Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

Ethnic Consciousness of
Pashtun Tribal Rulers in Pre-Modern Times

Mikhail Pelevin
St. Petersburg State University

Abstract
The article examines statements on Pashtun ethnicity from the original Pashto prose texts
written by the Khatak tribal rulers Khūshḥāl Khān (d. 1689) and Afżal Khān (d. circa 1740/
41) and included in the corpus of the historiographical compilation Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘ (The
Ornamented History). Under discussion are conceptual roots of the Pashtun ethnic identity
in tribal genealogical traditions and ethical regulations (Code of Honour) of the Pashtun
customary law, main hierarchal levels (national, tribal, clannish) within the ethnic con-
sciousness of the Khatak chiefs, and the early development of the concept of Homeland
(watan) in Pashto literature. Textual material analysed in the article with reference to
similar declarations from the national and patriotic poetry of Khūshḥāl Khān suggests that
towards the beginning of the 18th century Pashtun tribes in the mass well recognised
themselves as one people with common ethno-cultural heritage, and national self-identifi-
cation was one of the key elements in their collective consciousness that provided neces-
sary ideological ground for the creation of the Afghan national statehood in 1747.

Keywords
Pashtun Tribes, Pashto Literature, Ethnic Consciousness in Tribal Society, National Iden-
tity

Scarce and for the most part oblique facts disclosing national feelings and
attitudes of Pashtuns in the times, which preceded the formation of the
Afghan statehood in 1747 may be extracted from occasional statements
scattered in the verses of Khūshḥāl Khān Khaṯak (1613-1689) and some
works of his descendants, members of the Khaṯaks’ ruling family. Despite
being very subjective and often politically inclined, verbalised sentiments
of the Khaṯak chieftains concerning their ethnicity, kindred relationships
and Homeland are of vital importance to properly understand historical
roots of the Pashtuns’ national consciousness, which so far determines
 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2015 DOI: 10.1163/1573384X-20150202
118 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

most distinctive features of mentality and societal ideology of the Pashtun

people.
With reference to some specimens of the Khūshḥāl’s national poetry
the present article primarily examines statements on ethnical identity is-
sues from the collection of prose texts written between 1641 and 1724 by
Khūshḥāl Khān and his grandson Afżal Khān (circa 1664/65-1740/41).
Among these entirely original Pashto texts (i. e. not translated or retold
from other written sources) there are the Khaṯaks’ genealogies, tribal his-
torical accounts, political declarations, letters, family stories, personal di-
aries and memoirs. Afżal Khān included these texts in the sixth chapter
(daftar) of his extensive historiographical compilation Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘
(The Ornamented History) (Afżal 1974: 254-513). In the preface to the book
he briefly described the contents of this Daftar as “An account of the his-
tory of our clans” (ibid.: 16). Following the author’s definition I would sug-
gest to identify this extremely important, though hitherto poorly studied
Pashto anthology of unique historical documents and narratives by the ti-
tle The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle.1
The very basis and the most steadfast pivot of the Pashtuns’ national
consciousness is their genealogical tradition. Slightly varied in extant
written and oral accounts it advocates the idea of common descent of all
Pashtun tribes, clans and families from the legendary progenitor Qays
‘Abd ar-Rashīd and his three sons.2 The Khaṯaks, like the other large east-
ern Pashtun tribes–the Afrīdays, the Orakzays, the Bangashs, the Wazīrs–
belong to the Karlāṉay branch of the Pashtun genealogical tree, which has
quite shadowy ties with three other branches (the Saṟbanays, the Bīṯa-
nays, the Ghūrghushtays) because their common legendary ancestor Kar-
lāṉ is considered to be an adopted foundling. However, the Khaṯak chiefs
in their writings never perceive themselves other than true (asil) Pashtuns
and in their own version of a legend relating to the Karlāṉ’s origin unam-
biguously incorporate him in the list of the direct descendants of Saṟban,

1
More detailed information about the structure, composition, authorship, literary and
extra-literary functions of The Chronicle see (Pelevin 2013; idem 2014).
2
On the Pashtun genealogies in general, see Caroe 1958: 3-24; Morgenstierne 1986: 218-
219; Romodin 1980; for full description of the Pashtun tribal lineages, see Syāl Momand
1988.
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 119

the son of Qays ‘Abd ar-Rashīd (Afżal 1974: 254).3 In one of his numerous
quatrains Khūshḥāl Khān laconically summarised the fundamentals of
tribal genealogies, deliberately clarifying the vague position of Karlāṉ: “A
Pashtun by origin is Saṟbanay, / or Ghūrghushtay, or Bīṯanay. // A Loday
and a Ghildzay are from the side of Bīṯan, / and a Karlānay is [attached] to
Saṟban” (paštun pə asəl saṟabany-dəy / yā γurγuštay-dəy yā biṯanay-dəy / lo-
day γiljay-dəy də biṯan lə lora / pə saṟaban-pore byā karlāṉay-dəy)4 (Khūsh-
ḥāl 1952: 736).
Khūshḥāl’s interest in the Pashtun genealogical tradition for the first
time materialised in his book Dastār-nāma (The Book of Turban)5 written
in 1665 during the author’s imprisonment in the Indian jail-fortress of
Rantambhor. A small section of this didactical “Fürstenspiegel” book enti-
tled Taḥqīq də nasab (Inquiry in Genealogy) contains brief outline of the
Khaṯaks’ genealogy supplemented with a pair of stories from the Pash-
tuns’ fabulous past (Khūshḥāl 1966: 83-85). Recounting a legend about
Dāniyāl the Prophet, a putative Biblical forefather of Pashtuns, who is said
to have been fed up by a lioness’ milk in his early childhood, Khūshḥāl
Khān proudly states: “Bravery and courage in Pashtuns originate from the
milk of that lioness”. In passing Khūshḥāl makes such a remark: “If God
Almighty gives me freedom, and I leave Rantambhor and go back home, I
shall write down a separate [book on] history (i. e. on genealogies).”
Khūshḥāl’s idea to compile such a book was accomplished much later, af-
ter his death, by Afżal Khān who entitled this work Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘ and

