Shaikh-ul-Mashaik Pyaromir Maheboob Khan

, Shaikh-ul-Mashaik Pyaromir Maheboob Khan was extremely musical, intelligent, and thoughtful, but also very retiring.

Their grandfather [http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maula_Bakhsh Maula Bakhsh] recognized in him a great gift of improvisation, and trained him together with Inayat in music. As he grew up, Maheboob was exposed more to European music than Inayat had been, and he conducted some orchestras, and took some interest in Western musical theory. When Inayat began to travel from Baroda, he entrusted his musical students to Maheboob, and felt they were well cared for.

When Inayat Khan sailed to the West in 1910, Maheboob Khan left a promising musical career and accompanied him, supporting the Master in his travels and throughout the many difficulties that he faced [The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States by Edward E. Curtis IV. Columbia University Press 2007 ISBN 023113956X p. 48] . In time Maheboob settled in The Hague, marrying a Dutch mureed, Shadbiy van Goens, who bore him two children, Raheemunnisa and Mahmood.

Hazrat Inayat Khan felt that his brother Maheboob had a particularly strong voice, but Maheboob was so shy that he would rarely sing for others. There is a story that Inayat and his brother Ali Khan would sometimes pretend to go out, slamming the front door and then waiting quietly in the front hall in order to hear Maheboob practise his singing.

In Europe, Maheboob learned musical composition and Western singing with composer and musicologist Edmond Bailly [ Indian Music and the West by Gerry Farrell. Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0198167172 p. 153] .

Maheboob also composed more than 60 sacred songs. It is further testimony to his great diffidence that when Maheboob at last composed a song on a sacred poem by Inayat Khan ('Before You judge.') he could not bring himself to show it to his brother, and the Master passed away without having heard it.

Upon the passing of Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1927, Maheboob Khan took the responsibility of leading the International Sufi Movement [Sufism and the 'Modern' in Islam (Library of Modern Middle East Studies) by Martin van Bruinessen and Julia Day Howell. Published by Tauris 2007. ISBN 1850438544 p. 265] , becoming the Representative-General, a post he held until his own passing in 1948. These years were not happy ones for the members of the Sufi Movement, both for the loss of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and for the clouds of discord and war that enveloped the world. Nevertheless, Shaikh-ul-Mashaik Maheboob Khan kept the Sufi Message through a very difficult WW2 time, and he is remembered with love, respect and gratitude.

References

Music

LP recordings:

*Maheboob Khan. "Qawwali Asti Bulbul" (3:14) (melody by Hazrat Inayat Khan) (1925) [http://www.futura.ru/music/MaheboobKhan_Qawwali_Asti_Bulbul_1925.mp3 mp3]

*Maheboob Khan. "Qawwali Saki. Derwish Song" (3:25) (Rag Kalyan) (1925) [http://www.futura.ru/music/MaheboobKhan_Qawwali_Saki_Derwish_Song_1925.mp3 mp3]

Scores:

* Maheboob Khan - "Hindustani songs". Words by Pir'o Murshid Inayad. French words by François de Bretevil. II. Hindou song to the soul of the saint - Genève : Henn, PN A. 521 H., cop. 1924. - 3 S. Kl. Randschaden. gering gebräunt. Texte in Hindi/Französisch/Englisch.

* Maheboob Khan - "Kalyan". (Thy music causeth my soul to dance). Words from the 'Gayan' by Hazrat Inayat Khan - Rotterdam : Faiz, PN 1374, cop. 1932.

* "Songs" by Shaikh-ul-Mashaik Pyaromir Maheboob Khan. 13 original songs for Voice and Piano. Hague, East-West Publications Fonds, 1988 ISBN 9070104768

CD recordings:

* "Sufi songs". Songs composed by Maheboob Khan based on words of Inayat Khan. Ute Döring, mezzo-soprano, and J. van Lohuizen, piano. Recorded and мanufactured in Germany by: CES in 1998

Articles

"Spirituality - the Tuning of the Heart" by Shaikh-ul-Mashaikh Maheboob Khan. "Toward the One" Volume four. USA. Spring 2003 pp.66-68

Sources

*"Inayat Khan" by Ronald A. L. Mumtaz Armstrong. Geneva, The Sufi Publishing Association, 1927

*"The Sufi Message and The Sufi Movement" by Hazrat Inayat Khan. 1964 Barrie and Rockliff. London pp.10

*"Hazrat Inayat Khan a Brief Sketch of His Life and Teaching" L. Hayat Bouman. The Hague, East-West Publications Fonds, 1982

* Musharaff Moulamia Khan. "Pages in the life of a Sufi", Den Haag - East West Publications, 1982. 155pp.. ISBN 9062716628. Third Edition

Links

* [http://www.sufimovement.org sufimovement.org]