Ghulam Farid & Maqbool Ahmed Sabri

The Sabri Brothers originally consisted of Ghulam Farid Sabri (1928-1994) and Maqbool Ahmad Shah Sabri (1945-) born in Haryana and Kalyan respectively . Sabri Brothers proudly associate their lineage with Mian Tansen. They were taught music by their father, Ustad Haji Inayat Sabri. According to Maqbool Farid Sabri, who learned qawwali from Ustad Ramzan Khan and Ata Muhammad Shah, he belongs to Banu Hashim tribe of Saudi Arabia and learned from different qawwals. Maqbool Ahmed Sabri formed his first party of qawwals at the age of 11 soon afterwards in 1956 he joined his elder brother Ghulam Farid Sabri, who had been singing with Kallan Khan qawwal and was known as a man of immense spirituality, he was considered by many to be a saint.

Ghulam Farid and Maqbool Farid performed all over the world. They introduced musical instruments in qawwali like Bongo, Chiriya Tarang, Sitar, Surmandal, Dholak, and Tabla. They are known to be the first to introduce qawwali to the West in 1975, when they performed to a sold-out audience at New York‘s Carnegie Hall. Their fame approached such heights that 1982 Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister of India banned the brothers to perform saying that they are not doing qawwali they are preaching Islam as many people turned Muslim. The Emporer of Nepal listened to their qawwali for 90 minutes instead of the scheduled 15 minutes in a marriage ceremony held in Nepal. They performed in radio and televesion for a long time and gave a great contribution of qawwali.