3
The authors of The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle represent Karlāṉ as a son of Hūnay, a person
unknown to the majority of Pashtun genealogists, but called “a brother of Urmaṟ” by the
Khaṯak chiefs. Urmaṟ, in his turn, is considered to be a son, most likely adopted, of Sharkh-
būn who is an indisputable son of Saṟban. In the Khaṯak version of the legend about Kar-
lāṉ it is Urmaṟ (not Hūnay himself!) who brings up “his brother’s” child on account of be-
ing sonless. Thus, the kinship links between Karlāṉ and Sarban (Karlāṉ—Hūnay/Urmaṟ—
Sharkhbūn—Sarban) are more than dubious. It is absolutely clear, that the Khaṯak gene-
alogical tradition recorded in the The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle betrays intentional and artificial
inclusion of the Karlāṉay branch into the previously existed Pashtun family-tree, and,
therefore, suggests that the Karlāṉay tribes stemmed from assimilated autochthonic eth-
nic groups of non-Pashtun origin.
4
In the citations from original Pashto texts the phonetic transcription for modern
Pashto is used with underlined characters for Pashto retroflex consonants (ṯ, ḏ, ṟ, ṉ, š, ž) in
order to avoid contamination with the standard transliteration for Arabic.
5
A turban signifies high social status, authority and learning.
120 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

included in it all materials left in drafts by his grandfather in what he

called Bayāż (The Book of Records). According to Afżal’s references, the
first sections of The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle in Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘, which deal
with lineages, tribal subdivisions, demography, territories, migrations and
early military activities of the Khaṯak tribe are composed of the original
texts written by Khūshḥāl Khān “with his own hand” (Afżal 1974: 254-266).
In any tribal society the social and legal status of an individual is de-
termined by his affiliation with a certain tribal group, and it is an individ-
ual’s lineage that certifies his status. At present as before the second com-
ponent in many Pashtun names, a family name, is a historical ethnonym,
which designates person’s relationship with a particular tribe or a clan.
Describing tribal lineages, the authors of The Khataks’ Chronicle pursued
various objectives of educational and political character. On the one
hand, they carried out their major literary task to preserve and propagate
tribal traditions, and, on the other, aimed at confirming their status of
leaders of the ruling clan by asserting their legitimate right to execute
power in compliance with the principle of primogeniture. It appears most
significant that the authors of The Chronicle insistently linked up the
Khaṯak lineages to the common Pashtun genealogical tree. Together with
other written testimonies dating back from the same times, The Khataks’
Chronicle proves the fact that towards the foundation of the Durrānī
monarchy in the middle of the 18th century Pashtun tribes in the mass
recognised themselves as one people with common ethno-cultural herit-
age, and national self-identification was one of the key elements in their
consciousness, both collective and individual.
Khūshḥāl Khān’s feelings of Pashtun national unity based on common
ancestry are most distinctly expressed in his celebrated heroic ode Albeit I
am nurtured by the Moguls’ favours… (parwarda ka də muγalo pə namak-
yəm…) (Khūshḥāl 1952: 563-566). In one of its verses Khūshḥāl exclaims:
“The Karlāṉays, the Saṟbanays: how many Pashtuns there are! / In matters
of honour I am in union with them all” (karlāṉi saṟabani co paštānə-di / zə
də nang pə kār lə wāṟo muštarak-yəm) (Khūshḥāl 1952: 566). This poem
was composed in 1672-1673 after the beginning of the large-scale Mogul-
Afghan war of 1672-1676. Motivated both by political discords within his
own tribe and national pride aroused by the grand victory of the Pashtun
tribal coalition in the Khyber battle in April 1672, Khūshḥāl Khān then of-
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 121

ficially abandoned imperial service, renounced his loyalty to the Mogul

administration and joined with the Pashtun rebellious tribes.
The first part of this ode is a self-praise (faxriyya) in which the poet
portrays himself as a good Pashtun caring much about his personal, as
well as his nation’s honour (də afγān nang). In the shorter second part,
complaining of hostilities between the Khaṯak clans, Khūshḥāl touches
upon national unity. Numerous Pashtun families and clans he compares
to streams, which, merging together, form a big river. This part of the
poem Khūshḥāl wrote in a small town-fortress of Takht situated on the
south-western borders of the Khaṯaks’ lands in the Bannū district. It is not
by chance that in one distich the poet even called himself “a Shītak” and
declared that now he became fond of “the halved language” (nima žəba).
The Shītaks, a Pashtun tribe widely known as the Daurs, lived in the
neighbourhood to the west from Bannū, and spoke (as nowadays) a ver-
nacular belonging to the southern group of Pashto dialects,6 which
strongly differ in phonetics with standard Pashto.7 Even in an exaggerated
poetical declaration such freely voiced readiness to sweep away strict
boundaries of tribal affiliation was a sign of a quite new way of thinking
for a Pashtun chieftain of the XVII century. The final verse of this out-
standing poem―“For the honour of Afghans I armed myself with the sa-
ber; / I am Khūshḥāl Khaṯak, a man of honour in these times” (də afγān pə
nang-me wutaṟəla tura / nangyālay də zamāne xušhāl xaṯak-yəm)―has
been carved on the poet’s marble tomb in his modest memorial located in
the vicinity of his home-town Akora-Khatak in Pakistan.8
The texts of The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle well indicate that the ethnic con-
sciousness of its authors has three distinct levels, which correspond to the
main levels of the hierarchical ethno-social structure of the Pashtun tribal
society: the people (kawm), the tribe (oləs, kabila), the clan (təpa, xelxā-

6
Recent description of the phonetics and morphology of these dialects is to be found
in Satcaev 2010. In newest Descriptive Grammar of Pashto edited by A. B. David these dia-
lects are defined as “Middle” (David 2014: 31-44).
7
In the commentary to this line D. M. Kāmil, the publisher of the Khūshḥāl’s Kulliyāt,
supposes that the poet characterises the language of the Shītaks as “halved” because they
“speak very quickly and it seems that they do not pronounce words completely”.
8
O. Caroe very poetically described his impressions of this place in his profound essay
on Pashtuns (Caroe 1958: 246).
122 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

