Mera Eh Charkha No Lakha Kurray
36:19 minutes

By Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party
Live at Wulfrun Civic Hall, Wolverhampton UK 1983.

Sufis often sing of love which can be taken two ways, either for love of the infinite or love of a romantic mate. This song voices the passionate yearnings of a woman spinning her cotton wheel at home, with each turn of the wheel she remembers something about her lover.

As with any meaningful journey, this qawalli builds slowly as a fire and really gets ablaze slightly before the half way mark. Being journeys, these are no 3 minute numbers, this version of Mera Eh Charkha is 36 minutes in length.

Qawalli became an essential part of Muslim worship at Sufi shrines (spiritual part of Islam, largely persecuted and forced underground for centuries by the orthodox), and as a result of it's popularity an important element in the conversion of Indians to Islam.

In recent times the foremost practitioner was 41 year old Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan from Faisalbad, Pakistan whose family have passed on and developed the tradition for over six centuries (father to son only, as it requires extreme endurance). Nusrat's career started with blessings by a number of mystics at a sufi festival in Pakistan, hence he always started each concert with the song Allah Hoo. Nusrat & party gave their first British performance in Birmingham in 1979 and since then toured the country almost every year.

All the party sing, some are soloists, others act as a chorus. The music is provided by harmoniums (hand pumped organ like instrument), hand clapping and a set of tablas (a small pair of drums). From this combination emerges a sound of surprising variety and complexity, from angelic solo heights to awesome choral power. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice and the tabla combine in ecstatic improvisations, set against striking melodies.

At the turn of the 13th century, 40 years before the birth of Geoffrey Chaucer and 150 years before that of Leonardo De Vinci, Europe was steeped in the dark ages. In contrast, the Muslim world was flourishing from the maghrib (the west) in Spain where Muslim scholars were rediscovering and putting to use the lost knowledge of the Greeks, to the mashriq (the east) in India where a synthesis between Persian and Indian culture was taking place.

In India, Amir Khusrau was in the employ of princes and nobles as a poet and historian. However, his real allegiances lay with Sheikh Nizam-ud din-Awliya, the leader of the Chisti order of Sufi saints which had played an active part in popularizing Islam within India. Apart from inventing the sitar and the ghazal (poetic lovesong), Khusrau was responsible for inventing Qawalli.

Peter Gabriel was so inspired by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's power and range, he dubbed him as 'The most powerful voice in the world.' He consequently managed Nusrat's career and tours in the West. Nusrat was part of the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, Dead Man Walking & Natural Born Killers.

A true Sufi in spirit, upon his untimely death in is early 40s, Nusrat was discovered to have been supporting hundreds of orphans and widows in Pakistan, yet wore the most simple attire, a mere $5 pair of shoes the biggest expense.