ESMĀʿĪL ZĀDA, ḤOSAYN KHAN

 

ESMĀʿĪL ZĀDA, ḤOSAYN KHAN, teacher and master player of the kamānča (d. 1320 Š./1941). Ḥosayn Khan was the son of Esmāʿīl Khan, also a master of the kamānča; he learned the instrument from his uncle, Qolī Khan. Esmāʿīlzāda began as a member of a group of entertainers in Tehran but later abandoned the profession to participate in the concerts of the Anjoman-e Oḵowwat (q.v.), a mystical society founded during the Constitutional era by Ṣafā-Alī Ẓahīr-al-Dawla, that included prominent reformist officials, instrumentalists, singers, and mystics. Ẓahīr-al-Dawla, leader of the Sufis of the Ṣafāʾī order, recommended his admittance into the society. Members occasionally held ceremonial garden parties or concerts in Tehran, at first at Ẓahīr-al-Dawla’s house and later in gardens in the Tehran suburbs; they sometimes lasted twenty-four hours. An ensemble of twenty musicians, led by Ḡolam-Ḥosayn Darvīš Khan (q.v.), participated in these concerts. Esmāʿīlzāda took part in the concerts as soloist and accompanied famous poet and singer ʿĀref Qazvīnī (q.v.).

Ismaʿīlzada played and taught the violin in addition to the kamānča. Many of his students became prominent. Some twenty gramophone disks of his performance are kept in the collection of Golšan Ebrāhīmī in Tehran.

 

Bibliography:

ʿAref Qazvīnī, Kollīyāt-e dīwān-e Mīrzā Abu’l-Qāsem ʿĀref Qazvīnī, ed., ʿA. Sayf Āzad, Tehran, 1356 Š./1977.

Š. Behrūzī, Čehrahā-ye mūsīqī-ye Īrān I, Tehran, 1372 Š./1993, pp. 197-200 and index.

R. Kāleqī, Sargoḏašt-e mūsīqī-e Īrān, 2 vols., Tehran, 1333 Š./1954, I, pp. 67-68, 159.

M.-T. Massoudieh, “Tradition und Wandel in der persisichen Musik des 19 Jahrhunderts,” in ed. R. Gunther, ed., Musikkulturen Asiens, Afrikas und Ozeaniens im 19 Jahrhundert,” Regensburg, 1973.

S. Sepantā, Tārīḵ-e taḥawwol-e żabt-e mūsīqī dar Īrān, Tehran, 1366 Š./1987.

Idem, Čašmandāz-e mūsīqī-e Īrān, Tehran, 1369 Š./1990.

D. Ṣafwat, Pažūheš-ī kūtāh dar bāra-ye ostādān-e mūsīqī-e Īrān wa alḥān-e mūsīqī-e īrānī, 1350 Š./1971.

Interview with Golšan Ebrāhīmī, 23 November 1992.

(Moḥammad-Taqī Masʿūdīya)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: January 19, 2012

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Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, p. 637