The arrival of these musicians to Kabul was not the first time that Hindustani musicians had traveled to the courts and territories located in present-day Afghanistan. On the contrary, there is evidence that Hindustani musicians had visited the courts of Afghanistan as soon as the late 1700's. As well, many contemporary Afghan Hindustani musicians contest that their music-playing ancestors came to Afghanistan well before the time of Amir Sher Ali Khan. Descriptions of Hindustani nautch (dance) performances arise from the accounts of Lord Elphinstone, a British colonial officer, after he attended a court banquet hosted by Amir Timur Shah (r. 1772-1793) that featured music and dance entertainment. As well, mentions of musicians playing Hindustani instruments such as the sitar, tabla, and mrdang can be found in the records of the court of Haji Firoz-uddin, the governor of Herat, from the early 1800's. 
 
It is clear that Hindustani musicians did not arrive in Afghanistan for the first time during the reign of Amir Sher Ali Khan (1868). However, the Amir's relocation of Hindustani musicians and musical culture to Kabul helped galvanize interest in Hindustani music among the future kings of Afghanistan. The descendants of these musicians flourished under the patronage of the Afghan rulers, and developed instrumental and vocal styles of music under their auspices. Artists were likely encouraged to perform and develop musical styles that resonated and were accepted by Afghan audiences. These included vocal and instrumental Hindustani classical music, known as musiqi klasik (or khyal to Hindustani listeners), and the Afghan classical ghazal. Both of these musical styles continue to be performed today.

 








Ustad Qasem (1882-1955)
 
Ustad Qasem is considered by many musicians in Kabul to be the father of [modern] Afghan music. He was the son of Sitarju, a sitar player likely from the Kashmir region of northern India/Pakistan. Ustad Qasem began learning music from his father, then from Ustad Qurban Ali, and finally from Ustad Piyara Khan, from whom he studied the Patiala gharana of Hindustani classical music. Ustad Piyara Khan is credited with introducing this style of classical singing to Afghanistan, and it was because of the successes of his students–including Ustad Qasem–that the Patiala gharana style of singing became associated with Afghan classical singers. 
 
Ustad Qasem was a court musician under King Amanullah Khan (r. 1919-1929), though it has also been reported that Ustad Qasem began performing the rubab at the court of Amir Habibullah khan (r. 1901-1919). He was a master of ghazal singing and a favorite of the king, who is said to have regularly visited the Kharabat dressed in disguise to see and meet with Ustad Qasem. 

 
Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang (1302/1923-1361/1983)
 
Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang was a leading Hindustani vocalist from Afghanistan during the middle and second half of the twentieth century. He was the son of Ghulam Hussain Nataki (1886-1967), a vocalist and contemporary of Ustad Qasem. Ustad Sarahang initially began learning music from his father, but then left Afghanistan for sixteen years to study the Patiala gharana style of Hindustani singing with Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan (c. 1888-1948) in North India. Upon returning to Kabul, he began his career as a professional musician and was awarded the title "Sarahang." 
 
Ustad Sarahang was the master of numerous Hindustani song forms, including classical and light-classical genres. He is renowned for his recordings of khyal, tarana, thumri, and ghazal. 
He is credited with popularizing the ghazals of Abdul Qadir Bedil (1642-1720), an Indian-born Sufi poet.
 
Ustad Mohammad Hashem Chishti (d. 1994)
 

Mohammad Hashem Cheshti, also known with surname Chishti and as Ustad Hashem (Persian: استاد هاشم), was a contemporary classical musician and composer born in Kharabat area of Kabul, Afghanistan, who died in 1994 in Germany under unclear circumstances. Ustad Hashem was born and raised in a musical family, which originally came from Kasur in Punjab, but settled in the 19th century in Kabul as court musicians. Several of his close family members, including his brothers and his father are/were also famous musicians in their own right. Both he and his brothers appeared regularly on Afghan Television and Radio prior to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent wars. He accompanied regularly other famous Afghan musicians like Ahmad Zahir and Ustad Mahwash on his tabla.
 

He was the teacher and mentor of Ustad Mahwash, the first Afghan female master musician and Zuleikha, a US American dancer and artist. He mastered many different traditional Afghan instruments, but his greatest passion was for the tabla, his mastership of which was supreme.