Pukhtun - An Insight

Summary

Chapter 1: History

• 3 main cities of the Pashtuns: Kandahar, Jalalabad, Peshawar
• Afghan and Pashtun are the same thing.
  • the ancient Persians used “Abagon” to describe the Pashtuns
• there’s a saying: “lar or bar; yaw Afghan” (low or high, one Afghan)
  • meaning, the lowlands of Pakistan and the highlands of Afghanistan, we’re all Afghan
• the poet Khushal Khan says “Slay the one who suggests Pukhtun and Afghan are not one. Arabs know this and so do the Romans. Afghans are Pukhtun, Pukhtuns are Afghan”
• Herodotus writing in the 5th century BC calls the people living around Peshawar the bravest of all people around the area
• “Pukhtuns are descendants of Aryan nomads from Central Asia who settled 4 thousand years ago in the plains and hills of Afghanistan. Pukhto is derived from Saka, a Central Asian language belonging to the East-Iranian language family” - Banerjee, from his book “The Pathan Unarmed” (2000)
• the classic origin story of the Pashtuns is they came from Qais of Ghor who accepted Islam from Muhammad himself in Arabia. He had 3 sons: Sarban, Bitan, and Ghurghusht, and a fourth adopted son Karlani. These 4 gave rise to the major tribes of Pashtuns
  • Tribes > Sub-tribes > clans (commonly have the word “khel” in their name)
  • this story is likely mostly fiction - Afghans became Muslim centuries later
• When Alexander came to Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass was under the control of the warlike tribe the Greeks called Aparoetae, which we call Afridi today
• after the Greek kingdom of Bactria fell, the Hindu Mauryan came in and controlled the east of Afghanistan. Eventually they became Buddhist.
• The Mauryans eventually declined and were replaced by the Buddhist Kushan Empire, who under Kanishka was at its largest extend. They built the Bamyan Buddhas.
• Ancient Hindu saying: “May God save you from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the vengeance of the Afghan” - p. 11
• by the 11th century AD, the Pashtuns were under Hindushahi rule, not Muslim rule. This is when the Ghaznavids took over under their Turkic ruler Mahmud of Ghazni
  • the Ghaznavids had all of Afghanistan under their control, and as far east as Lahore in Pakistan and as far west as Sistan in Iran
• The Ghorids took over after the Ghaznavids and expanded the empire as far east as Delhi
• a very quick and short account of the British retreat from Kabul during the first Anglo-Afghan war is given on page 21-22

Chapter 2: Culture

• the first work of Pashto poetry dates to 752AD,which makes Pashto older than we thought. At this point, it must have been in existence for at least 500 years, dating its origin to around 250AD
  • the author claims Pashto is 2500 years old, a completely unfounded claim
• Pashtun social structure is organized by the paternal side
  • tribes > clans > sub-clans > families
  • a family might be united by a shared grand-father or great-grandfather, while a clan might have a shared paternal ancestor going back 10 generations, making the clan hundreds if not thousands of people big
  • the suffix zai or khel denotes a clan or sub-clan (like the author whose last name is Niazai)
• Pashtun culture is very independent, people don’t get into other people’s business, as long as no one is violating nang (code of honour). Authority is rarely recognized, every man is his own Khan
  • example: if someone is drug smuggling, let him be. That’s his business
• A common saying to describe Pashtun culture is “zar, zan, zameen” meaning “gold, woman, land”. All conflict for the Pashtuns is rooted in one of those items
• the law in Pashtun culture is focused on compensating the aggrieved, not punishing the criminal
  • this is why “blood money” is acceptable for murder
  • punishing the criminal by means of jail/prison is a waste of resources according to the Pashtuns
• Gham-khadi: literally means “sorrow upkeep”. Attending funerals to maintain relations. Not attending a funeral is considered insulting and likely will strain relations
• Hujra: a large meeting space maintained/owned by the Khan, often near the mosque. This is where the elders meet to discuss issues affecting the tribe and to socialize
  • this is one of two key pillars of Pashtun society, the other being religion/the mosque.
  • in a society where written documents are not used, the next best thing is verbal decision making in front of a large group of people in the Hujra
• topak or rifles are a big part of the culture. Everyone has a gun to protect his family, assets, and tribe.
  • there are not permits or licenses, yet gun violence does not occur like it does in some parts. This is because the tribe via jirga identify the crazy folks early on and agree to bar them from having access to any weapons

