Nashenas


Dr. Mohammad Sadiq Fitrat, born as Sadiq Fitrat Habibi,, known professionally as Nashenas, is one of the oldest surviving musicians from Afghanistan. His fame began in the late 1950s, and since then he has produced many albums consisting of Pashto, dari, and Urdu songs. He is known as "the Afghan Saigal".

Background

Nashenas was born in Kandahar but lived most of his life in Kabul, Afghanistan. He sings in both of Afghanistan's languages, Dari, Pashto, as well as in Urdu. He has been living among the Afghan diaspora outside his country and believed to be currently residing in London, England.
While growing up his family stressed to him the importance of religion as he hailed from the religious elite of the city of Kandahar. He is said to have developed an interest in music. In the early 1970s, Nashenas traveled to the Soviet Union where he obtained his doctorate in Pashto Literature from Moscow State University.
His alias Nashanas means Unknown. As he belong to a religious family so initially start singing hiding his original name and similarly he get popular with his fictional name "Nashanas".
Nashenas is still popular in Afghanistan, including in the Pashto-speaking areas of Pakistan. He made one song about Muhammad Iqbal.
Nashenas has a following among musicians of the new generation as well, who are noted to imitate his style of singing. One of which is Sardar Ali Takkar, a Pashtun musician from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Nashenas had his final round of concerts in 2004, touring California, New York City, Washington, D.C. and Canada.

Discography