A Pakistani Singer in an interview recently stated that artists in the country receive more respect when they perform in Bollywood. The very fact that there is a growing relationship between the countries through music (Bollywood films are banned in Pakistan) is because of Khan.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s influence is boundless. He composed some music for Bollywood films, influenced groups like Pakistan’s Junoon and singers like India’s Kailash Kher. He is not known as the world’s greatest singer purely for his voice and performance, but for his innovation and ability to transcend borders and politics and bring people together through music.

Here is a personal favorite:

A mainstream piece:

A link to a video of Khan combining qawwali with sargam.