This is a piece of music titled Dulha Hai Ajmeri Khwaja, which translates as ‘The Ajmeri Saint Ajmer is a Groom’. The piece is a devotional song about the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti: Ajmer, India, is where his tomb is located. Moinuddin Chishti was a Muslim religious scholar and mystic from the early 13th century who established the Chishti order of Sufism in India.

The piece is sung in Urdu by Wahidan Bai, an actress and singer of Hindi cinema. Bai was the sister of fellow actress and singer Sitara Begum, and mother of 1950’s Hindi film star Nimmi. The song was recorded sometime between 1935 and 1955, and was digitised as part of the Endangered Archives Programme.

About the Endangered Archives Programme

Since 2004 the Endangered Archives Programme has facilitated the digitisation of many archives from around the world that were in danger of neglect, serious physical deterioration or even outright destruction. With generous backing from the charitable fund Arcadia, the Programme has digitised over ten million images and 35,000 soundtracks from 90 countries worldwide. This continually expanding online collection of rare prints, manuscripts and audio recordings is available through local archival partners and discoverable through the British Library catalogue.