Chapter 3: Pashtunwali

• Pashtunwali is the code that dictates the behavior of the individual, family, and tribe
• Nang (honour): this law overrides all else. This is the reason the Pashtuns are such independent people and are not willing to be conquered or subjugated. Every man is a khan.
  • the Pashtuns recognize they can go overboard with nang as there’s a saying: pukhto is half madness
  • Khushal Khan said “despised is the life not guided by honour. The very word elevates me to madness” - p. 39
• Badal (revenge): revenge is a reaction to a breach of nang/honour
  • revenge can be exacted years or generations later
  • reminds me of the story in The Afghanistan Papers - A Secret History of the War
    • one Afghan said, in response to why he shot at the British troops and not US, “because the British came and killed my grandfather and great-grandfather”
  • often times badal calls for the perpetrator to be killed. Afghans take justice into their own hands
• Melmastia (hospitality): as long as you’re not an enemy, then you are a friend. Strangers are friends
  • the Khan himself will serve the guest as per the saying: there is no khan without a destarkhan
  • Elphinstone said one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Afghans is their hospitality
  • being a melma/guest means you are under the sworn protection of your host. No one can touch you
    • reminds me of Mullah Omar hosting Osama Bin Laden. He refused to hand him over because of melmastia
• Nanawati (refuge, asylum): similar to the above law, but mainly on a tribal/clan level. A weaker tribe would approach a larger one seeking asylum. This is basically a ‘merger’ between the tribes.
  • this is not something done often. It is a last resort. If you’re tribe is on the brink of extinction due to a war or some other reason, you’d invoke nanawati
• Tarboorwali (rivalry among male cousins): the cause of rivalry is often inheritance of land.
  • famous saying: when little he is your cousin, play with him, when he grows up, fight him
  • tarboorwali was exploited by the Persians to take Kandahar by pitting the Ghilzai and Durrani against each other
• Teega (stone): invoked to stop hostilities between two tribes to instead fight an external threat
  • it’s called Teega because a stone is placed in the assembly courtyard if both parties are in agreement
• Tor (black; shame/dishonor): often this has to do with protecting women
  • all Pashtun women are considered sisters (khor), and therefore any violation of their honour is tantamount to incest and must be punished
  • because of this law, Pashtun women in tribal societies are very well protected, able to do work on the farm or otherwise alone and unescorted with no fear of being harmed or kidnapped

Chapter 4: Poetry

• Pashtuns have produced two great classes of people: poets and warriors
• the rest of this chapter is just examples of Pashtun poetry

What good would be the houris for me in heaven? Where my buddies would not accompany me What good would be the liquor without its alcohol? A liquor which even the mullah would drink - p. 53, Ghani Khan (d. 1996)

This life is but a few days Pour me the liquor dear server For God has promised Forgiveness for the lunatic - p. 53, Ghani Khan (d. 1996)

Chapter 5: Mathaloona (Proverbs)

• this chapter is just a list of Pashtun proverbs with English translations

Chapter 6: Self-Reflection

• this is a long passage from Ghani Khan self-reflecting on his people and their customs. He highlights the strengths of the Pashtun people as well as their weaknesses
  • This entire chapter is very good
• “he is a good shot but a bad soldier” - p. 67
  • highlights the independent nature of the Pashtun
• he is too independent to make the ideal follower of any prophet - p. 67
• most people look at his nose and say he is a Jew. yet the basic principles that rule him, are more Spartan than Jewish. His villages have Greek names. His tribes have Greek customs. Like the Greek he is a great poet and a great warrior… - p. 67
• he loves fighting but hates to be a soldier - p. 67
  • highlights the independent nature of the Pashtun
• when a social system fails to provide for his dependents, he destroys it - p. 71
• when a political arrangement starves him while overfeeding another, he shoots holes into it - p. 71
• he would rather steal than beg. He would rather face the anger of God and man than the shame and disgrace of poverty. - p. 71
  • the Pashtun has too much honour to beg on the streets

Chapter 7: Biographies

• short biographies of famous Pashtun figures

Amir Korer Suri

• the first Pashtun poet. Died in 771AD
• he was the monarch of Ghor in Afghanistan
• of the Pashtun Suri tribe

