Pashto: خوشØال خان خټک Khushal Khan Khattak), also called Khushal Baba (Pashto: خوشØال بابا), was an Afghan poet, warrior and scholar, and chief of the Khattak tribe of the Pashtuns.Khushal preached the union of all Pashtuns, and encouraged revolt against the Mughal Empire, promoting Pashtun nationalism through poetry. Khushal was the first Afghan mentor who presents his theories for the unity of the Pashtun tribes against foreign forces and the creation of a nation-state. Khushal wrote many works in Pashto but also a few in Persian. Khushal is considered the "father of Pashto literature" and the national poet of Afghanistan.
Khushal's life was spent in struggling against the Mughal Empire who had fluctuating relations with the Pashtuns in what is now Afghanistan, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. In order to restore their freedom, Khushal challenged powers of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and defeated the Mughal troops in many engagements. He was a renowned military fighter who became known as an "Afghan warrior-poet". The stand and fight attitude of Khushal was an important stance in Afghan history, and his opinions and ideas form a new stage in the ideological and intellectual development of the Afghans. Besides poetry and prose works, Khushal also wrote various translations from Persian and Arabic into Pashto
Khushal was born in or about 1613 in the Khattak tribe of the Pashtun people. He was the son of Malik Shahbaz Khattak from Akora, in the Mughal Empire (now in Nowshera District). His grandfather, Malik Akoray, was the first Khattak to enjoy widespread fame during the reign of the Mughal King Jalal-ud-din Akbar. Akoray moved from Teri (a village in Karak District) to Sarai Akora, the town which Akoray founded and built. Akoray cooperated with the Mughals to safeguard the trunk route and was generously rewarded for his assistance. The Akor Khels, a clan named after Akoray, still hold a prominent position in the Khattak tribe. The Khattak tribe of Khushal Khan now mostly lives in areas of Karak, Kohat, Nowshera, Akora Khattak, Cherat, Peshawar, Mardan and in other parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Khushal's life can be divided into two important parts — during his adult life he was mostly engaged in the service of the Mughal king, and during his old age he was preoccupied with the idea of the unification of the Pashtuns.
He was an intelligent and bold person from childhood. His first involvement in war occurred when he was just 13 years old. Apart from the fact that he was a scholar, thinker, philosopher and boisterous poet he was a prince and leaders of his tribe simultaneously. His forefathers were since the 16th century officers of the Mughal Empire. After the death of his father Shahbaz Khan Khattak, Emperor Shah Jehan appointed him as the tribal chief and Mansabdar in 1641 at the age of 28 The Mughal king shah Jahan appreciated his principality. After the death of shah Jahan his relations with Aurangzaib
deteriorated.Aurangzaib arrested Khushal . In 1658, Aurangzeb, Shah Jehan's successor, threw him away as a prisoner in the Gwalior fortress.There he was a prisoner for some time and later under detention in the mountains prison. When he returned, he dissociated himself from the Mughal Empire slowly and started with his resistance later. He took contact to other Pashtun tribes and with support of his people he started a systematic resistance against the Mughals.
As I had promised in a previous entry, each Sunday, I will introduce my readers to a new Pashtun personality. I'm starting with the famous ones, and if you've any suggestions for the upcoming week, feel free to let me know. Remember: their gender, time, talents, beliefs, etc. don't matter; all that matters is that they have contribute to Pashtun society and culture in some way, however small or big.
Also, I don't claim to be saying everything about these people; in fact, I'm going to try to keep these entries very short--just enough to give the readers a brief idea of who these people are and why they matter. But if I neglect to mention something very important about them, please feel free to let me know.
Khushal Khan Khattak (also known as Khushal Baba) (1613-1689)
Khushal Khan was born in 1613 to the Khattak tribe of the Pashtuns in Akora, located in modern-day Nowshera in Khyber Pashtunkhwa. He is often remembered for his bravery, skilled poetry (written in Pashto and Persian), and leadership, as he was a warrior, poet, and a tribal chief. He had 57 sons and a few daughters, but most of his sons proved to be his enemies and betrayed him every chance they got, as will be narrated below
In his poetry, Khushal Khan boldly urged Pashtuns to unite against the oppressive Mughal Empire (17th century Indian Subcontinent). Initially, however, in his adult life, he was a supporter of the Mughals and was respected by them. In fact, Emperor Shah Jahan(1592-1666) entrusted many responsibilities to him. Khushal Khan remained loyal to the empire, but Shah Jahan's successor, Aurangzeb, eventually became suspicious of him and threw him in prison in Upper India in 1658. Khushal Khan wrote most of his poems while in prison for 7 years. When Aurangzeb finally released him and sent him to Peshawar to settle some disputes among the Mughals and the Pashtuns, Khushal Khan refused to support the empire any further or to cooperate with them, hence urging Pashtuns to unite against the Mughals, leading to the defeat of the Mughals. This success influenced Pashtuns of other tribes, from Banu to Jalalabad, who wanted to throw the Mughals out of Afghanistan. But the Yusufzai tribe, which was very powerful, was no buddies of the Khattak tribe and refused to support them even though Khushal Khan went to Swat personally to negotiate with them. (Now you see why he wrote a lot about the disunity of Pashtun tribes?)
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| Khushal Khan the Real Pashtun |
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| Khushal Khan's Tomb, village Esoori in Akora (Nowshera) |
Before he died, he had a few requests for the Afridis and his other supporters: that he be buried far, far from Mughal lands; that the location of his grave not be revealed to any of his enemies lest the Mughals never let his ashes rest in peace; and that, if his good children and supporters ever manage to get hold of his treacherous son Bahram, his body be torn into two pieces and one part be burned at the head of his grave and the other end at the foot!
He writes to Bahram in a poem:
The art of chieftainship thou hast not learned, bahram
in your time you have dishonored the chieftainship
from now on don't count yourself amongst my sons
that is the last prayer breathed by Khushal the Khattak
Khushal Khan is commemorated today for his struggles to keep the Pashtuns/Afghans united as one people. His wise verses of unity are commonly recited today by Afghan and Pashtun nationalists in an effort to remind the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan that they are one people. He is remembered also as a hero who never bowed his head to the Mughals. In 2002, the Pashtun Cultural Society and Pashto Adabi Society of Islamabad/Rawalpindi sponsored and published a book on him, titled Khushal Khan: The Afghan Warrior Poet and Philosopher, written by Ghani Khan Khattak in English. His poetry is/can be found in the book The Poems of Khushhal Khan Khattak.
Some of his poetry can also be read here. He writes:
Life's no life when honor's left;
Man's a man when honor's kept.
Nation's honor and nation's fame;
On life they have a prior claim.
With thoughts of these I do remain;
Unvexed with cares of loss or gain.
In another poem, he says (and I love the last two lines!):
The knowing , the perceptive man
is he who knows about himself,
for in self knowledge and insight
lies knowledge of the holiest.
If in his heart there is no fear,
his deeds are not those of the good,
pay no heed to one who's skilled
in quoting the Qur'an by heart.
He also has a lot of interesting and revealing things to say about Pashtuns in some of his poetry, but I can't find those poems now. I will share them here once I come across them (I know they are discussed in some books on the Pashtuns, but I forget which ones... wanna say Frederick Barth's but not sure yet).
P.S. My sources? ... Some nice sites! But I swear it's all authentic and stuff, and I verified the information with other websites to make sure it wasn't a lie and stuff.
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the next Pashtun Personality of the Week! See the below video to hear a ghazal, a form of poetry, written by Khushal Khan Khattak and sung by Nashenas, an Afghan musician who sings in Pashto, Dari (Afghan Persian), and Urdu.
