The Founder
of the International Sufi Movement
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
"Hazrat" is an honorific; "Pir-o-Murshid" is an esoteric title,
signifying the head of the Inner School of the Sufi Movement.
On July 5th, 1882, in Baroda, India, a child named Inayat was born into one of the most musical families in the country. Inayat's grandfather, Maula Bakhsh, known as the 'Beethoven of India,' had become a master of the music of both North and South India, a feat hitherto considered impossible, and had then, at the invitation of the Maharaja Khanda Rao, settled in Baroda where he founded 'Gayanshala,' the first musical academy of its kind in India. Maula Bakhsh drew about him many people of culture and refinement. Among his students and associates was Rahmat Khan, who came from a family of musicians, poets and mystics. Rahmat married Khatidja, the second daughter of Maula Bakhsh, and their first child was Inayat.
Inayat quickly showed great musical talent, and before he was twenty he was singing and playing the vina in the courts of royalty all over the subcontinent. Indeed, from a set of recordings Inayat made at the age of 27, modern musicologists are able to say that his vocal skill and musical understanding remain unequalled to this day. Called to something beyond worldly success, however, he at last met his Murshid, Abu Haimages/shim Sayed Madani and entered the Sufi path.
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