Amir Khusrau: The Poet-Musician Who Invented Qawwali

Amir Khusrau (1253 to 1325) was a Persian-language poet, musician, and courtier in Delhi, and the most devoted disciple of the Sufi (the mystical tradition within Islam centered on the heart's nearness to the divine) saint Nizamuddin Auliya. He is widely credited with shaping qawwali's early form and vocabulary, though several specific inventions popularly attributed to him, including the sitar and tabla, are historically unverified.

Who was Amir Khusrau?

Amir Khusrau was born in 1253 in Patiyali, near modern Etah in Uttar Pradesh, to a Turkic father who had emigrated from Central Asia and an Indian mother. He grew up bilingual and, over a life that ran through the reigns of roughly seven successive Delhi Sultanate rulers, became the era's most celebrated court poet, writing almost entirely in Persian, the literary and administrative language of the Delhi court at the time. He earned the title Tuti-e-Hind, "the Parrot of India," for the fluency and wit of his verse. He died in 1325, within months of the death of his spiritual master, and is buried beside him in Delhi, at what is now the Nizamuddin Dargah (a Sufi shrine built over a saint's tomb), still one of the most active qawwali sites in the world.

That combination, working poet at the sultan's court by day, murid (disciple) of a Chishti Sufi master by devotion, is the key to understanding what he actually contributed to Hindustani music. He was not a professional musician employed to entertain. He was a serious literary figure whose devotional writing and, by most accounts, musical experimentation grew directly out of his relationship with his pir (spiritual guide).

What was his relationship to Nizamuddin Auliya?

Nizamuddin Auliya was the leading Chishti Sufi saint of Delhi in Khusrau's lifetime, head of a silsila (a chain of spiritual transmission passed from teacher to teacher) that had already made sama (spiritual listening, often through music) a central practice at its gatherings. Khusrau attached himself to Nizamuddin as a young man and remained his disciple for the rest of his life. Their bond is one of the most written-about relationships in South Asian Sufi history: contemporary and near-contemporary accounts describe Khusrau's grief at his master's death as so severe that he reportedly gave away his possessions and died within the year, asking to be buried at his master's feet. Whatever the precise details, the devotional intensity of that relationship is not in dispute, and it shows up directly in the verses still sung in qawwali gatherings today, many of which are addressed to Nizamuddin by name.

What is Amir Khusrau credited with in qawwali specifically?

Musicologists and the oral tradition itself generally credit Khusrau with several concrete contributions to what became qawwali:

He is credited with composing the qaul (a formal devotional declaration, still used to open many qawwali performances), based on a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. The qaul that opens countless qawwali sessions across South Asia today is traditionally attributed to him.

He is credited with shaping the tarana (a vocal composition built from rhythmic, largely non-lexical syllables rather than words), a form still taught and performed in Hindustani classical music, not only qawwali.

He is credited with writing in Hindavi (an early form of what became Hindi and Urdu) alongside Persian, blending the vocabulary and imagery of both traditions in the same composition, a technique still heard in the mixed-language verses (rekhta) that qawwals draw on.

He is credited, more broadly, with fusing Persian, Arabic, Turkic, and Indian musical vocabulary into something distinctly of Delhi rather than an import from any one of those traditions, which is close to a description of qawwali itself: a form built from multiple inherited streams, organized around group call-and-response, and aimed at devotional intensity rather than solo display.

Verses still performed today and popularly attributed to him include "Chhap Tilak Sab Chheeni" and "Aaj Rang Hai," both staples of the qawwali repertoire recorded by generations of qawwals, including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. We will not offer our own translation of these lines here. Within the tradition, translations of Khusrau's kalam (devotional poetry set to music) are checked and passed down by teachers before they are relied on, because the imagery moves between literal and mystical meaning in ways that are easy to flatten in English. What can be said honestly is that the themes are the beloved, longing, and the ache of separation, images that in Sufi poetry describe both an earthly relationship and, more often, the soul's love (ishq) for the Divine.

Where legend outruns the historical record

It is worth being direct about this, because it matters for how seriously the attribution should be taken. Two claims about Khusrau are repeated constantly and are much shakier than his poetry:

The sitar is very often described as his invention. Most musicologists who have looked closely at the instrument's design and the historical record place the sitar's development several centuries after Khusrau's death, with no contemporary 13th or 14th-century source describing him building or playing one. The name plausibly derives from the Persian "seh-tar" (three strings), which may be where the legend took root, but a name origin is not the same as an invention story.

