Salamat Ali Khan

Bakhshi Khan (1927-1994), Salamat Ali (1931-1982), and Mubarak Ali (1929-1995) were sons of the famous qawwal Rurray Khan, born in Jalandhar, India, to Molvi Wazir Ali, and the first one to start qawwali in the family. He was the only artist who used dilruba in qawwali, singing while playing the instrument.

Bakhshi Salamat started qawwali with Karam Din Tapai Wala. With partition, Bakhshi Khan, Salamat Ali, and their third brother Mubarak Ali — considered a very learned classical singer — migrated to Lahore and then settled in Multan, performing at shrines and sometimes accompanying Salamat Ali Khan and Nazakat Ali Khan. From 1958, Bakhshi Salamat started performing on Radio and TV. The decade of the 1960s became the decade of their popularity. In the 1965 Pakistan-India War, their taranas colored in qawwali ang became vastly popular.

The qawwal party of Bakhshi Salamat was exceptional in that all the individual qawwals were exceptionally talented in their own right. For example, Sadiq Ali, known as Saddo, who was the first disciple of Bakhshi Brothers, is known as a singer of such class that people would cry listening to him. Bakhshi Khan said that he loved only two persons in his life: one was Khawaja Ghulam Farid and the other was Sadiq Ali.

They performed all over the world and are considered qawwals of great stature. Their next generation has formed the BJS (Bakhshi Javed Salamat) band, the first band to perform qawwali in a modern way, including standing while singing, Western clothing, and instrumental fusion.