How A Musical Tradition Of Islamic Mysticism Found An Unlikely Home In Texas

Interfaith awareness is at the heart of Texas-based music ensemble Riyaaz Qawwali, which has a story that starts roughly 700 years ago in a shrine in Delhi, India. Qawwali is a musical tradition credited to Amir Khusrow, a 14th-century Sufi poet who wrote musical compositions dedicated to his teacher, the saint Nizamuddin. These compositions, as well as those by other qawwali poets who came after Khusrow, have been passed down for generations, and in 2006, a group of South Asian-American college...