Abdur Raheem Fareedi

Ustad Abdur Raheem Fareedi was the eldest son and Shagird of the legendary Muhammad Ali Fareedi Qawwal. Muhammad Ali Fareedi descended from Baba Muhammad Bakhsh “Muhammadi” Qawwal, and learnt Qawwali from Mian Karim Bakhsh Khan, his maternal grandfather. Muhammad Ali Fareedi also learnt Classical music from Bhai lal Muhammad Amritsari. Their family were the ‘Darbari’ qawwals at the shrine of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar (RA) at Pakpattan for almost a century. Young Abdur Rahim Fareedi’s musical training started at the age of eight years. He learnt Qawwali from his father, as well as classical music from five different teachers; Bhai Lal Muhammad, Mehr Ali Waheed, Mian Hussain Bakhsh Khan, Bhai Allah Ditta Khan and Pandit Chiran Das. He had made a name for himself in Qawwali circles even before partition, with his rendition of Waris Shah’s ‘Heer’ gaining popularity in the Punjab. He continued to accompany his father till Muhammad Ali Fareedi’s death in 1978, after which he formed his own party. His party comprised his nephew Abdul Ghani Fareedi, as well as on several occasions, Mubarak Ali Makha Qawwal, Agha Majeed Fareedi, Siraj Ahmed Fareedi on vocal support and Iqbal Khan Fareedi on Tabla. The party performed regularly in Pakistan and abroad for twenty years, making several successful tours of Iran, the UK and South Africa. Abdur Rahim Fareedi’s son Moin Fareedi (1962-) is the current leader of his family’s Qawwali party, and regularly performs all over Pakistan.

Ustad Abdur Raheem Fareedi Qawwal’s Qawwali style was a wonderful amalgamation of a large number of influences. A congenital deformity of the jaw had left him with a lisp, and made it difficult for him to sing in the higher registers, but he made up for this with an encyclopedic knowledge of Poetry, and was very adept at girah-bandi. His job in the Qawwali party was less of a lead vocalist, and more of a conductor, as he orchestrated and oversaw the performances of his powerhouse supporting vocalists. A large number of studio and mehfil recordings of his survive, including those made by the Oriental Star Company of the UK, which attest to the fact that if not one of the greatest Qawwals of the last century, he was certainly the greatest ‘bandleader’.