Charābāt
Charābāt or Kharabat is a literary term from the field of Persian literature , and here specifically from the field of Sufism . The term also refers to the Afghan music and artists district in Kabul .
Etymology and meaning
Charābāt a feminine is Flexionsplural of charāba ( Arabic خراب) "Ruin". In Persian it has the additional meanings “tavern”, “casino” and “brothel”.
According to Dehchoda's dictionary and the Persian-German dictionary published by Heinrich FJ Junker and Bozorg Alavi , Xarābāt has different meanings such as "(wine) tavern", tavern , ruin and "meditation center". "Pir-e Charābāt" is the wise one ( Persian ساقى) "Saki" ( tavern or cupbearer ), in mysticism an allegory for God.
Charābāt appears in the period of the Islamic renaissance , when the Sufi poets and thinkers, in Islamic mysticism , tried to use the ancient philosophical concepts of literature and the like. a. To revive antinomies in the Iranian cultural area ( Iran , Afghanistan , Tajikistan and in other Central Asian countries as well as northern India).
Charābāt-e Moghān ( Persian خرابات مغان) is a Zorastrian temple, in which there is also a "fireplace" or "relating to the sun". Moghan (Arabic) or Mogana (before the introduction of the Arabic script) means "concerning Zoroastrian". Joseph von Hammer-Purgstal translated the poem Dar Charābāt-e Moghān by Hafiz as "in the stomach tavern" ( I will see the light of the gentleman in the stomach tavern.) In addition, Moghan stands for names of many places in the Iranian culture u. a. also in Azarbaijan.
Attar and Rumi used the term Charābāt, making Rumi an institution. Some Iranian historians associate the word with Chorābād ("city of the sun") or love for the Mithras cult . They refer to his work Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi , in which he expressed his love for the sun in the personification of Shams-e Tabrizi , "Sun of Tebriz".
In Rumi, Charābād means the symbolization of the place where people could practice the fine arts, arts that were "frowned upon" at that time. Devotion to God can be realized through art and culture, singing and dancing, making music and meditating, and man can be purified through the spiritual attitude. With this man can connect with God. Witty drinks like drinking May ( Middle Persian for “ wine ”) are allowed here, as is dance and music. The poets of Persian literature before and after it, such as Chajjam and Hafiz etc., sang in their songs about the spiritual meaning of wine . Love, humanism and human dignity were the central themes of the poets of the Iranian cultural area such as the mystic Saadi , whose poem hangs in the entrance hall of the UN . The poem from Gulistan ("Rose Garden") reads as follows in English translation:
The term charābāt and the cultural tradition associated with it has been preserved in the traditional poems. In his poems Rumi sang the musical instruments Tschang (Persian angular harp) and Daf (frame drum), Setar (long-necked lute), Tanbur (long-necked lute), Rubab (plucked lute ), Sornay (oboe instrument) and Nay (reed flute). Some of these are the instruments that are traditionally made in the Charābāt district of Kabul to this day.
Persian poets in India , in particular Amir Chosrau and Abdul Qader Bedel in India, developed the term further. Many places like Charābāt were built in the Islamic sultanates in India and Central Asia, i.e. enclaves in which the musicians sang, played musical instruments and revived the musical instruments of the cultural area under difficult conditions, like those Charābāt musicians in the old town of Kabul.
Charābāt as a music and artists district in Kabul
In the old town of Kabul, not far from Hinduguzar (district with Hindu and Sikhs) is the artist and music quarter "Charābāt". The neighborhood resembles a large conservatory of the Indian School of Persian in Patiala . Here music and song are passed on from one generation to the next. In Charābād there are a number of workshops in which the typical Indo-Iranian musical instruments are still made today . In this old town the great Afghan musicians were born, who sang especially the songs of the Indian poets. B. Qasem Jo or (Ustad Qasemi) Sarahang . During the Taliban period, many musicians from the historic district emigrated.
Famous musicians of Charābāt
- Qasem Jo as, "father of modern Afghan music"
- Ghulam Hossein , founder of the music group in Charābāt and lecturer at the internal music school of the Afghan radio, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA)
- Mohammad Omar , Rubab player
- Ghulam Dastagir Shaida singer of poems by Saadi and Hafiz
- Amir Mohammad , Persian poetry singer and rubab player
- Rahim Baksh , Ghazal singer and leader of Charābāt
- Mohamed Hussein Sarahang , leader of Charābāt, performers and Patiala students
- Ustad Zaland took part in lessons in the music schools run by Ustad Qasem Jo and Ghulam Hossein before RTA was founded , but he is not a typical charābāt singer. Because the Charābāti , singers and musicians of Charābāt, formed their own music guild with their own workshops and they lived or live in the old town of Charābāt in Kabul. Ustad Zaland repeatedly sang "Charābāt" as a place of music and meditation etc. a. in his song "Delbarakam bia ba Kabul borem" (darling, let's go to Kabul).
- Ustad Abdul Ahmad Hamahang , singer of the song Kabuljan
Today's charābāt musicians
- Sultan Ahmad Hamahang belongs to today's generation of Charābāt
literature
- Ali Akbar Dehchoda et al. Loghat Nāmeh Dehchodā . Dāneschgāh (Univ.) Tehrān 1991
- Heinrich FJ Junker, Bozorg Alavi: Dictionary Persian - German. Langenscheid Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-324-00110-2
Web links
- Kharabat. Afghanistan Cultural Profile Kharabat in Kabul
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8138692.stm
- https://en.qantara.de/content/non-fiction-war-exile-and-the-music-of-afghanistan-by-john-baily-without-music-no-humanity