The trade routes brought music styles from Iran, India and China to Afghanistan, but the instrumental music which is indigenous to Afghanistan is called naghma-ye-kashal, performed on the rebab. It was promoted by the royal court from the 1880s to the 1930s and later radio transmissions increased its popularity. As it is instrumental it was able to cross linguistic borders. Naghma-ye-kashal in the south eastern Pashtun region is highly dramatic in sound, while that in the west, centre and north east is more romantic. The Turkic speakers in the north had numerous dance pieces in their repertoire. Mohammad Rafiq Khushnud, Director of the Afghan Conservatory of Music, hopes to reintroduce these pieces and begin dance classes again for women, but not for a number of years.

Afghan classical music (klasik) underwent its most significant phase of development during the 1860s, when professional musicians from Punjab were brought to the royal court in Kabul. They introduced ghazal (sung poetry), naghmeks and ragas. The ghazal involves Persian rhyming couplets set to a modified form of Hindustani music. Numerous regional variations may be found throughout the country. Naghmeks and ragas are instrumental pieces which correspond to Indian intonation in Kabul but have Iranian-influenced melodies in Herat to the west.

Thereafter two illustrious court musicians, ‘Father of Afghan Music’ Ustaad Qasim Afghan (1878-1957), who visited Indian and brought back the sitar and tablaa, and Ustaad Ghulam Hussein (1887-1967), are credited with the development of Afghan classical music. Ustaad Ghulam Hussein introduced fresh ideas to music. Previously the poetry was more important than the singing or instrumentation, but Ustaad Hussein introduced some western styles of music to the listeners. He is credited with opening music schools outside the Kharabat area (the district in Kabul where singers, dancers and artists traditionally congregated) and promoting music in schools for the children. He composed many patriotic songs and helped to revive traditional tunes in a contemporary style which appealed to youth. The introduction of the radio in 1925 and its expansion to the provinces in the late 1930s took this music to the countryside where it was copied and adapted and became a national music.

Ustaad Ghulam Hussein’s son Ustaad Mohammad Hussein Sarahang (1924-1983) was sent to India for 16 years to study with Ustaad Ashoq Ali Khan and returned to Kabul to take part in a music festival where he won first prize. He spent the rest of his life touring in India, Pakistan and the Soviet Union, bringing Afghan music to those regions. He recorded the music with Radio Afghanistan and promoted Indian classical music through the radio. He believed that if traditional music was performed in such a manner as to enthrall listeners, modern music would not enjoy such popularity. He worked to educate singers in the basics of music theory and technique in order to strengthen the quality of singing. When Ustaad Mohammad Hussein Sarahang died in 1983 it was widely believed that he had succeeded in transforming Afghan music from a craft to an art form.