na).9 Thus, the ethnic consciousness of The Chronicle’s authors, depending

on actual situation and particular ideological goals, may function as na-
tional, tribal or clannish. On the nationwide level the authors identify
themselves as the Pashtuns, on the tribal―the Khaṯaks, on the clan-
nish―the Ḥasankhels. The lowest level of the ethno-social structure―a
family (kor)―almost always correlates to clannish thinking.
Heterogeneity and flexibility are typical features of the national con-
sciousness of the Pashtun tribal society in general, irrespective of social
status or education of its individuals. Continuing to be effective in mod-
ern times as well these features always reflected actual historical devel-
opments and social realities, and, therefore, were quite natural for the
outlook of the Khaṯak rulers. D. M. Kāmil’s reproaches addressed to Afżal
Khān in the preface to his edition of Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘ seem to be
groundless and anachronistic when he writes that “our historian”, not-
withstanding his high feelings and reflections about national identity
(kawmiyyat), patriotism (wataniyyat), “Pashtunism” (paštuniyyat), “some-
times expresses unacceptable tribal narrow-mindedness (kabilawi tang-
nazari) in a very disgusting way” (Afżal 1974: xlix-l). Neither Khūshḥāl nor
Afżal by no means were advocates of Pashtun nationalism, or tribalism, or
some other ethnic ideology in modern understanding. Their true attitude
towards these issues would be much better described by the words of
Mulla Zaeef, former member of the Taliban movement, who in his re-
cently published memoirs makes such an introductory remark, which
sounds like a conceptual idea of the whole book: “As an Afghan you are
always more than one thing: your kin, your tribe, your ethnicity and the
place you were born; all are part of you. Pashtuns who emigrated long ago
to the big cities of Afghanistan, Pakistan or abroad might have forgotten
this, but their true identity lies with their tribe, their clan, their family and
their relatives” (Zaeef 2010: 2).
Nevertheless, one has to agree with the fact that it is the tribal (kabi-
lawi) level that actually dominates the ethnic consciousness of The
Chronicle’s authors. Apparently, this fact is explained not only by the very
essence of collective mentality in tribal society, but also by the status of
Khūshḥāl and Afżal as tribal rulers for whom their tribe was the largest

9
Cf. Katkov 1989: 45-48; Gryunberg/Ržexak 1992: 184-188.
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 123

among other administered social groups and who were personally re-
sponsible for its viability. It is noticeable that with the word xpəl (‘one’s
own’) Khūshḥāl and Afżal designate only their tribesmen, the Khaṯaks,
and the antonym praday (‘alien’) in their language stands for the repre-
sentatives of other Pashtun tribes. Besides, Afżal Khān regularly shifts the
meanings of the terms kawm and kabila a step lower: by kawm he distin-
guishes his tribe, the Khaṯaks, by kabila (pl. kabā’il)—its clans or other
subdivisions:
“Although I understood that this affair 10 had no ground, since I was on
this territory I rose up and began fighting out of respect to the people
(kawm) (i. e. the Khatak tribe), because in matters of honour (nang) and
dignity (šarm) I am ever ready to serve the tribes (oləs, kabila) (i. e. the
Khatak clans)” (Afżal 1974: 422);
“Although now, in these years, my heart has no any burning desire for
leadership (sardāri), for ruling the Homeland (watandāri), or [imple-
menting] other wishes, however, following the noble way of conduct, the
thoughts about taking care of my children, the people (kawm), the tribes
(kabā’il) are seen in it…” 11 (ibid.: 425);
“As long as I am at work my aim is a well-being of the people (kawm)
and the tribes (kabā’il)… Like someone is anxious about taking care of his
children, we were always anxious about taking care of the people and the
tribes―of anyone whether of high or low rank…” 12 (ibid.: 438).
In the same “shifted” meaning the terms kawm and kabila are used by
other characters of The Chronicle as well. In Khūshḥāl’s accounts his son
and Afżal’s father Ashraf Khān when answering in 1673 to Fidāyī Khān, a
Mogul commander, who offered him promotion in case he leaves his tribe
and joins up imperial service in India, says: “I have the people (kawm), the
tribes (kabā’il), the relatives. So many people I can not abandon!” (ibid.
312). Even Afżal Khān’s adversaries from the camp of his political rivals,
the Khatak sheikhs, explaining their refusal to attack Asadallāh, the son of

10
Afżal Khān tells in this passage about his attack on the Mogul tribute-collectors in
the district of the Khaṯak town of Ṯerī in 1719.
11
A fragment from Afżal’s Admonition (Pand-nāma) addressed to his tribesmen after
the beginning of the armed conflict with his younger brother Nāmdār in 1719.
12
Opening words of Afżal’s Commitment (‘Ahd-nāma) written to Nāmdār in 1722 as a
letter of reconciliation.
124 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

Afżal, and his men in the town of Lāchī in 1724 resort to the same vocab-
ulary: “…First, Asadallāh is a son of such-and-such (Afżal Khān). Then,
both sides are Muslims and the Khataks, our people (kawm). To shed
blood now would be unfair. Who will be guilty of this offence and cru-
elty!?” (ibid.: 450).
Though Afżal preferred to employ the word kawm in the narrowed
meaning “the Khatak people”, he was well aware of its broader meaning.
In his Admonition he writes about the situation in the Khatak tribe, but in
some places obviously tends to generalisation and by kawm implies all
Pashtuns; e. g.: “…Bad moral qualities that are disseminated among our
people (kawm) are misleading greed, immature desire, vile avarice, dis-
honesty and appalling envy. Out of that substance maladies of corruption,
mercilessness, hostility towards each other emerge in the nature of the
people… When wickedness of such deeds transgresses the edge of balance
blood rivers flow anyway…” (ibid.: 424).
Different levels in the Khaṯak chiefs’ ethnic consciousness are exposed
most visibly in their reports about conflicts, which took place on every
level of ethno-social structure. It is a conflict that compels the author of
The Chronicle to associate himself declaratively with a particular ethno-
social group of a definite level in opposition to another group of the same
level. Thus, in an internal tribal conflict The Chronicle’s author demon-
strates his clannish thinking, for he associates himself solely with his clan,
the Ḥasankhels, and separates from other tribal subdivisions; in a conflict
between Pashtun tribes the author regards himself in the first place as a
member of his own tribe, the Khataks, opposed to other Pashtuns; in poly-
ethnical countrywide conflicts, which as a rule involve the imperial Mogul
administration and its multinational armies, the author rises to the level
of true national consciousness and distinguishes himself as a representa-
tive of the Pashtun people as a single whole. Such constantly “swinging”
ethnic self-identification is well illustrated by numerous war stories,
which constitute the main contents of The Chronicle. Several accounts of
the armed encounters between the various Khaṯak clans (ibid.: 306-309,
462-466), between the Khataks and the other Pashtun tribes―the Yūsuf-
zays (ibid. 269-271, 283-284) or the Bangashs (ibid. 348-349), between the
Pashtun tribes and the Moguls (ibid. 295-297, 297-298, 317-319) belong to
The Chronicle’s most masterful and impressive narratives.
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 125

