Fateh Ali Khan (Qawwali Singer)

Fateh Ali Khan (Urdu: فتح علی خان) was born in Lyallpur, Punjab, British India in 1901. Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was the father of Qawwali musician, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Their family has an unbroken tradition of Qawwali for over 600 years. Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was trained in classical music and Qawwali by his father, Maula Baksh Khan, and he soon distinguished himself as a skilled vocalist and instrumentalist. He learnt to play traditional Indian instruments such as sitar, sarod and vichitraveena as well as Western instruments like the violin. He also mastered thousands of verses in Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was the leader of his family's Qawwali party but they were billed as Fateh Ali Khan, Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, his brother, shared both singing and harmonium-playing duties with him. They were regarded as among the foremost exponents of Qawwali in their time. They are credited with popularizing the poetry of Allama Iqbal through their singing. Iqbal's poetry was regarded as difficult and while he was highly admired in academic circles and by intellectuals, he did not have much of a popular following. Fateh Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan, more than anyone else, helped Iqbal achieve popular success as well:

In 1948, his son, Nusrat, was born in Lyallpur. Ustad Fateh Ali Khan wanted Nusrat to become a doctor or an engineer because he felt Qawwali artistes had low social status. However, Nusrat showed such interest in and aptitude for Qawwali that his father soon relented, and began training him. However, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan died in 1964 at the age of sixty-three, when Nusrat was sixteen and still in school. Nusrat's training was completed by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan's brothers, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan.