Rare recording of Mawsili musician, Sufi icon, and maqam reader Mulla ‘Uthman al-Mawsili (1854-1923) singing a Turkish gazel “Dil Verme Gönül” in Isfahan mode, accompanied by Tanburi Cemil Bey on the tanbur, recorded in Istanbul.

Mulla ‘Uthman al-Mawsili was a blind prodigy, talented poet and composer, Quran recitor and disciple of the great Sufi master Abu-l Huda al-Sayyadi al-Rifa’i and the Ottoman Sultan ‘Abdul-Hamid II. He learned the art of Maqam al-‘Iraqi from the greatest Baghdadi musicians at the time, the famed Turkmen virtuoso Rahmat Allah Shiltegh (1798-1872), Hajj Abdullah al-Kirkukli, and Amin Agha ibn al-Hamamchiyya. He composed dozens of profane and religious songs that can be heard throughout the Arabic and Islamic world; many of these compositions and songs were later unjustly attributed to his students or labeled as “folklore”.