Afghanistan: Female Musicians of Herat

Afghanistan: The Traditional Music of Heart

Jeanne L. Gillespie, Ph.D.
The University of Southern Mississippi
Even before radio and the Internet, music moved freely along the trade
routes that delivered exquisite luxury goods from the Far East to
Mediterranean ports. Poetic and musical traditions were exchanged
alongside musical instruments, cinnamon, beauty products, and silk.
The music collected by Veronica Doubleday and John Baily on the
recordings Afghanistan: Female Musicians of Heart and Afghanistan:
The Traditional Music of Heart exhibits the rich musical influences in
one of the most important cities in the region of Khorasan, a kingdom
that spanned parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. As the liner
notes to The Traditional Music of Heart explain, an Afghani proverb
described Khorasan as the oyster-shell of the world with Herat is its
pearl.
When Alexander the Great arrived in Herat in 330 BC, it was already a
bustling oasis with rich grazing lands and trade routes stretching in all
directions. Alexander fortified the city with walls and a citadel that can
still be seen today.
The famous Sufi master Abdullah Ansarni (1006-1088 CE) hailed from
Herat, and much Herati music still reflects the powerful influence of
Sufi teachings. Tracks 2, 3, 9 and 10 from Traditional Music of Herat
are Sufi works still performed in the city, especially by the Qaderi and
Naqshbandi orders. The song on Track 2 Nat calls for a blessing from
the Prophet Mohammed while Track 3 Shajkh Ahmad-e Jam seeks a
blessing from God. Track 9 captures a flute tune performed by a
pilgrim at the Naqshbandi shrine of Karrukh, near Herat, while Track 10
offers a composition by an employee of the Herat Theological College.
Female musicians also perform Sufi compositions. A lullaby recorded
as Track 5 on Female Musicians of Herat, and another recorded on
Track 11 of The Traditional Music of Herat use the invocation Allah Hu
which is a common phrase meaning God is from the Sufi devotional
act of zekr, a meditative practice similar to the Catholic rosary.
Despite dynastic rises and falls, massacres, invasions, and internal
strife, Herat enjoyed a golden age in the early 15th century under the
Turco-Mongol princess Gawhar Shad and her husband, Shah Ruhk, the
son of Timur (Tamerlane). Persian (Dari) language, literature, and
culture flourished in Herat at this time, and Gawhar Shad was
instrumental in relocating the empires capital from Samarkand to
Herat. As part of the relocation, Gawhar Shad organized the
construction of several of the most important architectural treasures
still standing in the city, including the mosque that bears her name.

Her mausoleum represents another spectacular architectural treasure

of the city.
Although Gawhar Shad exercised power and influence in Islamic Herat
during the early 15th century, by the time Doubleday and Baily visited
in the 1970s the situation for women had changed substantially.
Women and men operated in separate spheres and women did not
active in public. In their research of Afghani music, they did, however,
find a vibrant tradition of female musicians who played for female
audiences at weddings and celebrations. As a woman, Doubleday had
access to the Afghani ceremonies that Baily did not. Her work with
female musicians offers details on a diverse range of performers of
both Dari and Pasto heritage. A significant number of the songs
collected by Doubleday were designed to entertain wedding guests
and to comment on the activities of the celebration.
The song Bada Bada Track 4 from Traditional Music of Afghanistan
describes the preparations for the wedding, including the painting of
henna on the hands and feet of bride and the women of wedding party:
Tonight is the night for painting henna, my dears,/the bridegrooms
mother is laughing like an open pistachio nut, be blessed by God
/Always be blessed/be rich and wealthy/new bridegroom king, be
blessed.
Track 21 from Female Musicians of Heart, entitled Leila, Leila, Leila
reflects the multicultural aspects of this ancient city. In performing this
composition a Pashtun woman named Adeh accompanied herself on
her daireh, a large frame drum with bells, rings, or jingles. Fourteen of
the twenty-two songs on Female Musicians of Heart feature the daireh.
This particular composition about a girl called Leila is written with a
Dari (Persian) verse that is interspersed with Pashto (Afghani) refrains.
This is interesting since most of the ethnic Pashtuns in Herat now
speak Dari as their first language, although Pashto usage is common in
the rural areas.
In an article entitled The Frame Drum in the Middle East, Doubleday
explains that the frame drum, called duf in Arabic and daireh in
Pashto, was popular in Arabian, Hebrew, and Assyrian cultures, but not
as common in the Persian sphere (108-09). She comments in the liner
notes that many female performers in Herat still use frame drums to
accompany their compositions. In my research on womens voices in
the Hispanic world I had come across an image from the Golden
Haggadah, a Hebrew manuscript from Barcelona ca 1320 CE, that
illustrates the prophet Miriam playing a frame drum known as a tof in
Hebrew that has been adorned with henna as the women make
preparations for Passover (Figure 1).

Judith Cohen explains in This Drum I Play: Women and Square Frame
Drums in Portugal and Spain, that the square drum pictured in the
haggadah was as common as the round frame drum in Iberia. Cohen
also explains that in al-Andalus, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women
all played frame drums. Throughout the Iberian Peninsula, frame
drums were decorated with henna patterns similar to those that the
women used to adorn their bodies. The use of henna in the decoration
of frame drums also seems to be a common practice in Herat. In a
photo that accompanies the liner notes to Female Musicians of Heart,
we see a young woman playing a frame drum with intricate henna
details (Figure 2).
While Herat in the 1970s offered limited opportunities for the creative
and academic pursuits for women, the situation for women has
improved somewhat in recent years. In 2003, a university named for
Gawhar Shad opened in Kabul as a space in which Afghani women
could pursue higher education.1
The music and cultural heritage of the Afghani people can unlock
cultural treasure and a better understanding of the Herati past,
present, and future. Doubleday and Baily have videos of their work
available on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=teHLY66dBlY, and their work is regarded quite highly among the
Afghani people.

Works cited:
Cohen, Judith. This Drum I Play: Women and Square Frame Drums in
Portugal and Spain. Ethnomusicology Forum 17.1(Jun., 2008) 95-124.
Doubleday, Veronica. The Frame Drum in the Middle East: Women,
Musical Instruments and Power. Ethnomusicology 43.1 (Winter, 1999),
101-134.

1
https://sites.google.com/a/creatinghope.org/www/gawharashaduniversi
ty

Figure 1

Figure 2