ROMANTIC LOVE OF AMANNISA
Article by Chun Shan Photo by
Li Xiaoqin
2005.1
English
Version
It happened on the central Asian land more than 400 years ago. Saiyiddi Han
overthrew the kingdom of Chagatai and established the kingdom of Yarkand.
Not long after, Saiyiddi Han died of illness and his son Abdirixid Han took
the throne. He was knowledgeable and well
versed in poetry, singing and calligraphy. He loved to go deep into
the common people to know their feelings.
One day, dusk fell after a day's hunting, he came to a village to seek a house
to stay for the night. He knocked at the door of a dilapidated adobe house.
The owner was a farmer living on sales of firewood. He had a daughter named
Amannisa. The music loving Sultan saw a Tanbor hanging on the wall and he
took it down and asked the owner of the house to play a few tunes for him.
The house owner told his daughter to play it.
Photo by Li Xiaoqin
Amannisa played Panjigah Muqam: "Allha, Thank you so
much. You have made a just man the king. Abdirixid Han has shaded the scorching
sun for the poor. Nafis, you must pray for our king...."
The king was alarmed to hear it. "Where did you learn the song? Who is
Nafis?," the King asked.
"I only sing the song I myself write. Nafis is my pen name."
The King was surprised to hear that and asked her how old she was. The girl
told him that she was 13. Then rising from her seat, she recited a few poems
she wrote. Seeing sceptic face of the King, she took up a pen and wrote a small
poem: "Allha, this servant in front of me fooled me and I feel that thorns
are overgrowing in this house."
Smiling, the King said: "Believe me. I'll return soon". The King
felt deeply in love with the pretty Amannisa.
When the King appeared before Amannisa again, he seemed to have turned to
be another person: the crown, the King's attire, a walking stick and an entourage
of four officials, ten sheep as well as tea and silk fabrics. He came to ask
for the hand of Amannisa.
Amannisa devoted all her life to the study of Muqam. With the help of the
court musician Kadir, she called all the Muqam singers in the country and collected
all the Muqam left over among the local people and made a distinction between
Uygur Muqam and Muqam of other minority groups. For the first time, she fixed
the scale of 12 Muqam. She divided the 12 Muqam into three parts: Qonnagma (great
music) Dastan (narrative songs)
Maxrap (gathering) and re-verified the words by deleting the foreign words that
were hard to understand, the archaic Uygur words and court poems and incorporated
many of the poems of Nawayi into the songs. She also created
Ishrat Angciz Muqam. Her work made Uygur Muqam complete in structure
and high in taste, with the eternal theme of justice and kindness, happiness
and love.
Since Amannisa filled in the tune with the poems of such poets as Nawa’i and
Fuzhal, the later generations enriched the Muqam music by filling in the poems
by Nawa’i, Araili and Maxrap. For
intance, "Introduction to Rak Muqam" sings a lyric full of philosophy:
What is the secret of love, ask the lovers who are in great despair when separated;
what is the secret of enjoyment, ask those who have held the destinies in their
own hands; Why there is disloyalty in love, it is determined by our destiny;
Why there is deception and betrayal, ask those who lack the kindness and love.
Time has made us thin and aged. What is the strength of beauty, ask those men
and women who are in the prime of youth. Man of wealth and power do not know
the taste of loneliness; vagrants know the best the miseries of poverty. What
is the dilemma of the weak - lovers can only wait for the arrival of death;
it is the tyrant that can pass the judgment of death. Good-hearted people do
not have the experience of lovers in suspicion and jealousy and you must ask
such bad person like me. Friends, Nawayi live in the gobi of love. To know him,
ask those who come from there.
Amannisa opened up a new era in the art of Uygur Muqam and made the Kingdom
of Yarkand Khan the idealist and the most authoritative center of Uygur Muqam
art.
No one knows how many times the pretty queen, accompanied by the King, sang
and danced under the moon and by the creek, brewing the beautiful Muqam music.
But unfortunately, Amannisa died when giving birth when she was only 34 and
in her prime of creation. Abdirixid Han felt no end grieved. He wrote down many
elegies that touch the heart of the people and make them weep. Perhaps due to
the heavy blow by the death of the Queen, the King's health quickly deteriorated
and three years later, he died, too.
If you have the chance of visiting the tombs of Abdirixid Han and Amannisa,
you will find thousands of graves surrounding tightly around the tombs. They
lived among the people and died also among them. This is rare in the feudalistic
society with strict social estate system in which the Kings never mingled with
the common people. This is the evidence of the position of Abdirixid Han and
Amannisa in the hearts of the people.