By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,

New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia’s Academic Council has, in its recent meeting, approved the setting up of the Fayyaz Khan Center for Music and Research which will serve as a forum for practitioners and as a centre for research and documentation.

A press release by JMI today says the accessibility of music related manuscripts in JMI’s archives (such as Faqirullah’s Raag Darpan) as well as the rich reserves of language skills in Hindi, Urdu and Persian make the university eminently suited to promote serious research in classical Hindustani music. By naming the Centre after the legendary Ustad Faiyyaz Khan (1881-1950), JMI wishes to pay tribute to a man who combined in an exemplary fashion the enormous expertise of a practitioner and performer with a deep knowledge of the system of music he inherited as a member of a distinguished line of musicians.

The Council also gave its approval for the Ale Ahmad Suroor Memorial Lecture in memory of the noted Urdu critic, writer and Padma Bhushan awardee who had taught several generations of students of Urdu literature.

In a bid to strengthen its secular credentials, JMI has decided to name the park around the Department of History as Bagh-e-Nanak as a symbol of JMI’s tryst with secular traditions.