Ibrahim Khan Lodi

• lived 1480-1528
• was the Sultan of Delhi. Ruled for 9 years. The last of the Lodi Dynasty. He was killed by the Moghuls who then ruled for the next 300 years

Sher Shah Suri

• lived 1486 - 1545
• governor of an Indian province under the Moghuls but later declared independence
• he laid the foundation that the Moghuls used in politics, governance, state organization, etc
• he standardized the ‘rupee’ and gave it its name
• he created a postal service that extended as far as Kabul
• he built the Rohtas Fort in Pakistan, now a UNESCO world heritage site

Haibat Khan Niazi

• he was a very prominent commander in Sher Shah Suri’s army
• he conquered Kashmir and Punjab
• he is a paternal ancestor of Imran Khan (former PM of Pakistan)
• the Niazi tribe of Pashtuns are Bettani (like Lodi, Suri, and Ghilzai)
• many Niazi’s held positions of power in the Moghul Empire

Pir Roshan

• lived 1525-1585
• he was an ethnic Ormur, but wrote in Pashto mainly
  • Ormur are their own eastern Iranic ethnic group, but are part of the Pashtun tribal system under the Karlani confederacy
  • Ormur are mainly located in Logar in Afghanistan and Waziristan in Pakistan
• he founded the Roshani movement, an anti-Moghul resistance group

Kushal Khan Khattak

• lived 1613-1689. Was a tribal chieftain
• worked for the Moghul Empire protecting them from other Pashtuns
• after the Moghuls expelled him in favour of his son, he turned against the Moghuls and advocated for Pashtun unity and nationalism
• he was a great warrior, giving him a reputation of a warrior-poet
• he was of the Khattak tribe (Karlani)

Rahman Baba Mohmand

• lived 1632 - 1706, a contemporary of Kushal Khan
• he was a Sufi mystic and poet

Mirwais Hotak

• lived 1673 - 1715
• He was a Ghilzai ruler of Kandahar and founder of the Hotak dynasty
• he overthrew the Safavid general who was governor of Kandahar, George XI
• he Safavids over the next few years sent 4 different armies to take back Kandahar, each one losing to Mirwais
• Mirwais is buried in Kandahar

Ahmad Shah Durrani

• lived 1722-1772
• formerly known as Ahmad Shah Abdali
• founder of Durrani empire and father of modern Afghanistan
• he served as commander in Nadir Shah’s army (Persian empire). He left when Nadir Shah was assassinated
• in 1747 he was appointed King of the Afghans by a Loya Jirga, only 25 years old
• he ruled from his capital of Kandahar, where he was from
• he conquered Khorasan in the west, North India to the east, and went as far north as the Amu Darya river
  • he conquered Herat, Nishapur, and Mashhad
  • he conquered Sind and Punjab
• his shrine is in Kandahar beside the “Shrine of the Cloak” of prophet Muhammad
• he wrote many poems in both Pashto and Persian

Malalai of Maiwand

• she is a national hero in Afghanistan for rallying Pashtun fighters to fight alongside Ayub Khan during the second Afghan-Anglo war in 1880. Her efforts led to a victory in the Battle of Maiwand. She was only 19 years old.
• she was born in 1861 in a village on the outskirts of Maiwand, Kandahar
• her fiancé and dad joined Ayub Khan while she, along with other women, tended to the wounds and provided supplies
• when the flag-bearer was killed in the battle, she took the flag herself and rallied the fighters to fight even harder. She was also killed

Abdul Ghaffar Khan

• lived 1890-1988
• he was a pacifist activist that was against the partition of Indian and Pakistan
• a devout Muslim, he advocated for good relations with other religions especially the nearby Hindus
• he famously said “if you wish to know how civilized a culture is, look at how they treat their women” - p. 96
• he advocated for women’s rights, such as giving women inheritance as Islam demanded, but Pashtunwali forbade
• he said, describing his Pashtun people “the Pashtun will go to hell with you if you can win his heart, but by force you cannot take him even to heaven. Such is the power of love over Pashtuns.” - p. 97-98

