شمالی
Shamali
“The North Wind”
The North Wind — or the Shamali plain north of Kabul, Afghanistan's famous wine and grape region. A song of place, the north wind as both literal and as the breath of the beloved.
About This Recording
Shamali — meaning 'northern' — refers to the Shamali plain north of Kabul, one of the most fertile regions of Afghanistan, famous for its vineyards, pomegranates, and mulberries. In Afghan folk tradition, the plain is associated with abundance, with the cool north wind that descends from the Hindu Kush, with the pleasures of the natural world.
The song participates in a tradition of Afghan regional folk music that names specific places — the Shamali, the Panjshir valley, the Bamiyan plateau — as sites of emotional significance. Ahmad Zahir's recordings in this tradition function as geographical love songs: songs that love a place with the same vocabulary used to love a person.