Afghan Traditional Music

Afghan traditional music is the folk and art music of Afghanistan's peoples, centred on the rubab, the short-necked lute whose plucked melodies anchor ensembles of dutar, tabla, harmonium and frame drum across Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara regions. Its repertory runs from Herat's dutar songs and rubab art music to wedding dance tunes and Sufi ghazal singing, transmitted by hereditary ustads. Driven underground under Taliban bans, it survives through masters such as the rubab virtuosos *Mohammad Omar* and *Homayun Sakhi* and a diaspora of Afghan musicians.