Mohammad Hussain Sarahang - Career and Education

Career and Education

He was born in Kharabat, an area in the old city of Kabul as Mohammad Hussain, the second son of the Peshawar musician, Ustad Ghulam Hussain, from whom he learned the basics of music. Hussain then studied Indian Classical Music in the Patiala School of Music in India. After 16 years of learning from Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan, he returned to Kabul at the age of 25. Soon afterward he was awarded the title of Sarāhang by the government of Afghanistan.

Ustad Sarahang performed various genres of classical and semi-classical music, including khayal, thumri, tarana, and ghazal. He earned the following titles and degrees from various music schools of India:

• Degrees of Master, Doctor and Professor of Music from Kalakendra School of Music, Calcutta
• Title of “Koh-e Beland” (High Mountain of Music) from Chandigarh School of Music, Chandigarh
• Title of “Sar Taj-e Musiqee” (Top Crown of Music) from Central School of Music, Allahabad
• Title of “Baba-e Musiqee” (The Father of Music) in his final concert in New Delhi, 1979
• Title of “Sher-e Musiqee” (Lion of Music) in his last performance in Allahabad, 1982

Sarahang recorded roughly 500 raga performances and ghazals in India and at Radio Kabul. He has sung mostly the Ghazals of Amir Khusraw and Abul Ma'āni Bedil, the famous poets of Indian School of Poetry in Persian, as he was a famous Bedil Shenās (Bedil Expert).

He wrote two books about classical music, Qānūn-e Tarab (The Law of Music) and Mūssīqī-e Rāg-hā (Music of Ragas). He has also created or composed several ragas including Hazra and Minamalee.