Kaka Berar Ostad

Kaka Berar Ostad, son of Mota, was born in 1338 SH (1959/60) in the village of Sorkhak-e Sanjabi. Already in childhood he was familiar with the sound of the tanbur and with the kalam (the sacred hymns of the Yarsan) of truth, because his paternal uncle, Sheikh Morad, who was a skilled tanbur player and singer of the haqqani (sacred) kalams, was one of the pupils of Darvish Moradkhan Nazari Gurajubi. For this reason he began his own work very early in his presence, and very soon made a name for himself as a tanbur player and as a singer of the ancient haqqani verses.

He had a particular love of study: he continued his education and was employed by the Ministry of Education. He taught in the towns of Sarpol-e Zahab, Eslamabad-e Gharb and Gahvareh, and finally completed his career in Kermanshah. During the years he taught in Gahvareh he continued, alongside his teaching, to play the tanbur and to sing the haqqani and ancient kalams.

At that time he received the necessary instruction from the incomparable master of the authentic haqqani maqams (traditional melodic pieces of the tanbur), the late Seyed Vali Hosseini. At the insistence of his revered pir (spiritual master) he attended him regularly for eight years – not in order to play better or to sing the haqqani verses better, but for the sake of the authentic playing of the seventy-two maqams of the haqqani and ancient verses and the authentic singing of the haqqani and ancient maqams – and in his presence added to his store of knowledge. For these maqams must pass from heart to heart (literally “breast to breast”) and from one person to another, just as they reached them from those who came before; this path must continue.

In these years he endured many hardships and challenges, but by the grace and kindness of his revered pir he was able to fulfil his obligation and reach his goals. From then on he decided to place the knowledge he carried in his heart at the disposal of the whole Yarsan community, and by the grace of his pir he was able to fulfil the wish of those who had once dreamed of playing the tanbur and singing the haqqani kalams; each of them benefited from his teaching as much as they wished.

On the instruction of his pir he ran classes teaching the tanbur, the singing of the haqqani kalams and the reading of the daftars (the Yarsan sacred books) of the Chehel-tan (Forty), in Gahvareh and later in Kermanshah. During these years he twice received a certificate of appreciation from the kind hands of his revered pir.

He has been living in Tehran for several years. His classes are held in the village of Deh Baha in the Shahriar district and in Shahrak-e Qods, and one of his classes, in the town of Saveh, is run by Morad Ostad, his paternal cousin, under his own supervision. The classes he gives himself or supervises are held without expecting anything in return from anyone; he regards this work as a duty towards his pir.

Source: Telegram channel “Navaye Tanbur”, 28 October 2016.