Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali

Rizwan and Muazzam Mujahid Ali Khan are the torchbearers of a tradition that goes back over 700 years, the tradition of qawwali.

Qawwali is an Arabic word that means ‘utterance’ and it is the devotional music of the Sufis of Pakistan and India. When the unforgettable qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died in Pakistan in 1997, he left a musical vacuum into which stepped his two teenage nephews.

Despite their extreme youth, they were determined that their group Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali should continue their uncle’s pioneering efforts to transcend cultural, language and religious barriers and to bring to the world the devotional but vibrant Qawwali vocal music of the Sufi mystics of the Islam religion.

Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali recorded four albums for Real World Records: 1999’s Sacrifice To Love, 2001’s collaboration with Temple of Sound People’s Colony No. 1, 2001’s A Better Destiny and 2004’s Day of Colours.

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