Within or beyond conflicts clannish thinking is always present in eth-

nonyms, which are indispensable parts of persons’ names, as it was said
above. Every Pashtun in The Chronicle is designated by his kin’s name, a
patronymic, which is usually an appellation of his clan or any of its lower
subgroups. The authors of The Chronicle may ignore the first name of a
tribesman they mention, even if this is a brave warrior acclaimed for his
heroic deeds, but they never forget that person’s “family” name, i. e. his
affiliation with a particular clan. Such “nameless” individuals are consist-
ently identified in The Chronicle as members of their ethnic groups. In his
account of assault on Nawshahr in 1673 Khūshḥāl Khān writes: “…Six good
Khaṯak fighters proved to be most effective: two Muhmandays, one Babar,
one Sīnay, one from an Ismā‘īlkhel family, and one Mīzhakhel” (ibid.: 318).
Besides, clannish thinking may be openly manifested on the ground of
some political considerations regardless of whether real conflict tensions
do exist or not. In his talk with the Mogul Emperor Shāhjahān (r. 1628-
1657) in 1649 Khūshḥāl Khān, in order to affirm his loyalty to imperial au-
thorities, quite hypocritically dissociated himself with mutinous Khaṯak
clans: “The Emperor asked again: ‘What do you have with those Khaṯaks
who assailed the lands of Bahīra and Khūshāb?’ The Venerated Khān
answered him: ‘All they bear the name of the Khataks, but I am by myself,
and they are by themselves’…” (ibid.: 278).
Of special attention are those texts in which The Chronicle’s authors
overcome their clannish thinking and appeal to tribal unity even in inter-
nal domestic discords. Straightforward declarations with such explicit
change of mind are to be found in a number of official documents, such as
the above mentioned Admonition and Commitment composed by Afżal
Khān in connection with the political conflict between him and his
brother Nāmdār Khān in 1719-1722 (ibid.: 423-425, 437-440). Another im-
portant document of that kind is Testament (Waṣiyyat-nāma) written by
Khūshḥāl Khān in 1666 during his imprisonment in Rantambhor right af-
ter the beginning of cleavage between the Khaṯak clans (ibid.: 292-293). In
this document Khūshḥāl makes recommendations for his eldest son Ash-
raf and other members of the ruling family about conducting well calcu-
lated and differentiated administrative policy towards some “good” and
“bad” clans by strictly abiding the laws of honour (nang) and brotherhood
(hakk də barādarəy).
126 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

Since in many war stories the Khaṯak chiefs for various reasons display
generosity and kindred feelings to their tribesmen, their clannish thinking
always tends to be spontaneously replaced by tribal consciousness, e. g.:
“Then, he (Khūshḥāl’s father Shahbāz Khān.) prepared to take venge-
ance (on the Tsīnays who killed Yaḥyā Khān, Khūshḥāl’s grandfather.). He
brought together those Khaṯaks and Yūsufzays who were friendly to each
other, made up an army, attacked the Tsīnays’ villages and burnt them
down. The Tsīnays fled to mountains. The son of Malik Shādī [Tsīnay] was
killed. And it so happened that the Tsīnays’ children and women were
taken prisoners [by Shahbāz Khān]. However, at last he thought: ‘The
Tsīnays are our brothers. Among the Khaṯaks I do not have other brothers
closer than they are. Of course, they will be of use sometime. Their chil-
dren should not be captives of another tribe.13 Such a disgrace is of no
need to us. These are our mothers and sisters too!’ He turned round his
army and went back to home…” (ibid.: 267);
“The Venerated Khān (Khūshḥāl Khān.) went to Sūnyāla. He called
Mu‘aẓẓam, the son of Bahrām, with his armed men to stay with him. But
all other people (oləs) supported me (Afżal Khān.s) 14. When I got to know
about what happened I led an army there. I stopped in Khwara near to
Sūnyāla. The people expressed their determination: ‘Let us march on
them!’ But I thought about consequences: ‘Both sides are one tribe (kabi-
la). From both sides people will die. The Moguls will be content’. Besides,
I kept my respect for the Khān. So, I moved away…” (ibid.: 503);
“Nāmdār with his men went towards [the fortress of] Takht and now
was moving along a mountain slope.15 The Sāgharays and the Bangīkhels 16
had an intention: ‘We will attack him at night. The Yūsufzays with the rest
of his army are somewhere aside. So, we will beat him’. I thought: ‘There

13
I. e. of the Yūsufzays allied then with Shahbāz Khān.
14
In this fragment Afżal Khān recounts an incident, which took place in 1684 when he
was at odds with Khūshḥāl Khān because at the tribal council (jirga) summoned in 1681 to
elect the new Khatak chief his grandfather had voted for Bahrām, the Afżal’s uncle and en-
emy.
15
An episode from the wars waged by Nāmdār Khān and his Yūsufzay allies against
Afżal Khān in 1722.
16
The Khaṯak clans from the camp of Afżal Khān.
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 127

gathered both our own (xpəl) and alien (praday)17 people. This [fight] is of
no good’. I stopped them [from fighting]…” (ibid.: 432);
“We were unaware of their (the Khaṯak sheikhs.) actions 18. We always
treated them with kindness and decency. Everywhere we granted lands
and gardens as endowments to all of them—whether old or young. We
displayed honour and respect to them. First, they are our old kin, the de-
scendants of [sheikh] Raḥmkār. Second, they are our own people (xpəl),
the Khaṯaks, our relatives and friends. Every good thing we have shared
and rejoiced in together…” (ibid.: 445);
“Clandestinely they (the sheikhs’ armed detachments) were coming at
us, hiding from view in ravines. Here and there they were seen. When I
showed myself on the river’s bank to look around they shot at my unit. I
forbade my men to shoot and got very angry when a pair of gunshots were
fired from our side. I ordered to stop shooting: ‘What is the point if one or
two men will be killed? They are our own people, the Khaṯaks! What good
may this bring?’” (ibid.: 463).
Those episodes in The Chronicle where ethnic consciousness of the au-
thors reaches its highest nationwide level have exceptional historical, cul-
tural and political significance. As it was stated above, such written evi-
dence indicates that, towards the beginning of the 18th century national
considerations played an important role in the outlook of Pashtuns, at
least among some distinguished representatives of their military-adminis-
trative elite, and, thus, provided necessary ideological ground for the crea-
tion of the Afghan national statehood.
In Pashto literature it was Khūshḥāl Khān who started to explore na-
tional and patriotic themes during the years of his detention in India
(1664-1669). At first, of course, there were no any open declarations about
Pashtun national unity in Khūshḥāl’s verses. The most remarkable among
his ideologically biased poetical statements are those where he proudly
speaks about Pashtuns as of a single entity and identifies himself as a part
of that entity. Thus, it is factually the very word paštānə, the plural of
‘Pashtun’, that marks the emergence of national idea in Khūshḥāl’s poetry.

