42 – Khas Bazhana (“Ordain It Well”)

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

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

This is one of the kalam maqams (sacred melodic-modal pieces of the tanbur repertoire, set to Yarsan religious verse), which according to Heydar Kaki is one of the seldom-heard maqams and has a deeply emotional character. The refrain (sarband) of this maqam is the first couplet itself:

Khas bazhana gyani barzamali

Yari gyan, yar jannat hey dus hav deli

O exalted Friend, ordain our destiny well, for our true paradise is beholding you.

“Sarandil” is a mythical mountain, the place where Adam set foot. In Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq) belief, moreover, the earth of Adam was brought from Mount Sarandil to make humankind, and so Adam and Eve were brought into being. The era of the creation of humankind is even called the Sarandil era. The melting of the snows of Mount Sarandil means that the coldness of the age has departed from the being of certain people. And what is meant by “before reaching this stage” in the text of the poem is, in fact, before reaching the “summit of truth”, whose symbol is Mount Sarandil itself, from where the pure essence and nature of the human being were first taken and to which they must return. This return to the summit is, of course, an ascent in itself. Ali Akbar Moradi dates this maqam to the eighth century AH (14th century CE) and regards it as being in praise of Soltan Sahak. The poem of this maqam, too, is transmitted from the book (daftar) of Sheykh Amir.