The Voice of Prof. Inayat Khan

Recordings of 1909

Historic recordings of Hazrat Inayat Khan - before he left for his life mission to the West, together with his brothers Maheboob Khan, Musharaff Khan and his cousin Ali Khan, he recorded in an EMI studio in Bombay many of his musical pieces, in a few days' time the 78 rpm shellac-recording was done.

In the course of his journeys in the West a set of these recordings got lost, but fortunately the recordings could be preserved from another set - although the original CD made did not reflect the natural pitch of his voice, later some of these songs could be remastered electronically. The quality of the recordings do not correspond to todays' standards, but nevertheless they represent an invaluable document.

The reason, why I made these recordings available here, is simple: Hardly anyone who today speaks of Hazrat Inayat Khan,still could recall what moved him in the year 1910 to leave his home country and to embark on his life journey, as his Murshid, Abu Hashim Madani, had pointed out to him.

His rich heritage, since his early departure in 1927 was focus of ugly fights among those who wished to derive rights from it, engaged lawyers to push their right through, and in doing so gave a most shameful image. Those people forgot that by doing so had already damaged the future of Hazrat Inayat Khans work, and the work of an entire generation has gone lost out of these actings.

If today you are listening to this music, I beg you: Recall all what you believe to know about 'Sufism', check back, if your knowledge is complete, if it is in tune with the line of thought which Hazrat Inayat Khan followed, read, what he has written about the many aspects of life, check on yourself, over and over again. Thank you.

Dear friends, in the course of time many visitors have asked if they could buy a CD of this precious music. This music is not for sale, for the above reasons. But as you kept asking to hear Hazrat Inayat Khan's music, I tried to find the right solution - so all his songs are now uploaded to the Soundcloud set, and you can hear all music here which is on this recording. Short descriptive texts are of Harunnisa Khanim Maula Bakhsh. Much joy listening!