Afghanistan: Le Rubâb De Hérat

Ustad Mohammad Rahim Khushnavaz was born into a family of Herati musicians in 1941. His grandfather played the tabla, and his father, the singer and harmonium player Amir Khushnavaz, introduced him to traditional Afghan music. Amir had studied music in Kabul. Khushnavaz himself learned to play the rubab and became one of the most prominent masters of his time. As Herat is close to Iran, Khushnavaz specialized in adapting Iranian microtonal music, adding intermediate frets to the rubab. In 1995, he made his European debut at Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. Soon after, he fled Afghanistan to escape the rule of the Taliban to the Iranian city of Mashhad. His album, "Le Rubâb De Hérat," is dedicated to the Herati style of playing the rubab.

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