If he actually did all the things that legends say that he did, Amir Khusran would be the single most important person in Hindustani classical music. The son of an Indian mother and a Persian father, Khusran is credited as the creator of the khayal and qawwali styles of Indian vocal music and the inventor of the sitar and the dholak, a double-headed drum.
A bi-lingual poet, Khusran wrote many poems extolling the natural beauty of India and the eloquence of the Indian language. Khusran served as court poet to at least eleven emperors during his lengthy career.