17
I. e. the Yūsufzays, allies of Nāmdār Khān.
18
This fragment and the next one relate to the story about the conflict between Afżal
and the the Khaṯak sheikhs―the tribal spiritual leaders from the family of the revered
Khaṯak sheikh Raḥmkār (d. 1653).
128 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

In a poem dated back from the times of his imprisonment in Rantambhor

Khūshḥāl asserted: “Imperial rank (manṣab) is nothing for Pashtuns, only
hatred [against the Moguls] they have. / The one who attempts [to sub-
due them] by increasing [their rank] is doing this in vain. // Even if a
Pashtun holds the rank of a thousand men commander he never becomes
a Mogul; / one has to forget this dream. // Someone who wishes a friend-
ship between an elephant and a tiger, / [should know that] this wish is
entirely futile. // Pashtuns have their own good cloaks, / they did not put
on the Moguls’ shawl…” (Khūshḥāl 1952: 550).
In the other very innovative autobiographical poem What a bad dream
I saw in the early morning… (Cə də bado xob wu čə-me wulidə sahar…)
Khūshḥāl sincerely repents of his former wrongdoings against the
Yūsufzays which he carried out during his imperial service. Now the poet
addresses gratitude and praise to the Yūsufzay clans who offered protec-
tion and shelter to his family after he was arrested in January 1664: “Praise
be to those who care for honour (nang)! / The Yūsufzays came to help
when a trouble happened” (ibid.: 942).
New lyrical topics of explicitly patriotic character were introduced by
Khūshḥāl in his big mathnawī-poem Firāq-nāma (The Book of Separation)
also written in Rantambhor (Khūshḥāl 1984). Many of its verses are filled
with Khūshḥāl’s very touching memories about his Homeland (watan)
and relatives. With guileless affection the poet recalls his family estate
around the hometown of Sarāy-Akora, admires the Lanḏay (Kabul) river,
describes his feelings about hunting in the Mayra plain, in the foothills of
Nīlāb, on the banks of the Kālapāṉəy stream, tells much about his fam-
ily―his children, wives, mother and late male ancestors, expresses his
longing and grieves for them, and in a section of the poem entitled Praise
to The Yūsufzays again refers to Pashtun honour and brotherhood. His
patriotic feelings Khūshḥāl Khān summarised in a verse: “The love for the
Homeland, O my dear, / is inherent in me together with the faith” (dә wa-
tan mina ay ǰāna / rā-paydā-da lә imāna) (Khūshḥāl 1984: 28).
It is noteworthy that in the same years of living under arrest in India
patriotic motives penetrated into Khūshḥāl’s love lyrics as well. For long
separated from his home and family, Khūshḥāl wrote in his Indian prison:
“Let Pashtun girls lay their hair out to wind, / so that this north wind
would bring its smell here to Rantambhor!” (Khūshḥāl 1952: 366). In one
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 129

of his ghazals the poet formulated this new idea of “patriotic love” even
more plainly: “O my Lord, break that mouth, / which will say that India is
good. // So many villages and towns are here, / but no any real beauty is
found in them. // Since there are a lot of beautiful beloved in it, / Pesha-
war is better than any other country!” (ibid.: 260).19 From now on Khūsh-
ḥāl repeatedly reverted to this idea and confessed his special affection to
Pashtun girls (paštane juna), e. g. in such verses: “Though beauties from
Kashmir are famous for their charms, / as well as those from China, Turk-
istan (lit. Tatar) and other places, // Pashtun girls, as far as I have exam-
ined them, // [are those] of whose good looks all others are ashamed. //
Beauty has finished on them, this is all to say; / for they are descendants
from the family of Ya‘qūb 20!” (ibid.: 444). The most notable poem of that
kind is a ghazal written in Tīrāh in 1674 where the poet admiring local
Afrīday girls from the Ādamkhel clan depicts their physical beauties in an
extraordinarily (at least for Muslim literary tradition) naturalistic and
erotic way (ibid.: 212-213).
National and patriotic rhetoric in Khūshḥāl’s verses reached its peak
during the Mogul-Afghan war of 1672-1676 (Pelevin 2001: 84-100). A kind of
poetical premise for Khūshḥāl’s poetry of war was a quatrain in Persian
written a little earlier, in 1669, and included in a letter to the Mogul gov-
ernor Mahābat Khān. Recently released from detention in India, Khūsh-
ḥāl Khān in this letter declined the governor’s demand to provide due
military and administrative assistance to the Moguls against disobedient
Pashtun tribes. His Persian quatrain runs as follows: “I said that I will be-
come a Mogul in matters of sword fighting, / for I had beheaded so many
Afghans [before]. // But in the end I have not become [a Mogul], I am still
an Afghan! / I am sorry of the one whose efforts are worthless” (guftam ki
muγal šavam ba šamšīr zadan / afγān-rā ki bas burīdam gardan // āxir
našudam hamān afγān-am / hayf-ast zi kas kūšiš-i bījā kardan) (Afżal 1974:
299).