The tabla is also frequently attributed to him. The same problem applies: there is no primary source from Khusrau's own era describing this, and most instrument historians date the tabla's emergence considerably later, with its own separate and contested origin stories that do not involve him at all.

None of this erases what Khusrau actually did. It just means the honest version of his story separates two things: a well-documented literary and devotional legacy, versus a set of instrument-invention legends that developed over the centuries after his death and were, at some point, attached to his name because he had already become the symbolic father of this music. Repeating the instrument claims as settled fact is common online and in casual retellings. We would rather tell you plainly what is well attested and what is legend, because that honesty is itself part of what a real guru-shishya parampara (the unbroken master-to-student teaching lineage) is supposed to protect.

Why does every qawwal still owe him something?

Because the structural bones of the form, the qaul that opens a sitting, the mixing of Persian and vernacular language in the same verse, the address to a living or departed spiritual master by name, the whole idea that ecstatic group singing is itself a form of prayer, all trace back through seven centuries of oral transmission to Khusrau and the circle around Nizamuddin Auliya. A student learning qawwali today, whether in Delhi, Lahore, or a retreat room thousands of miles from either, is still singing inside vocabulary Khusrau helped establish, whether or not the specific melody in front of them can be dated to his lifetime.

That is also why this tradition is taught in person and by ear rather than purely from a book or a video. The chain from Khusrau to Nizamuddin's dargah, through centuries of Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana (the hereditary lineage of qawwal families) musicians, through Ustad Dildar Hussain, and into this school, is a chain of people, not documents. If you want the fuller picture of what qawwali is and how it developed after Khusrau, our complete guide to qawwali is the place to start. To hear this repertoire performed in its living devotional context, at the shrines where it is still sung, the documentary Music of the Mystics was filmed across the Sufi shrines of Pakistan and is the clearest window we can offer into that world. If you want to train in this lineage directly, our Ilahi Sufi qawwali course teaches the vocal technique and repertoire in community, the way it has always been passed down, and for those who want the deepest, in-person version of that training, the Voice of the Beloved retreat gathers students in a live room together rather than in front of separate screens. If you are new to this and want a low-stakes first step, try a free lesson from the Musical Wisdom masterclass series.

Frequently asked questions

Did Amir Khusrau really invent the sitar and tabla? Almost certainly not in the way popular accounts describe. No contemporary 13th or 14th-century source documents him building either instrument, and most musicologists date both instruments' emergence to well after his death. Treat these as legend, not history.

What language did Amir Khusrau write in? Mostly Persian, the literary language of the Delhi Sultanate court, along with Hindavi, an early form of what became Hindi and Urdu. He is also known for verses that deliberately mix both in the same composition.

Who was Nizamuddin Auliya? The leading Chishti Sufi saint of Delhi during Khusrau's lifetime and Khusrau's spiritual master. Khusrau remained his disciple until Nizamuddin's death in 1325, dying himself within months, and is buried near him in Delhi.

What is a qaul, and did Khusrau write it? A qaul is a formal devotional declaration, based on a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, traditionally used to open a qawwali sitting. Its composition is credited to Khusrau within the oral tradition.

Is "Chhap Tilak" really by Amir Khusrau? It is popularly attributed to him and has been performed by generations of qawwals, including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. As with most 700-year-old oral poetry, the attribution rests on tradition rather than a surviving manuscript in his own hand.

Can you translate Amir Khusrau's poetry for me directly? We deliberately do not offer our own line-by-line translations of his kalam here. Within the tradition, these translations are checked and taught by qualified teachers before being relied on, because the imagery works on more than one level at once.

Why is Amir Khusrau called the father of qawwali if he didn't invent every instrument used in it? Because his real, well-documented contributions, the qaul, the tarana, the mixing of Persian and Hindavi, and the devotional framework built around his relationship with Nizamuddin Auliya, are the structural foundation the form still runs on, regardless of which specific instrument claims turn out to be later legend.

Written by the teaching team at Samā School of Music, founded by Tahir Qawwal and Alexandra Amïe Lyons, initiated into the lineage of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan through Ustad Dildar Hussain and creators of the award-winning documentary Music of the Mystics.