sheikh Mail yousafzai (part of series on pashto earlier literature)

[marwat]

shaikh Mali was a prominent yousafzai writer and historian, a minister of Malik Ahmad khan yousafzai who lived before the time of Mughal emperor Akbar. he settled the revenue system of yousafzai and wrote a book named 'Daftar-e-Shaikh Mali' on the topic of revenue and division of land. the work of shaikh Mali actually predate Rowshanites literature. the book has not been obtained but was popular in the yousafzai of swat and elsewhere.
it is believed that his work was kept secret even at the time of Khushal khan khattak because the feudal lord wanted to finish the collective system of distribution of lands and to take the personal possession of them
According to khushal,
په سوات کښی دی دوه څیزه یو خفی دی بل جلی
مخزن د درویزه دی بل دفتر د شیخ مالی
there are two things in swat, one is hidden and the other one evident
the one is "Makhzan of Akhond Darwaiza, and the other is "Daftar of Shaikh Mali"
Shaikh Mali also wrote the history of yousafazi and their conquest of swat in 820 AH.
Rowshan khan writes about shaikh Mali
"He was a good writer and poet. among his books, two pashto books are known. one of them is said to have been written in prose,and the other is in verse. both of the books have the same name "Fatheh-e-swat". these books are on the topic of history."
Rowshan khan refers to "ameenaullah khan" who says that Shaikh Mali book "Da swat fatah" is the first book of pashto which is available in the "British Museum of london"
Rowshan khan also refers to abdul salam khan as saying.
"Da first book of pushto is "Fateh-e-swat", which was written by Shaikh Mali and is available in my library"

[Samandri]

shaikh Mali was a prominent yousafzai writer and historian, a minister of Malik Ahmad khan yousafzai who lived before the time of Mughal emperor Akbar. he settled the revenue system of yousafzai and wrote a book named 'Daftar-e-Shaikh Mali' on the topic of revenue and division of land. the work of shaikh Mali actually predate Rowshanites literature. the book has not been obtained but was popular in the yousafzai of swat and elsewhere.
it is believed that his work was kept secret even at the time of Khushal khan khattak because the feudal lord wanted to finish the collective system of distribution of lands and to take the personal possession of them
According to khushal,
په سوات کښی دی دوه څیزه یو خفی دی بل جلی
مخزن د درویزه دی بل دفتر د شیخ مالی
there are two things in swat, one is hidden and the other one evident
the one is "Makhzan of Akhond Darwaiza, and the other is "Daftar of Shaikh Mali"
Shaikh Mali also wrote the history of yousafazi and their conquest of swat in 820 AH.
Rowshan khan writes about shaikh Mali
"He was a good writer and poet. among his books, two pashto books are known. one of them is said to have been written in prose,and the other is in verse. both of the books have the same name "Fatheh-e-swat". these books are on the topic of history."
Rowshan khan refers to "ameenaullah khan" who says that Shaikh Mali book "Da swat fatah" is the first book of pashto which is available in the "British Museum of london"
Rowshan khan also refers to abdul salam khan as saying.
"Da first book of pushto is "Fateh-e-swat", which was written by Shaikh Mali and is available in my library"

Good info. Do i have your permission to share it on my facebook group?

[marwat]

Good info. Do i have your permission to share it on my facebook group?

Of course you can.

[marwat]

Raverty does not deny the existence of pushto literature before "Daftar-e-shaikh Mali" he writes
"I have in my possession pushto work which were composed very many years before and during Akbar reign (AD 1555-1604)
according to raverty "Shaikh Mali yousafzai, in 1417 AD, wrote the history of his tribe and their conquest in peshawar valley and in the "samah" or plains on the northern bank of of the "landay sind" or kabul river. this is the earliest work i have been able to discover, but of course it must not for a moment be inferred that previous to this there was no pashto literature.

[marwat]

Halnamh, while describing the cruelty of yousafzai to the rowshanites writes
"Nur-ud-din came to a village and entered in the house of the pious man Shaikh Mali.
Shaikh Mali, after seeing Nur-ud-din, said that this man belongs to the family of Pir-Rowshan because his eyes and features show that he could not be other than one of the family of Pir-Rowshan. Shaikh Mali kept Nur-ud-din in his house with honor and respect for some days."
It is not known who is Shaikh Mali mentioned here. Abdul Akbar khan Akbari says. "This Shaikh MAli could have been the one who was a well known personality, a minister of ahmad khan and a writer who settled the revenue system of yousafzai. it is possible that he was alive at the time of Akbar.

[marwat]

Is there any group dedicated to finding the book?

There were once passionate pashto scholar like qalandar mohmand and kamil saib their colleges and students who dedicated their life researching pashto literature. Those were cold war time and there were civil war in afghanistan. Last great scholar was raj wali shah khattak who died some month ago. I don't think some other passionate person left at pashto academy peshawar.
From the raverty writing it seems that he had this book in possession as he is talking about the book discovery. It must be somewhere in british libraries.

[Samandri]

So probably all the info of the book has been released by Raverity.

I dont know whether Raverty had daftar but he is said to have been in possession of rare pashto documents. He was never able to release his gigantic research work on history of Pashtuns. He died while writing book "history of Afghans". His translation of tabqat-e-nasiri was actually part of his research on finding some material on history of Pashtuns.

Few years ago there was news that widow of Raverty in London had auctioned all the pashto manuscripts to private buyers