Mohammad Hashem Cheshti
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox musical artist
Mohammad Hashem Cheshti, also known with surname Chishti and as Ustad Hashem (Template:Langx), was a contemporary classical musician and composer born in Kharabat area of Kabul,<ref name=afghanland>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Afghanistan, who died in 1994 in Germany under unclear circumstances.<ref name=afghanland/>
Early life
Ustad Hashem was born and raised in a musical family, which originally came from Kasur in Punjab, but settled in the 19th century in Kabul as court musicians.<ref name=baily>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=amc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several of his close family members, including his brothers and his father are/were also famous musicians in their own right.<ref name=baily/><ref name=amc/> Both he and his brothers appeared regularly on Afghan Television and Radio prior to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent wars.<ref name=baily/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> He accompanied regularly other famous Afghan musicians like Ahmad Zahir and Ustad Mahwash on his tabla.<ref name=baily/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
He was the teacher and mentor of Ustad Mahwash,<ref name=baily/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the first Afghan female master musician and Zuleikha, a US American dancer and artist.<ref name=baily/><ref>[1] Template:Dead link</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He mastered many different traditional Afghan instruments, but his greatest passion was for the tabla, his mastership of which was supreme.<ref name=afghanland/><ref name=baily/><ref>John Baily, "Music of Afghanistan: professional musicians in the city of Herat", Cambridge University Press 1988, Template:ISBN</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan he had to flee his home country<ref name=afghanland/><ref name=baily/> and emigrated to Germany where he died in 1994,<ref name=baily/> killed by one of his former students for reasons unknown.<ref name=afghanland/>