Blab Music
Canadian Tribute Honors Legacy of Afghan Folk Singer Sayed Shah Ewaz
On Sunday, July 26 2026, Ottawa’s community hall transformed into a cultural crossroads as the Sayed Nadir Shah Al‑Hussaini Cultural and Social Association—known locally as the Sayed Kayan Association—hosted Canada’s first formal tribute to Ustad Sayed Shah Ewaz.
The evening, titled Art and Memory, brought together Afghan musicians, scholars and members of the Hazara and Ismaili diaspora. It opened with a documentary that interwove interviews with Shah Ewaz’s family, contemporaries and admirers, setting the tone for a night that celebrated the singer’s life and work.
Following the film, performers—both Canadian and international—filled the hall with the resonant tones of the dambura, the two‑stringed instrument that defined Shah Ewaz’s sound. The program highlighted Khairuddin Haidari, whose meticulous digitization, publication and sharing of the singer’s recordings have made them accessible to a new generation.
A recorded message from Shah Ewaz’s son, Sayed Aziz Hashimi, framed the tribute. He described his father as an influential figure in traditional Hazara and Afghan Ismaili music, noting that events like this help preserve cultural memory among Afghan communities abroad.
Born in 1935 in Tay‑e Siasang, a village in Bamyan’s Shunbol district, Shah Ewaz lost his parents early and was raised by his grandfather, who taught him to read and write. His father, a skilled dambura player, introduced him to the instrument. The singer’s training was entirely self‑directed; he honed his craft through private performances and community gatherings.
Family accounts recount a pivotal moment when Shah Ewaz performed before Sayed Nadir Shah Al‑Hussaini Kayani, a leader of Afghanistan’s Ismaili community. Kayani encouraged him to continue his music and gifted him a dambura, a gesture that helped the singer’s reputation spread throughout Bamyan and the wider Hazarajat region. Radio Afghanistan recorded some of his work during the reign of King Mohammad Zahir Shah.
UNESCO’s Collection of Traditional Music lists Shah Ewaz as a professional musician from a hereditary musical tradition who played in the orchestra of Radio Kabul, later Radio Afghanistan. His repertoire spanned Persian poetry, local folk verses, religious and devotional songs, seasonal music, and pieces performed at social and cultural gatherings, a blend that has allowed his songs to endure across generations.
Musicologist Jan van Belle captured Shah Ewaz in Kayan, Baghlan province, in 1998. The resulting recording, “Saram qurbanat, ay mah‑e yagana” (I give up everything for you, my one and only moon), appears on Afghanistan: Music During the Civil War (1979–2001), a 2015 Smithsonian Folkways release that is part of the UNESCO Collection. A photograph of Shah Ewaz taken on August 6 1998 serves as the album’s cover.
The civil war of the 1990s forced Shah Ewaz and his family to flee Afghanistan for Pakistan. He settled in the United Kingdom in 2001 and later performed for Afghan audiences in the UK and Canada. He passed away on February 13 2019 at the age of 84.
Although he did not formally train students, the Sayed Kayan Association notes that his style has influenced other musicians. His recordings continue to circulate among older listeners and younger Afghans born long after many of the songs were first performed. For displaced Afghans, these recordings offer a tangible link to the language, poetry and sounds of central Afghanistan and serve as an informal archive of traditions that might otherwise have been lost.
The tribute underscored the importance of documenting and digitizing the work of Afghan musicians. It highlighted why Shah Ewaz’s music remains meaningful—not only as a record of a bygone era but also as a living testament to the poetry, language and community life of Bamyan and the wider Hazarajat region.
The evening closed with a call from the Sayed Kayan Association for continued efforts to preserve Afghan cultural heritage abroad. The association plans to expand its digitization projects and to organize similar tributes for other Afghan artists in the future.
The evening, titled Art and Memory, brought together Afghan musicians, scholars and members of the Hazara and Ismaili diaspora. It opened with a documentary that interwove interviews with Shah Ewaz’s family, contemporaries and admirers, setting the tone for a night that celebrated the singer’s life and work.
Following the film, performers—both Canadian and international—filled the hall with the resonant tones of the dambura, the two‑stringed instrument that defined Shah Ewaz’s sound. The program highlighted Khairuddin Haidari, whose meticulous digitization, publication and sharing of the singer’s recordings have made them accessible to a new generation.
A recorded message from Shah Ewaz’s son, Sayed Aziz Hashimi, framed the tribute. He described his father as an influential figure in traditional Hazara and Afghan Ismaili music, noting that events like this help preserve cultural memory among Afghan communities abroad.
Born in 1935 in Tay‑e Siasang, a village in Bamyan’s Shunbol district, Shah Ewaz lost his parents early and was raised by his grandfather, who taught him to read and write. His father, a skilled dambura player, introduced him to the instrument. The singer’s training was entirely self‑directed; he honed his craft through private performances and community gatherings.
Family accounts recount a pivotal moment when Shah Ewaz performed before Sayed Nadir Shah Al‑Hussaini Kayani, a leader of Afghanistan’s Ismaili community. Kayani encouraged him to continue his music and gifted him a dambura, a gesture that helped the singer’s reputation spread throughout Bamyan and the wider Hazarajat region. Radio Afghanistan recorded some of his work during the reign of King Mohammad Zahir Shah.
UNESCO’s Collection of Traditional Music lists Shah Ewaz as a professional musician from a hereditary musical tradition who played in the orchestra of Radio Kabul, later Radio Afghanistan. His repertoire spanned Persian poetry, local folk verses, religious and devotional songs, seasonal music, and pieces performed at social and cultural gatherings, a blend that has allowed his songs to endure across generations.
Musicologist Jan van Belle captured Shah Ewaz in Kayan, Baghlan province, in 1998. The resulting recording, “Saram qurbanat, ay mah‑e yagana” (I give up everything for you, my one and only moon), appears on Afghanistan: Music During the Civil War (1979–2001), a 2015 Smithsonian Folkways release that is part of the UNESCO Collection. A photograph of Shah Ewaz taken on August 6 1998 serves as the album’s cover.
The civil war of the 1990s forced Shah Ewaz and his family to flee Afghanistan for Pakistan. He settled in the United Kingdom in 2001 and later performed for Afghan audiences in the UK and Canada. He passed away on February 13 2019 at the age of 84.
Although he did not formally train students, the Sayed Kayan Association notes that his style has influenced other musicians. His recordings continue to circulate among older listeners and younger Afghans born long after many of the songs were first performed. For displaced Afghans, these recordings offer a tangible link to the language, poetry and sounds of central Afghanistan and serve as an informal archive of traditions that might otherwise have been lost.
The tribute underscored the importance of documenting and digitizing the work of Afghan musicians. It highlighted why Shah Ewaz’s music remains meaningful—not only as a record of a bygone era but also as a living testament to the poetry, language and community life of Bamyan and the wider Hazarajat region.
The evening closed with a call from the Sayed Kayan Association for continued efforts to preserve Afghan cultural heritage abroad. The association plans to expand its digitization projects and to organize similar tributes for other Afghan artists in the future.
