PESHAWAR: Saad Haider, a resident of Peshawar, has become the first scholar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to have completed a research thesis at master level on various aspects of ‘rabab’ commonly known as the king instrument of Pashto music orchestra.

Defending his paper, the scholar regretted that no research work was being encouraged on music.

He added that his was the first attempt, which would motivate students to conduct theses on music.

Saad Haider has recently submitted a research paper on history, making and role of rabab as Sufi musical instrument in a Pakhtun society to the department of Pakistan studies, Government Superior Science College, Peshawar as fulfillment towards his BS degree.

Saad Haider says he wants to show the world that gun is not his culture

The young scholar said since 6th grade he had been listening to rabab and Pashto poetry and after qualifying intermediate, he began contributing poetic pieces and articles on various literary and cultural issues to Pashto newspapers and magazines.

He said that he wanted to do doctorate thesis on rabab if he could get a foreign scholarship.

“According to musicians, Pashto orchestra had around 60 traditional instruments but now these have been reduced only to six. Also, no notation of any Pashto music was available. Only fragmentary work is there but my thesis is the first ever work on scientific line,” he claimed.

Saad Haider told this scribe he could play rabab as he had learnt it from Yousaf Malang Ustad. He said way back in 2015 he had won a prize for being one of the top 10 young rabab players organised by culture directorate.

“The basic objective of my research is to show to the world that my culture is not gun but rabab, which has been the beauty of a typical Pakhtun hujra for thousands of years,” he said.

Prof Salman Anwar, head of the department, said that it was for the first the time in the history of the province that a scholar opted for a popular traditional musical instrument for his research paper. He said that the scholar under his supervision completed an informative and valuable document, which would pave way for others to conduct such projects.

Haider Hussain, the father of the scholar and a schoolteacher by profession, encouraged his son to conduct research on rabab.

“The conclusion of my paper is that great Sufi poets like Raman Baba, Ali Khan Baba, Hameed Baba and Hamza Baba had not only been fans of rabab but also played it to convey their Sufi message,” said Saad Haider.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018