Munshi Raziuddin

منشي رضي الدين

1912 CE · 1330 AH† – 2003 CE · 1424 AH† †

† Hijri date derived by computation from the Gregorian/Julian date; it may differ from the transmitted date by a day or two.

Qawwal, classical musician and scholar of music (1912–2003) of the Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana of Delhi, who sang at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad and then in Karachi after 1948, received the Pride of Performance in 1967, and trained his sons Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad, who succeeded him; a street in Karachi's 'Qawwali Gali' bears his name.

Summary

Munshi Raziuddin Ahmed Khan (1912 – 2003) was a Pakistani qawwal, classical musician and scholar of music of the well-known Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana of Delhi, and the father of the qawwals Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad. ¹ ²

Career

He first sang at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad with his cousin, the qawwal Bahauddin Khan, and moved to Karachi after the fall of Hyderabad in 1948. In 1956 he formed a party with his cousins Bahauddin and Manzoor Ahmed Niazi that lasted until 1966, and then led his own party until his death in 2003. ¹

He trained his sons Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad, Ghulam Akram and Ali Akbar and several nephews, and was succeeded by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad. Karachi's qawwali heritage lives on in a small neighbourhood of Saddar known as 'Qawwali Gali', where a street is named after him. ¹

Honours

The President of Pakistan gave him the Pride of Performance in 1967 for his contribution to Sufi music. ¹

Footprint

Wikidata listed articles on him in two Wikipedia editions (English and Urdu) on 6 November 2026. ²

References

English Wikipedia article, revision of 14 October 2026. ¹
Wikidata item Q6809428. ²

Munshi Raziuddin

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Pride of Performance