INTRODUCTION

The audiocassette has a bad name in present day Pakistan. Religious organisations, movements and political parties in Pakistan have used audiocassettes to spread hatred and violence amongst Pakistan's Muslims. Recordings of addresses by the leaders of Sunni and Shiʾa religious paramilitary organisations call on people to identify those belonging to other than their own communities as kafirs (infidels). They are told that it is their duty as Muslims to wound their opponents so that they ‘bleed for centuries’. It will come as a surprise, then, that the most popular audio cassettes in Chitral talk of the ‘garden of the heart’ (ishqo gurzen) and the ‘high thoughts induced by love’ (ishqo zhang khial).

This chapter seeks to document and theorise the power of music and music-making in Chitral. By focusing on musical gatherings known as mahfils and the commercial music recordings of these gatherings, I explore the complex attitude towards the ‘Islamic’ displayed by Chitrali performers and their audiences.