Poet, Warrior, scholar. He is considered one of Pashtuns greatest poets. I believe the Government has made a Khushal Khan Khattak library in Nowshera just of the main Islamabad-Peshawar road. Never been to it, but it’s good to see the man is getting some acknowledgement.
AUTHOR: Khushhal Khan Khattak (1613-89) - Baba-i-Pushto
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/books8.htm
By Sher Alam Shinwari
When I begin composing poetry in Pushto, the Pushto language will attain the heights of excellence. -Khushhal Khan Khattak
Khushhal Khan Khattak, or “Khan Baba” as he is fondly called, has contributed immensely to the Pushto language. Researchers and critics have enlisted him as a great warrior, philosopher, scholar, social reformer, political visionary, moralist, historian, critic and a lover of beauty and nature. His physical and spiritual strength found a perfect expression in his sword and pen.
It would be appropriate to trace the story of “Baba-i-Pushto” Khushhal Khan Khattak’s life from two generations up. Malik Akoray, his grandfather, was the first Khattak to enjoy widespread fame and comfort during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jalal-ud-din Akbar.
Malik Akoray had moved out of Teri (village in district Karak) due to differences he had with his family. Therewith he joined the Mughals to defend the trunk route. He was given considerable property as reward for his work. It was during the reign of Emperor Akbar that Khushhal Khan was born to Shahbaz Khan in the year 1613 AD.
Events and incidents of great significance marked Khushhal Khan’s life from the very beginning. While he was mostly engaged in the service of the Mughal King in his youth, his old age was spent pontificating on the idea of unification of the Pakhtoons.
This was the man who at just 13 years of age plunged into the arena of battlefield against the Yusufzai tribe. At 28, after his father’s death, he was appointed tribal chief and Mansabdar by Emperor Shahjahan. Khushhal Khan proved his military skill on many occasions. Defending the Mughal interests, he brought home great laurels. In a well-planned conspiracy, the Mughal Emperor expelled him from his domain and imprisoned him in the fortress of Gwalior. Khushhal Khan took up arms against the Mughal ruler and challenged his authority over Pakhtoon territory. He has versified his open rebellion in this famous Pushto couplet:
Da Afghan pa Nang mey Utarala
Toora, Nagialay Dazamay
Khushhal Khattak yem
(I girded my sword for the Nang ‘honour’ of Pakhtoons. I am the bravest of men ‘Khushhal Khan Khattak’ of my age."
It is obvious that Khushhal Khan possessed a multi-dimensional personality. However, not much is known about his early education though he does often mention Maulana Abdul Hakim and Shah Owais Siddiqi Multani as his teachers in his poetry. Besides this he must have received a formal education from a madressah where he also learned the skills of sword fighting, painting, horse riding, swimming, boating, falconry, marksmanship, hunting and warfare. Since his father, Shahbaz Khan, was in the Mughal service, the family enjoyed royal privileges and opportunities.
Khushhal Khan got married in 1631 at the age of eighteen. Some of his children, distinguished themselves in the realm of Pushto poetry.
Being a versatile genius Khushhal Khan Khattak became a perpetual source of inspiration for all Pakhtoon poets and writers down the ages. He is responsible for freeing Pushto prose and poetry from the stranglehold of complex composition and the influence of Persian and Arabic diction. Having introduced new literary genres and forms, he proved to be an innovative trendsetter who is also responsible for introducing “Zanzeerai”, a form of Pushto shorthand.
“The poet of poets”, Khushhal Khan Khattak spearheaded not just the renaissance of Pushto literature but of the entire Pakhtoon race to which he provided a new vision and spirit. Self-identity and a national pride in the glorious past of the Pakhtoons will always find new meaning in the poetry of this great warrior poet.
Khan Baba’s words and deeds are considered matchless in the annals of Pakhtoon history. His whole life is an authentic manifesto for the Pakhtoons for his unflinching efforts against the tyrant. Khushhal Khan Khattak died on February 25, 1689 in Dambara (a tribal Afridi area near Peshawar).
It was Major Raverty, the first British, who translated 98 poems and ghazals of Khushhal Khan Khattak into English for his book, Selections From the Poetry of Afghans published from Kolkata in 1862. This was followed by C.E. Biddulf’s translation, Selections From the Poetry of Khushhal Khan Khattak in 1890 published from London. Evelyn Howell and Olaf Caroe jointly translated and published The Poems of Khushhal Khan Khattak in 1963 from the University of Peshawar.
The last English translation, Poems From the Diwan of Khushhal Khan Khattak, was done by Dr N. Mackenzie from London in 1965. Diwan-i-Khushhal Khan Khattak was published on the directives of H.W. Bellew in 1869 (Jail Press, Peshawar) during the British era. Its manuscript was handed to Bellew by Sultan Bakhash Darogha, a British government employee.
Dost Mohammad Khan Kamil was the first Pakhtoon scholar who initiated research on scientific lines on Khan Baba. He penned two important and comprehensive books - one in English: On a Foreign Approach to Khushhal and the other in Urdu: Khushhal Khan Khattak published in 1952.
Raverty was of the belief that Khushhal Khan has written around 350 books, most of which were lost and destroyed by careless inheritors. However, those that are available include: Kuliat-i-Khushhal Khan, Dastar Nama, Da Yaadoono Kitab, Sehat-al-Badan, Faraq Nama, Zanzeerai, Fazal Nama, Swat Nama, Riaz-ul-Haqeekat, Rubaiyaat, Baz Nama, Tarikh-i-Murassa, Ayeena and Hadya (translation from Arabic).
In 1927, Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal too wrote an inspiring article for Islamic Culture, a popular magazine published from Hyderabad Daccan. In this article titled “Khushhal Khan Khattak: The Warrior Afghan Poet”, Iqbal wrote, “He was a versatile mind and wrote on various subjects, such as poetry, philosophy, ethics, medicine and his own autobiography, which was unfortunately lost. His poetry, the major portion of which was written in India and during his struggle with Mughals, breathes the spirit of early Arabian poetry. We find in it the same simplicity and directness of expression, the same love of freedom and war, and the same criticism of life.”
Not only did Iqbal study Khushhal Khan Khattak’s translations in English and his Persian poetry, he also adopted the falcon, which was Khushhal Khan Khattak’s symbol for man of action, in his own poems while elaborating the concept. Interestingly, the fourth centenary birth celebrations of Khan Baba, according to the Islamic Calendar, coincided with the year of Allama Iqbal in 2002.
Besides giving lectures on Khushhal Khan Khattak in 1931, Allama Iqbal persuaded one of his students, Khadeeja Fairoz-ud-din, who was born and raised in Bannu and could speak Pushto fluently, to research the life and works of the great poet. It was an honour for Khadeeja to be considered for the job. It took her nine years to complete her PhD thesis on Khushhal Khan. By this time Iqbal had passed away. Unfortunately, even after a span of 62 years, the well-researched work lies unpublished. It is a pity that successive governments have failed to make proper arrangements for carrying out substantial research work on the unexplored aspects of Khan Baba’s life and works.