Qawwali is Chishti devotional singing, sung at shrines to bring the listener to a state, with a lead voice, a chorus, harmonium, tabla and hand clapping. It is attributed to Amir Khusrau in the thirteenth century and it belongs to the shrines of Punjab and Delhi above all.
Baba Farid Ji's shrine at Pakpattan is one of its oldest homes. Data Darbar at Lahore is another.
The Sabri Brothers and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, of the Patiala-linked Qawwal Bachchon lineage from Jalandhar, are the singers who took it worldwide. Nusrat's family were from Jalandhar and moved to Faisalabad in 1947.
The texts sung are largely Punjabi and Persian: Bulleh Shah, Baba Farid Ji, Amir Khusrau, Sultan Bahu.
In Indian Punjab the qawwali tradition largely went with the Muslim population in 1947, and it survives mostly at a few shrines and as recorded music. In Pakistani Punjab it is living practice at every large urs.
The shrine of Baba Farid Ji at Pakpattan is the oldest qawwali site in the Punjab and the tradition there runs from the thirteenth century.
The Punjabi qawwali repertoire uses Punjabi Sufi verse, Bulleh Shah and Shah Hussain and Baba Farid Ji, alongside the Persian and Urdu material, which distinguishes it from the Delhi tradition.
In Indian Punjab the form largely went in 1947 with the families who carried it. What is heard now comes mostly by recording from the other side.