Faqir of Ipi

• full name: Haji Mirzali Khan Wazir
• known for being a tribal chief and adversary to the British raj
• born in 1897 in Waziristan Pakhtunkhwa
• belonged to the Torikhel clan of the Uthmanzai tribe
  • Uthmanzai is one of two major branches of the Wazir tribe (Karlani)
  • Uthmanzai commonly refers to the Sarbani tribe, so to differentiate we must call Faqir’s tribe “Uthmanzai Wazir”
• he fought against the Mohammadzai Pashtuns (Nadir Shah & his son Zahir Shah) in 1933 to restore King Amanullah to power (which failed). He also participated in the 1944 revolt in Paktia to again restore King Amanullah
• he was against the India-Pakistan partition and supported an independent Pashtunistan
• he eventually declared an independent Pashtunistan but Pakistan bombed them. Also, many of the other tribal leaders abandoned his cause for jihad because the British at this point had already left, therefore he didn’t have much support on his side

Imran Khan Niazi

• former PM of Pakistan from 2018-2022
• he is a Niazi Pashtun on his dad’s side
• on his mom’s side he is a descendant of Pir Roshan (biography above)
• he was the first Pakistani PM to be ousted by a no-confidence vote in 2022. He currently faces potential jail time for corruption charges

Analysis

Notes and Quotes

Culture

War

• unlike Arab war culture, where woman and children were taken as booty or loot, the Pashtun culture of warfare forbade taking the enemies women or children. War was strictly men vs men - p. 11

Truthfulness

• Mountstuart Elphinstone, the first Englishman to meet the Pashtuns said: unlike the Indians and Persians who were known to the Europeans as having habitual and gratuitous falsehood, the Pashtuns were known as truthful people and Europeans traveling to that area would view the Pashtuns in a more favorable light, especially considering they have more European features and fair complexion - p. 20

Religion

• Pashtuns acknowledge Islam as their religion but “acknowledge only half the Quran” meaning culture supersedes Islamic teachings - p. 27
• example: the Arabs reprimanded the Pashtuns for visiting graves during the Soviet war and the Pashtuns basically told them to f-off
• the jirga, or the gathering of tribal leaders, is the most important governmental structure for the Pashtuns and the religious mullahs are not included in it
• Pashtuns often didn’t get along with religious clergy as shown in Khushal Khan’s poem:
  • “I have witnessed the nature of today’s clergy. An hour in their company has filled me with disgust” - p. 28

Jirga

• see more under “Pashtun political system” heading
• this is how the Pashtuns decide intra-tribal matters, discuss items with other tribes, make decisions, enact the law, etc.
• it is a democracy where all tribes have a say

Pashtuns Mentioned in History

• Moghul Emperor Babur encountered Karlani Pashtuns in 1505 in Bannu (a Pashtun city in Pakhtunkhwa) and he took a Pashtun wife, the daughter of the Yousafzai chief - p. 13

Disunity

• the Pashtuns were always disunited, even Khushal Khan talked about this
  • “were the tribes in agreement, emperors would bow to them. In every deed the Pukhtun excels the Moghul, but unity they lack, what a pity” - p. 15
• the reason is because they like their independence. Each Pashtun man views himself as the Khan
• he loves fighting but hates to be a soldier - p. 67
  • highlights the independent nature of the Pashtun

Pashtun Political System

• the Pashtuns, even when united under Ahmad Shah Durrani, were more of a consultative republic rather than a monarchy or autocracy - p. 16
  • the Pashtun jirgas (councils) shared similarity with the Greek republicanism - p. 21
• the king derived power from the tribes, not the other way around. Therefore the king needed cooperation from the tribes
• often, this worked against the Pashtuns for in times of infighting, even when slight, other empires around them took territory from them
  • example, the infighting between Abdali and Ghilzai allowed the Sikhs to take over Peshawar. 15 years later the British defeated the Sikhs and Peshawar was lost from the Afghans ever since
• The jirga is the main political/governmental structure for the Pashtuns. It is democratic rule, majority wins type of thing. The Pashtuns reject the Islamic idea of sole authority vested in the Caliph

Main Idea of the Book

• this book aims to cover mainly the cultural aspects of the Pashtun people
• the author himself says this book is intended for Pashtuns born and raised in the west who want to learn more about their heritage and culture

Reflections

This book was written by a non-expert and therefore isn’t detailed to the level you’d expect. The level of research is very minimal.