72 – Fani Fani

Range: C, D, E, F, G, A.

Time signatures in the metric sections: 2/4.

Tuning: Haft Dastan or Barz (C, C, G)

It is one of the kalam maqams, the sacred melodic-modal pieces of the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq) tanbur repertoire, which is also performed at mourning rites and formal ceremonies and tells of the faithlessness of the world. Heydar Kaki writes about this maqam: “In each hemistich of this maqam 8 beats can be heard, and in each couplet 16 beats.” This maqam has a fixed refrain (sarband), which is its first couplet:

Fani fani van

Fani batal bu

The world is transient and impermanent, and therefore of little worth and of no account.

According to Ali Akbar Moradi, this maqam is associated with “Teymour Banyarani” (born 1246 AH / 1830 CE). On behalf of his spiritual master, Aseyed Brakeh, he set out for Tehran to guide the people, and when a number of Yarsan followers gathered around him, the political authorities of the time arrested him, sent him to Kermanshah and executed him there. A collection of poems called the Daftar-e Teymour (“Teymour’s Book”) has survived from him. Like Mansur Hallaj, he proclaimed Ana al-Haqq (“I am the Truth”) and believed that the material world must perish and that another world, in which material things play no part, must be created. The same theme also appears in the poem of the maqam.

Teymour was not one of the Chehel Tan (the Forty); he came to Seyed Brakeh when the Forty had already been formed. The jam (ritual gathering) of the Forty opened his eyes and filled him with rapture.