Pata Khazana – a response to its attackers!

[Samandri]

Akbar the afghan king? Took over from Mahmoud was it.

And how come some people speak Pashto in attock and others Hindko? If the Hindko lot are not Pashtun how come they look the same as the Pashtuns in attock.

Akbar the Mughal King. By pre-Akbar period , i meant the times before ascendancy of Akbar to the throne of Delhi.

There are only two regions in Attock where Pashtuns are settled. Chach, where Pashtuns have 48 villages (according to 1880 surveys) and in Makhad of Pindigehb area where Khattaks have 7 villages (in 1880 surveys). In 1910 Census there were 40 thousands Pashtuns in Attock district.

They speak Hindko or are bilingual in Pashto and Hindko. Its not as if the history of settlement of Pashtuns in Attock and their tribal composition is a mystery. Some other time , i would share the boring details with you. But just one clarification, its a myth that majority of Hindkowans are descendants of Pashtuns, only some pockets within Hazara and attock have Pashtun lineages, most of them are indic castes.

[Yousafzai Pakhtun]

But the thing is, Khazana or treasure , is usually buried or hidden.....so "pata khazana" might have been named in that regard....

There is description of 50 poets in pata khazana.......A research is required to detemine how many of them are mentioned in other historical sources or in traditional accounts. Then further research is required to determine that among those who really existed in history, how many of them were really poets?

For example character of ShaiKh Hamid Lodhi really exist in history, he succeeded arab rulers of Multan and his successors are described as of Qaramati faith (Ismaili) who owed allegiance to Fatimid caliphate. This family was defeated by Mahmud of Ghazni. In Pata Khazana his son Nasr and nephew are doing Pashto poetry.........In historical sources the Lodhi surname appears only with with Shaikh hamid, his descendants have rather arabic names e.g Abu Fateh Dawood. No Contemporary source mention those rulers as Afghans, but Tarikh-e-feishta of 17th century mention Shaikh Hamid Lodhi as Afghan. Abdul Habibi picked it up from Tarikh-e-ferishta, and to give them clear Pashtun identity, he makes them doing Pashto poetry.....

According to Hotak " This book (pata khazana) contains the biographies of those which were hidden uptil now". This statement is not correct because most of his contemperory writers whose biographies have been brought in the 2nd Khazana were well known to people similarly the female writers mentioned in 3rd Khazana were also already mentioned in Makhzan e Afghani. Actually at that time every written script was a hidden treasure because there were no printing presses. The books which he referred to and on which the whole foundation of the books stands are the real hidden treasures which were never found until today. According to Qalandar saib " the name of the books reveals that it is the creation of the mental state of a 20th century man i.e Habibi.

Well thats true there are descriptions of few poets who really existed and whose names have been mentioned in other history books but the information Pata Khazana gives about them are not authentic and can't be proved historically most of them have been proved wrong by Qalandar saib like the poet Younas. Similarly there are lot of chronological mistakes. In the first sentences it states that " I started to write the book on 16th of Jamad- u Sani on Friday" According to Taqweem e Tarikhi 16th of Jamad u sani that year was Monday not friday. Similarly the use of Paragraphs started in 20th century but Pata khazana is written in form of well managed paragraphs. Also at that times books were used to written without making chapters but it has three chapters. There are different words used in Pata khazana which were adopted in 20th century how could hotak know about the words which were adopted in later times. Like the word Hewad was first wrongly used by Major Raverty in the meaning of Country which is even still used. Before him it was used in the meaning of "away/far" (people of Bunir even still uses it in that meaning) but Hotak has used it in the former meaning. Now how can a mistake done in later times could be adopted by Hotak who wrote the book in earlier times.

[Yousafzai Pakhtun]

Al-nasr?

The oldest Pashto manuscript found by Abdul Hai Habibi is , 7 pages of Tazkira Awlia by Suleiman Mako written in 1216 AD.........http://www.khyber.org/books/2013/Tazkira_Awlia.shtml

He presented this manuscript of Tazkira Awlia before Pata Khazana, in latter case no manuscript was presented. I dont know what are the opinions of scholars about manuscript of Suleiman Mako. If it is genuine unlike Pata Khazana, then it would be the oldest Pashto document discovered.

Professor Pareshan Khattak has criticised Tazkira Awlia and has termed it as a forgery as well like Pata Khazana.

[Samandri]

Professor Pareshan Khattak has criticised Tazkira Awlia and has termed it as a forgery as well like Pata Khazana.

I feared so, the credibility of Abdul hai habibi is compromised.

[tilla_jogian]

Seem like people here have never heard of carbon dating, documents age can be verified.

[Yousafzai Pakhtun]

Seem like people here have never heard of carbon dating, documents age can be verified.

yes it can be, as long as the document is available in its original shape