Dr. Mohammad Sadiq Fitrat, born Sadiq Fitrat Habibi, (
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
/
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
: ), known professionally as Nashenas (
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
/
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
: ), is one of the oldest surviving
musicians
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...
from
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. His fame began in the late 1950s, and since then he has produced many albums consisting of Pashto, Dari, and
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to an ethnic
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
family. He belongs to the famous Habibi family who are
Kakar
The Kakar (Pashto: کاکړ) is a Gharghashti Pashtun tribe, based mostly in Northern Balochistan, Pakistan and Loy Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Legendary origin
Kakars are sons of Gharghashti who was the son of Qais Abdul Rashid.
In Herat, the ...
by tribe. This is a religious family which descends from Habibullah Kakar, or Habibullah Akhundzada. His primary education was in Kandahar.
After his father was appointed by the National Bank of Karachi, he moved to
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
where he lived without his mother. He encountered
classical Indian music
Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and Urdu.
While staying in
Chaman
Chaman ( Balochi, Pashto and ur, ) is a city and recently claimed as a new district of Balochistan named Chaman District as it was earlier a part of district Qila Abdullah District located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is the capital o ...
, near the border of Afghanistan, he went to a school where he experienced an important moment in his musical awakening. Students were celebrating the establishment of their school. Kids used tables as drums while Nashenas sang. He was called to the principal's office. Thinking that he would get punished, he decided to deny that he was singing. On the contrary, he found that school appreciated his talents and encouraged him to perform. He received a medal and five volumes of religious texts.
In 1948 he returned to Afghanistan. Starting from 1953 he begins to sing on Afghan radio and becomes known under his pseudonym "Nashenas". His family stressed to him the importance of
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
as he hailed from the religious elite of the city of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
. In the early 1970s, Nashenas traveled to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
.
Since the 90s he lives in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Nashenas is still popular in Afghanistan, including in the Pashto-speaking areas of Pakistan. He made one song about
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philos ...
.
Nashenas has a following among musicians of the new generation as well, who are noted to imitate his style of singing. One of which is Sardar Ali Takkar, a Pashtun musician from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Discography
:Note: This list is not comprehensive and does not include albums released in Afghanistan during the 1970s and 1980s. Due to the
Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Sovie ...
in the 1980s and the Taliban ban on music in late the 1990s, all his original music clips and videos from the 1970s and early 1980s have been destroyed. It is claimed that the ones being heard today are mostly copies of the original and the quality is not as good.
* ''Kharabat e -Moghaan''
* ''Qandahar''
* ''Sokhan-e-Zamana''
* ''Nashinas Live In New York'' (DVD)