(b Al Mukalla, c1903; d Al Munkalla, 1963). Yemeni instrumental performer. He was born to a Yemeni mother and a Punjabi father who was a soldier in the army of sultan Qu'ayti. As an adolescent Khān joined the sultan's musical ensemble, in which he played Western instruments and became familiar with a repertory of Western military band music and Indian music. At the same time he learnt the qanbūs (lute) with Sa‘d Allāh Faraj, who had been a pupil of the distinguished Yafi musician Sultān al-Shaykh ‘Alī (d c1903).
On being placed in charge of the sultan's ensemble, Khān began to introduce tunes from Hadramawt into its repertory and brought Arab influences into its work. He learnt to play the ‘ūd, which superseded the Yemeni qanbūs in the 1930s, and began to draw on various sources of Hadramawt popular song from both the coast and the interior. These included religious chant, such as Yā man tahall bidhikrihi (‘Thou whose Name it is Permitted to Speak’, a poem by the Sufi al-Burā‘ī), and dān poetry such as Dhā fazl nasmeh (‘This is my First Verse’). He also composed settings for classical Arab poetry and the work of modern poets such as al-Mahdār. To this Yemeni inheritance he added certain elements of Indian origin, particularly melodic features, creating a new repertory now known as ‘awādī. With his own ensemble he made about 100 78 r.p.m. recordings for several recording companies in Aden and for Aden Radio. He was a significant figure in the development of the urban music of Hadramawt and left an important artistic heritage for musicians such as Abū Bakr Bal-Faqīh and Muhammad Bin Shāmikh.
JEAN LAMBERT