19
According to The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle, while living under home arrest in Delhi in 1667-
1669, Khūshḥāl Khān had an Indian slave-girl (hindustānəy) who in 1668 gave birth to his
officially acknowledged son Farḥat (Afżal 1974: 260).
20
I. e. they are related to Ya‘qūb’s son Yūsuf (Biblical Joseph the Beautiful). The poet
hints here at genealogical tradition, which links Pashtuns to ancient Jews.
130 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

In his national and patriotic verses of the war period Khūshḥāl Khān
nowhere speaks of Pashtuns other than of a single nation. Despite all
emotional nuances, constant shifts of political stresses, subjectivity of
opinions and quite natural limitations in social views reflected in Khūsh-
ḥāl’s poetry, we may conclude that it was the Mogul-Afghan war of 1672-
1676 that radically changed the world outlook of the Khatak chief and
shaped his national consciousness.
Although this war by its causes, purposes and the very nature was only
a standard episode in the never-ceasing outbreaks of feudal conflicts be-
tween disintegrated frontier tribes and imperial authorities, a kind of pe-
ripheral mutiny provoked mainly by unsettled taxation issues, a series of
autonomous military operations and unconnected local battles around
kea roads and mountain passes, Khūshḥāl Khān unequivocally proclaimed
it as a nationwide anti-imperial struggle for freedom, “a battle between
crows and falcons” in which “God will give victory to falcons”. Remem-
bering his own life experiences Khūshḥāl stated: “Freedom (āzādi) sur-
passes king’s rule (pādšāhi); / to submit to other’s power is to become
prisoner” (Khūshḥāl 1952: 612-613).
Several times Khūshḥāl Khān with great esteem mentions the names
of Bahlūl Lodī and Shīr Shāh Sūrī, two outstanding Pashtun chiefs who
managed to gain supreme power in India, established their own ruling
dynasties, the Lodīs and the Sūrīs, and reigned as monarchs in Delhi in
1451-1489 and 1540-1545, respectively. For Khūshḥāl and his compatriots
these two names signified the greatest worldwide triumph of Pashtuns in
their common historical legacy. “The throne of Delhi” (də Dihləy taxt)
functioned in Pashto vocabulary as a symbol, as well as an idiom with the
meaning of something very desired and the highest among imaginable
successes.
It is unlikely that Khūshḥāl aspired for military and political achieve-
ments equal to what had been accomplished by his celebrated predeces-
sors. Neither he was ahead of his time to ponder on modernistic ideas of
national sovereignty and independent Pashtun state. What he tried to
convey in his poetry was his personal understanding of Pashtun national
unity and Pashtun people’s common wellbeing. In keeping with his liter-
ary style and individual temperament he preferred to declare this under-
standing indirectly, mostly by criticising Pashtun tribes for their insur-
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 131

mountable disagreements, self-interests and mercenariness. In many

verses written after 1674 when the Mogul authorities resorted to effective
tactics of bribery Khūshḥāl severely disparaged Pashtuns for being “dogs
in a butcher’s yard” who “lost kingdom in exchange for Moguls’ gold”
(Khūshḥāl 1952: 340). Trying to persuade his fellow-countrymen that “in
this time of honour and glory (nang-u-nām)” “nothing else but a sword
would give freedom” (ibid.: 528), he was much regretful to state: “We
speak one language, Pashto, / but we do not understand each other” (ibid.:
104).21 In one of his ghazals Khūshḥāl contemplates in a such way: “In
everything Pashtuns are better than the Moguls, / only concord (ittifāk)
they do not have to my great regret. // I hear stories about Bahlūl and Shīr
Shāh / who were Pashtun kings in India. // Their rule lasted through sev-
eral generations, / and all people admired them. // Were those Pashtuns
of another kind, and these ones have become something else? / Or such is
the order of God nowadays? // If Pashtuns manage to acquire unity, / aged
Khūshḥāl will become young again” (ibid.: 104).
Among the fragments from Khūshḥāl’s Bayāż included in The Khaṯaks’
Chronicle, there are a number of passages with similar manifestations of
the author’s national consciousness. Beside his Persian quatrain cited
above many of Khūshḥāl Khān’s records related to the events of the Mo-
gul-Afghan war have not only predictable political bias but distinct accen-
tuation on national issues too. According to him, when discussing with
the Khaṯaks’ envoys a plan of joint attack on the town of Kohāṯ in 1673,
the Afrīday chiefs made such an appeal: “We will act under the laws of
Pashtun honour (nang də paštunwaləy)! We will drive away these Moguls
who are sitting here [on our lands]. We are Pashtuns! No one may elimi-
nate us!” (Afżal 1974: 316). In his account about the siege of Nawshahr in
autumn 1673 Khūshḥāl Khān tells that he spared some defenders of the
town only because they were Pashtuns: “They strived to make it clear that
they were Pashtuns. And I bestowed mercy on them, spared their lives…”
(ibid.: 316). In 1674, when moving across the territories of the Afrīdays and
the Momands Khūshḥāl Khān held back from criticising local tribesmen

21
This verse may be also interpreted as an oblique indication of the fact that Khūshḥāl
Khān recognised the sharing of a common language, along with a common descent,
among principal criteria of ethnicity.
132 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

for their “uncivilised” way of life, like he did it in his verses (Pelevin 2001:
95-96), but, on the contrary, noted in his diaries good manners and hospi-
tality of the people whom he met with: “The Afrīdays are very sincere
people… On the road the Afrīdays well escorted us: they provided us with
good meals, entertainments and everything other. In every house they
tried to please me… All Afrīdays treated us in a very kind way…” (Afżal
1974: 323);
“All Momands well kept Pashtun laws (paštunwali) and behaved ex-
cellently. They provided us with meals and everything other in a good
way. Everywhere they escorted me… I saw that the Momands were good
people. Particularly Naẓar Momand, a very nice young man. And Kamāl
Khān, his brother, too. I liked him very much. He was a real man. Honour
(nang) was seen in him…” (ibid.: 323-324).
According to Khūshḥāl’s words, the victory gained over the Mogul
troops by Aymal Khān Momand in February 1674 in the valley of Gandāb
to the north of Peshawar was a great success of all Pashtuns: “Aymal Khān
won a big victory. Many Pashtuns were delighted with this affair…” (ibid.:
320). Khūshḥāl Khān did not participated in this grand battle and even
committed a tactical mistake when he let pass through his territories a
detachment led by Shīr Muḥammad Bangash who joined then the Mogul
army in Gandāb and later fought with the Khataks. In his diaries Khūsh-
ḥāl gives to his “misstep” such explanation: “[Shīr Muḥammad] is a Pash-
tun. Seventeen or eighteen years he spent humiliated in India at the will
of Padishah Awrangzeb. Now, when he returned back to the Homeland
(watan), it would have been ungenerous if I had blocked his way… I did
not even imagine that he would be such a scoundrel (lit. ‘dog’) with no
Afghan honour (nang də afγāniyyat)!” (ibid.: 319).
All Khūshḥāl’s statements quoted above demonstrate that national
consciousness of the Khaṯak tribal ruler was closely tied with the unwrit-
ten Pashtun Code of Honour, and his understanding of national unity had
its roots in the traditional ideology of the Pashtun customary law (paštun-
wali) rather than in some speculative political concepts.
Unlike his grandfather Afżal Khān was less inclined to openly express
in writings his national and patriotic feelings. On the one side, he re-
strained from declaring national unity on account of purely pragmatic
considerations. His status of tribal ruler and imperial jāgīrdār was con-
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 133

