Ari Babakhanov (born 1934) is a musician who performs the long-necked lutes

tanbur The term ''Tanbur'' can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a complicated situation. Nowa ...

, qashqari rubab and

dutar The ''dutar'' (also ''Dotara, dotar''; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a traditional Iranian long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and Central Asia. Its name comes from the Persian language, Persian word for "two strings", دوتار ''do tār'' (< � ...

Biography

Babakhanov was born in

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family which can look back on an outstanding dynasty of traditional musicians. It was founded by his grandfather Levi Babakhan (1873–1926), the legendary court

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

of Alim Khan, the last emir of Bukhara. Levi Babakhan's son Moshe Babakhanov (1910–1983) was also a famous vocalist who accompanied himself on tanbur and

doira Daf (), also known as dâyere and riq, is an Iranian frame drum musical instrument, also used in popular and classical music in Persian-influenced South and Central Asia, such as in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, many r ...

. In contrary to his grandfather and father Ari Babakhanov became a pure instrumentalist. After his musical studies according to the European

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

at the

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

conservatory he graduated in 1959 with the state examination. Because of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

cultural politics using the customary instruments was still permitted but mainly for a European repertoire. By the discrepancy between the

monophonic Monaural sound or monophonic sound (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduce sou ...

Uzbek music and the European

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

these constraints led to an artificial cultural

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

. In spite of his artistic successes in Tashkent Ari Babakhanov returned to Bukhara, where he taught for the following 40 years at the music college. With the help of his father and musicians like Maarufjon Tashpulov, Najmiddin Nasriddinov und Aminjon Ismatov he gradually found back to the traditional Bukhara music, the

Shashmaqam Shashmaqom ( ; ; ) is a Central Asian musical genre (typical of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) which may have developed in the city of Bukhara. Shashmaqam means the six Maqams (modes) in the Persian language, dastgah being the name for Persian m ...

. He made it his life task to develop this art and achieved a unique contribution for keeping it by writing down an enormous number of notes and texts of

Persian Poetry Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...

as well as popular Uzbek and Tajik poems. Hereby he revived a series of lost creations which had formerly belonged to the Shashmaqam repertoire. This basis inspired him to compose own instrumental pieces and songs in the traditional style of which several became very popular in Uzbekistan. In 1991 he founded at the Bukhara Philharmonic Society the ''Shashmaqam Ensemble'' which grew within a few years from initially 10 to 19 members. Shortly afterwards the group under the artistic direction of Ari Babakhanov performed for the Uzbek radio and TV and established itself in the traditional music scene. In 1998 their CD ''Ari Babakhanov & Ensemble - Shashmaqam: The Tradition of Bukhara'' was published by ''New Samarkand Records''. Because the Bukharian Jewish community of Central Asia has almost dispersed by migration after Uzbekistan's independence, Ari Babakhanov's family searched for new future perspectives and moved to Germany, where he currently resides.

Sources

In: Der Arabische Almanach - Zeitschrift für orientalische Kultur
', 2005/06, 16. Jg., Frank & Frei Verl., Berlin, ISSN 1432-0215> In: New Samarkand Records
Amsterdam> {{DEFAULTSORT:Babakhanov, Ari 1934 births Living people People from Bukhara 20th-century Uzbekistani musicians Bukharan Jews Uzbekistani Jews Soviet Jews Jewish musicians Uzbekistani lutenists