Seyed Khalil Alinejad

Life and education

Seyed Khalil Alinejad was born in 1957 in Sahneh, in Kermanshah province. His father, Seyed Shahmorad Alinejad, was a well-known tanbur player of the region.

He began learning the tanbur with Seyed Nader Taheri and went on to study the teachings of Seyed Amrollah Shahebrahimi and Darvish Amir Hayati. He later became a student of Master Abedin Khademi and, at the same time, led the ensemble “Tanbur Players of Sahneh”.

In 1996 he graduated in music from the University of Art in Tehran.

Artistic career

Seyed Khalil had complete command of the radif, the core repertoire of Iran’s classical (dastgah) music. He learned singing in the school of Mirza Hossein Khademi, the daf (frame drum) with Nader Naderi and the tar with Keykhosrow Pournazeri.

His tar and setar playing was close to the schools of Borumand and Yousef Forutan, and he was always known for careful phrasing and expressive feeling.

He was also a skilled instrument maker, building tanburs and setars under the mark “Sheyda” and later “Qalandar”.

In the 1980s he worked with the Shams Tanbur Ensemble, and his timeless solo on the album Sedaye Sokhan-e Eshgh (“The Sound of Love’s Words”), with vocals by Shahram Nazeri, remains unforgettable.

In the 1990s he founded the Baba Taher Ensemble. Its performance at the Religious Arts Conference (1996) was released as Zemzeme-ye Qalandari (“The Qalandar’s Murmur”).

Works and legacy

Seyed Khalil left behind many ritual and artistic albums, including:

• Ayin-e Mastan (“The Rite of the Enraptured”)

• Sana-ye Ali (“In Praise of Ali”)

• Zemzeme-ye Qalandari (“The Qalandar’s Murmur”)

• Ayin-e Qalandari (“The Qalandar Rite”)

• Shokraneh (“Gratitude”), a duet with Hamidreza Khojandi on daf

As a researcher he also left two lasting written works:

• Tanbur az Dirbaz ta Konun (“The Tanbur from Ancient Times to Today”), his bachelor’s thesis, University of Art, Tehran, 1996

• Resaleh-ye Yari (“A Treatise on Yari”, i.e. the Yarsan faith; written 2000, published 2005), with a selection from the Daftar-e Ahkam-e Saranjam, a Yarsan scripture, and translations of and commentary on ritual kalams, the sacred hymns of the Yarsan

Death

After many years of artistic work in Iran, Seyed Khalil Alinejad emigrated to Sweden in 2000 and taught music in Gothenburg.

On 18 November 2001 he was murdered by unknown persons at the ABF adult-education institute where he taught, and his body was set on fire.

His death was a great loss for Iran’s music community and for the Yarsan faith.