stantly challenged by his political rivals and close relatives, such as his
brother Nāmdār, his uncles Bahrām, ‘Abd al-Ḳādir, and Shahbāz, the
Khaṯak spiritual leaders from the family of sheikh Raḥmkār. Administra-
tive power of Afżal Khān strongly depended on the ever changeable po-
litical tactics of the Mogul imperial authorities, and, obviously, because of
that he was not much disposed to demonstrate publicly his solidarity with
other Pashtun tribes who always conflicted with the Moguls and caused
perilous instability on their western borders.
On the other side, the Afżal’s own records in The Chronicle suggest that
he did not match Khūshḥāl Khān both in intellectual understanding and
emotional perception of the idea of the Afghan national unity due to indi-
vidual qualities of his character. It seems that his national consciousness
was less developed than that of his grandfather. Telling about the prepa-
rations of a large coalition of Pashtun tribes to besiege Peshawar in 1711,
Afżal Khān (who refused from taking part in this affair because of his wish
to secure the status of jāgīrdār) writes quite arrogantly: “Many Pashtuns
of every sort (lə hara toka) have gathered there. Their aim was [to set off]
animosity between people. I did not trust them…” (Afżal 1974: 391). In his
memoirs and diaries Afżal always rises from clannish to tribal thinking
but rarely attains the higher level of nationwide consciousness what, in
fact, induced D. M. Kāmil to disapprove his “unacceptable tribal narrow-
mindedness”.
His feelings of national solidarity and unity Afżal Khān occasionally
displays only in connection with particular conflict situations and justifies
them, like Khūshḥāl, by prescriptions of the unwritten tribal code:
“When I moved along the road (from Lakkī to Bannū) ten robbers from
the Marwats tried to attack my unit (laškar). I quickly repulsed and cap-
tured them. But they were Pashtuns. I did not want to do them any harm
and let them go” (ibid.: 366);
“After we came to Nawshahr he (the Kabul governor Nāṣīr Khān) sent
troops to Ašnaghar. The people of Ašnaghar have become mutinous. He
fought with them, seized Paṟāng and Chārsadda. Much live-stock and
other possessions fell to the hands of the Moguls… [Nāṣīr Khān] called for
me. I set free most of the Muhmandzay captives. To the Governor I said:
‘This is a matter of my reputation (nāmus). Free the captives!’ And he set
them all free…” (ibid.: 390);
134 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

“He (the Kabul governor Amīr Khān) said to me: ‘Go with me to Kabul!
I am going to fight with the Ghildzays. All horsemen and footmen you
have I will take on as my men in service (nukarān). You have to carry out
your [imperial] duty in this fight with the Ghildzays!’ But I thought: ‘What
for should I fight with Pashtuns?’…” (ibid.: 483).
Sometimes similar feelings and thoughts in Afżal’s accounts are ex-
pressed by third persons:
“…The people of Tsotara assailed a caravan of camels and mules of the
[Moguls’] army… I sent my men after them… By moving fast we finally
ran down them in the evening. They were about three hundred men,
mostly gun-shooters, as we could see. All cattle they drove into the gorge,
took their guns and sat down waiting for us. We understood: ‘They are too
many. We do not have enough strength against them. And then, we
should not get into blood feud with them. We are living close to each
other. They are our people!’ I sent forward some horsemen of the Tarays
who were with me. They shouted to them: ‘This is such-and-such (i. e.
Afżal Khān) who has come here. You have to give the cattle back!’ When
they saw my flag and realised that those horsemen were Pashtuns they
did not set to shooting. A part of that cattle they gave us back [saying]:
‘Whoever you are, you are Pashtuns! This [part of] cattle is yours, but do
not come closer!’…” (ibid.: 363-364);
“I wrote to the Mogul [Governor]: ‘It is your time to help me. Send me
the help!’ But the Mogul was in a hard situation because of shortage of
[military] force. And he had worries: ‘If I help him this will be a trouble on
my head. This trouble has come to him and will also come to me. They are
all Pashtuns and will better understand each other’…” (ibid.: 392).
Afżal’s national feelings are observable also in his sporadic critical
statements addressed to other ethnical groups, mostly Turks and Hindus
with whom the eastern Pashtun tribes were in closest touch. Reproaching
the Mogul commander Jūlbārs Khān, a Turk, for political and military
support provided to the Khatak sheikhs in 1724, Afżal Khān describes him
as totally incompetent and even maintains that “breach of obligations and
words is inherent (jibilli) in Turks (turāni)” (ibid.: 450). According to Afżal,
the young Kabul Governor Navāzish Khān, a Turk too, was “an inexperi-
enced youth” who “indulged only in hunting and other entertainments”,
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 135

and his advisors were “good-for-nothing Hindus” (nāpəkār hinduwān)

(ibid.: 442).
An essential element in the ethnic consciousness of the Khaṯak chiefs
stemmed from their local, or tribal patriotism (wataniyyat) manifested
most brilliantly and pathetically in the mathnawī-poem Firāq-nāma by
Khūshḥāl Khān. Both Khūshḥāl’s and Afżal’s understanding of the very
term watan (‘homeland’) proves once more that the tribal level in their
outlook prevailed over the nationwide. Geographically “the Homeland”
for them both was only the territory of the Khatak tribe. Unambiguous
definition of watan is given in the fragments of The Chronicle, which re-
port on geographical localisation of the Khatak lands: “…And the Khatak
tribe (oləs), which occupies [the lands] from the border with the Yūsuf-
zays down to the ‘Īsākhels along the banks of the Indus, descends from
Luqmān [Khaṯak]. Tsotara, Lawāghar, Thal of Bannū, Karbūgha, Gurgura
are their Homeland (watan)” (ibid.: 255-256); “Khwaṟa is the border of our
Homeland (watan) (in the south-west. – M. P.); the lands of Taray and
Bolāq are on our side, and the lands of the Afrīdays are on the other…”
(ibid.: 381). Occupation of tribal lands is often designated by the Arabic
word tawattun, which shares the same root with watan: os oləs də xaṯak
tər Balaṟa… aw tər Lakkəy… tawattun lari (“Now the Khaṯak tribe occupies
[the lands] from Balaṟ… to Lakkī…”) (ibid.: 265).
It is very likely that the word watan acquired in old Pashto its specific
meaning―“ancestral tribal lands”―under the influence of the Moguls’
administrative vocabulary where the technical term watan-jāgir denoted
a particular category of semiautonomous fiefs belonging to local tribal
landowners, initially the Rajput chiefs (Athar 1993: 320-321).
In The Chronicle the word watan is used as a synonym of the Khaṯak
lands in various contexts. It may have quite neutral geographical, political
or legal implications designating tribal domain (see quotations above),
but in some cases acquires affective connotation, which conveys emotive
attitude towards historical residence of kinfolk and expresses the general
idea of home.
This new affective overtone of the word watan may be traced already
in the lyrical meditations of the early Pashtun poets who adhered to the
mystical Roshānī doctrine. It appears that Mīrzā Khān Anṣārī (d. 1630/31),
the leading Roshānī poet, wittingly exploited the double meaning of the
136 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

