Rabab is an instrument of love and affection

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PESHAWAR -- The performer’s fingers danced over the ancient rabab’s strings as rabab lovers, with half-closed eyes, shook their heads and took in a Pashtu song.

“I get my spiritual strength from rabab tunes”, said Mohammad Faheem, 25, a member of the audience in a small village near Peshawar in north-western Pakistan.

Pashtuns adore the rabab, Faheem said.

The rabab is a string instrument with a hollowed-out wooden body and a membrane stretched over the open side. Combinations of nylon and metal strings pass over a bridge resting on the membrane. The player uses a metal pick to pluck the strings.

Sarfaraz Khan, 60, enthralled the village party with popular Pashtu songs. Faheem and others rose to their feet and danced.

“The rabab is the identity of Pashtuns”, said Sarfaraz, who has played for more than 40 years. He never married so he would never have to share his love of the instrument.

Sarafraz migrated from the neighbouring Khyber Tribal Agency at the age of 20 to learn the rabab.

Gunfire echoed in the tribal region just a few kilometres from the village where Sarfaraz performed, where the Pakistani army has waged a war against Islamic militants. The militants are defying the state in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions to implement their idea of Islamic law.

“There was a time when I performed before gatherings of thousands of rabab lovers”, Sarfaraz said. Such big gatherings no longer occur because of militants, he said. Small parties now gather indoors for safety.

Militants have taken a toll on arts and culture. Threats caused numerous performers to leave town or give up their art. Insurgents also blew up music stores in Peshawar and other towns in north-western Pakistan.

Sarfaraz is the only rabab player left in Peshawar’s Dabgari Bazaar, the town’s only singers’ street. Only a few houses and offices of musicians, singers and other artists are operate in Dabgari Bazaar, where Sarfaraz runs a small workshop to make extra money.

“Besides being an excellent rabab player, he is good at repairing instruments”, said Ulass Khan, who brought in an instrument for Sarfaraz to fix.

“The rabab is my life and I cannot think of not playing it”, Sarfaraz said.

The rabab has been an integral part of Pashtun life for centuries. Some historians say the rabab crossed over to the Pashtun lands centuries ago from Spain. A similar instrument called the rebec is played in Spain. The name for both is said to derive from the Arabic word “rabab”.

Others argue that Alexander the Great introduced the instrument to Pashtuns when he invaded the subcontinent through the Khyber Pass.

The rabab is popular among Pashtuns in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is found on the rest of the subcontinent and in Iran, Bangladesh and parts of the Middle East.

The instrument’s history shows the peaceful nature of the Pashtuns, enthusiasts say. Pashtuns added 7 strings to the Spanish rebec's 24 centuries ago so that the player could produce softer, romantic melodies, they say.

“The rebec was a martial instrument”, said Nisar Muhammad Khan, historian and Pashtun filmmaker. “Pashtuns modified it to sing romantic compositions”.

“The rabab is an instrument of love, affection, peace and tranquillity”, Sarfaraz said. Pashtuns’ love for the rabab proves their longing for peace, Nisar Khan said.

“Pashtuns always yearn for peace on their land, and that is why they modified the rebec to make compositions of love and peace,” he said. “It is high time for Pashtuns to replace the gun with the rabab (or any other musical instrument)”, said Bahadar Khan, another rabab lover at the village music party.

However, Nisar Khan disagreed with the view that guns predominate in Pashtun culture. “The gun has never been a symbol of Pashtuns”, he said. The people of Pashtun adopted the rabab before the gun, he said.

“We Pashtuns in fact adopted the rabab like a child”, Nisar Khan said, referring to the way musicians play the rabab, keeping the instrument in their laps. “No other musical instrument is treated the way Pashtuns use the rabab”.