ROMANTIC LOVE  OF AMANNISA
Article by Chun Shan  Photo by Li Xiaoqin
2005.1
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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.