word watan, which in Sufi poetical lexicon signified the universal essence
of God―an eternal “homeland” of human soul. In 1619, Mīrzā Khān emi-
grated to India where he would overlay the religious term watan with its
“earthly” meaning, e. g: “Mīrzā went to see [the city of] Burhānpūr. / He
came from his true Homeland (asli watan) and there will go [back]”
(Mīrzā 1975: 192). In Pashto writings it was Khūshḥāl Khān who during the
six-year period of detention in India (1664-1669) finally disconnected the
word watan from purely technical terminology, both religious and ad-
ministrative, and introduced it into common Pashto vocabulary with the
broad meaning of Homeland. Retelling Khūshḥāl’s diaries in The Chroni-
cle, Afżal Khān writes about his grandfather’s homecoming from Indian
captivity: “All those sons who were with him then, began persuading him:
‘In any case it will be better to go back to the Homeland (watan).’ He set
off with Mahābat Khān (the Kabul Governor) and came back to the
Homeland…” (Afżal 1974: 294). It is clear that in this context the Khatak
lands are perceived as native Pashtun lands opposed to foreign and un-
friendly territory which is India here.
With all nuances of its meaning the word watan about ten times (!) is
mentioned by Afżal Khān in his Admonition (Pand-nāma), once in a
phrase, which he calls a Pashtun proverb: nang dә watan aw dә xpәlo
xwešāno lә kora ham pāci (“The Honour leaves the Homeland, as well as
the home of relatives”) (ibid.: 425). In this document Afżal also uses the
derivative watandāri (‘administration of the homeland’), which desig-
nates administrative powers of tribal ruler. It is of note that in some gen-
eralised statements the word watan may also be understood as the uni-
versal notion of Homeland with no tribal or even ethnic connotation: “…
Those people whose forefathers had traded in wood and hay here and
who had grown up on that property, having gone through everything
good and bad, now are satisfied with the little and pass [their days] in the
Homeland (watan) both in joys and in troubles. But for some people, who
enjoyed power, wealth and pleasures, life in the Homeland has become
hard now, whether for the reason of misery and disgrace, or because the
times of their former pursuits have gone…” (ibid.: 424). It seems that
Nāmdār Khān, the Afżal’s brother and rival, and the one who was meant
by the words “some people who enjoyed power, wealth and pleasures”, in
his own Commitment quoted in The Chronicle uses the word watan rhe-
 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138 137

torically in broad sense as well: “Everything that serves interests and well-
being of our Homeland we will never hand over to the benefit of others…”
(ibid.: 439).
Thus, the texts of The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle point to the fact that towards
the beginning of the 18th century the polysemantic word watan has be-
come quite common in the language of Pashtun tribal chiefs. In general
use it denoted tribal territory, ancestral domain, hereditable land prop-
erty (to some extent synonymous to mulk) and, with affective connota-
tion, the so called “small” Homeland, one’s place of birth and residence.
However, the list of its meanings was already open to include in it the no-
tion of the “big” Homeland, i. e. the country of all Pashtuns― Pakh-
tunkhwa. Few decades after the self-governing confederation of Pashtun
tribes had been established in 1747 its leader Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī, the
first Pashtun monarch and a talented poet, attributed the notion of
Homeland (watan) to the country of Pashtuns in his famous verses The
hearts filled up with the blood of love to You… (stā də ‘išk lə wino dak šwə
jigaruna…) addressed to Pakhtunkhwa (paštunxwā): “I forget the throne
of Delhi when I recall in my memory / mountain peaks of my beautiful
Pakhtunkhwa” (də dihləy taxt herawəma čə rā-yād kṟəm / zmā də škuli paš-
tunxwā də γro saruna). Later, national and patriotic poetry has become an
indispensable part of Pashto literature and, largely in consequence of the
Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th-20th centuries, developed into a separate
literary genre, wataniyyat.
New ideological implications, stylistic features and contents of mod-
ern Pashto patriotic poetry22 which echoes, of course, recent turbulent
events in political and social life of Afghanistan and Pashtun territories in
Pakistan (renamed in 2010 into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), nevertheless, still
retain some principal traits of early national and patriotic rhetoric used
by Pashtun tribal rulers in their writings on the edge of the 17th-18th
centuries. Such an explicit rhetoric in the works of Khūshḥāl Khān Khaṯak
and his descendants, including the prose texts of The Khaṯaks’ Chronicle,
marked the very beginnings of the literary discourse on ethnicity, national

22
A number of remarkable specimens of this new patriotic poetry partly associated
with the Taliban movement have been recently published in English translation in a book
intriguingly entitled Poetry of the Taliban (Linschoten/ Kuehn 2012).
138 M. Pelevin / Iran and the Caucasus 19 (2015) 117-138

identity and patriotism among Pashtun intellectuals, on the one hand,

and contributed much to the evolution of collective national conscious-
ness of the Pashtun people in pre-modern times, on the other.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Afżal, Khān Khatak (1974), Tārīkh-i muraṣṣa‘ (Edited with preface and notes by D. M. Kā-
mil Momand), Peshawar.
Athar, A. M. (1993), “Mughals: Administrative and Social Organization”, The Encyclopaedia
of Islam. New ed. Vol. VII: 320-323.
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