This section of the website is dedicated to a particular set of recordings from the Pamir mountains, Badakhshan, Tajikistan. Because of its relatively isolated location in one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, the people of Badakhshan have developed and preserved various unique artistic practices, some of which are closely related to their religious traditions. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, musicologist Jan van Belle made a collection of recordings, while Gabrielle van den Berg worked on the transcripts of the recordings. In 1992 and 1993 Jan van Belle and Gabrielle van den Berg travelled together in Badakhshan and worked on several aspects of the recordings they made, in consultation with musicians, poets, scholars and audiences from the area. They were greatly helped in preparing their fieldwork by Gurminj Zawqibekov, the famous Badakhshani musician and musicologist who resided at the time in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. In Badakhshan, they were generously hosted by the Mastonshoev-Karamshoev family in Khorugh and by the musicians and their families in the various valleys they visited.
The samples of music and poetry recorded in the early nineties are particularly valuable because they were captured on tape in the transition period right after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. These recordings reflect how the Ismaili Badakhshani community in Tajikistan engaged with and safeguarded their religious traditions in the Soviet period and during the Tajik Civil War (1992-1997), when they were largely cut off from the wider Ismaili community.
For an extended explanation on the music and poetry from the Pamir mountains, please see Minstrel Poetry from the Pamir Mountains by Gabrielle van den Berg
Introduction
Instruments
Performers
Poets
Genres
Picture Pamir Mountains Credit: Hylgeriak, Shot on 2015-06-27 in Tajikistanmap.(c) Hylgeriak, licensed under: CC BY-SA 3.0