Amir Khusrau is called the father of qawwali
The Indo-Persian Sufi poet of the Delhi Sultanate (1253–1325) wrote mainly in Persian while also using Hindavi and Punjabi. Discipleship under Nizamuddin Auliya, invention myths around qawwali, and the import of ghazal song still shape South Asian music.
Abu'l Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrau, known as Amir Khusrau, flourished as a Delhi Sultanate court artist between 1253 and October 1325—poet, scholar, and Sufi musician in the Indo-Persian world. Born at Patiyali in today's Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh, he was the son of Turkic officer Amir Saif ud-Din Mahmud, who died around 1260, and Indian mother Bibi Daulat Naz. His father belonged to the Turkic Hazara-yi Lachin grouping noted in period sources.
Khusrau stands as an iconic cultural figure of the subcontinent and a spiritual disciple of Delhi's Nizamuddin Auliya. He composed primarily in Persian, with work also in Hindavi and Punjabi, and is linked to the verse vocabulary Khaliq Bari mixing Arabic, Persian, and Indic word lists. Tradition names him father of qawwali, the Sufi devotional song form of India and Pakistan, and credits him with bringing ghazal singing into India—both still widely performed.
Courtly expertise in many Persian poetic genres made him a model for later Indo-Persian letters. He began writing verse at nine, and his first divan, The Gift of Childhood, gathered poems from ages 16 to 18 and was compiled in 1271. Admirers nicknamed him Tuti-i Hind, the Parrot of India. From Patiyali to Delhi's shrine culture, Khusrau's afterlife is as much sung as read. Sultan Jalal ud-Din Firuz Khalji granted him the title Amir, and his ghazals, composed in rapid bursts, were sung nightly at court. Under Ala ud-Din Khalji, who took the throne in 1296, he chronicled the ruler's wars and buildings and finished a five-poem khamsa in 1298.
Source: Amir Khusrau
