Question on Khushal Khan "Passion of Afghan" verse

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Salaam to all

I have been hunting the original Khushal Khan stanza that is modern day famous:

Afghans are Pashtuns, and Pashtuns are Afghans

All the sources refer to Biddulph's translation of his work seen here in completion at this link:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=afghanenglish

The verse does not seem to exist (or at least in my ineptness I cannot find it). Can someone provide me with either a direct Biddulph copy or the full reference from which of Khushal Khan Baba's works whence this came?

[kunatawar]

well i dont know where you would find the original one but thanks for the pdf. might have to look through all his work in pashto books till you find it unfortunately since this question has been left unanswered afaik.

[Samandri]

I asked the same question on twitter a week ago, but did not get an answer. Twitter

I will ask the same question on my facebook page today.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I asked the same question on twitter a week ago, but did not get an answer. Twitter

I will ask the same question on my facebook page today.

It appears to be a fabrication. I have looked through Swat Nama and all other known texts- it doesn’t exist in any copies modern or older.

[kunatawar]

I asked the same question on twitter a week ago, but did not get an answer. Twitter

I will ask the same question on my facebook page today.

i was also a bit suspicious about this verse. in khushals time there was no distinction between afghan and pashtun, in fact based off literary work it seems like we used afghan almost exclusively so then why would khushal khattak need to make that statement? in his time surrounding groups probably never even heard of the word pashtun, only afghan so why would he need to make such a bold statement? to me this seems like a more modern nationalism after the durand line was formed being pushed as history.

and does anyone know if the word pashtun was even used during speech back 300 years ago? like i mentioned above everything ive read only uses afghan so im a little confused whether that was only for writing or if people exclusively used it while talking too

[Traveller]

i was also a bit suspicious about this verse. in khushals time there was no distinction between afghan and pashtun, in fact based off literary work it seems like we used afghan almost exclusively so then why would khushal khattak need to make that statement? in his time surrounding groups probably never even heard of the word pashtun, only afghan so why would he need to make such a bold statement? to me this seems like a more modern nationalism after the durand line was formed being pushed as history.

and does anyone know if the word pashtun was even used during speech back 300 years ago? like i mentioned above everything ive read only uses afghan so im a little confused whether that was only for writing or if people exclusively used it while talking too

Khushal Baba also used Pashtun.

On his tomb there is inscribed a couplet of his that says:

درست پښتون تر کندهاره تر اټکه
سره يو د ننګ په کار پټ او آشکار

[maneatinglizard]

i was also a bit suspicious about this verse. in khushals time there was no distinction between afghan and pashtun, in fact based off literary work it seems like we used afghan almost exclusively so then why would khushal khattak need to make that statement? in his time surrounding groups probably never even heard of the word pashtun, only afghan so why would he need to make such a bold statement? to me this seems like a more modern nationalism after the durand line was formed being pushed as history.

and does anyone know if the word pashtun was even used during speech back 300 years ago? like i mentioned above everything ive read only uses afghan so im a little confused whether that was only for writing or if people exclusively used it while talking too

No idea if the poem is real or not (I cant't find it in any of the books available on the net, but there aren't that many of them), but he uses both terms in his poetry.

[kunatawar]

Khushal Baba also used Pashtun.

No idea if the poem is real or not (I cant't find it in any of the books available on the net, but there aren't that many of them), but he uses both terms in his poetry.

thanks that cleared it up for me, do any of you know if the term pashtun was also used by other ethnicities? if there are any dari/farsi works written by non pashtuns that use "pashtun" specifically and not afghan then the quote might still be real

[Sarbani]

Why does it say banned under Samandri's name? Did he really get banned???

[Akbar]

Why does it say banned under Samandri's name? Did he really get banned???

he is banned
this is not a place where you can be abusive towards people's mothers.

[khushal]

he is banned
this is not a place where you can be abusive towards people's mothers.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-well/201610/why-narcissistic-sociopaths-objectify-women

[Akbar]

12 Ways to Spot a Misogynist | Psychology Today

thanks for the good read

[BarakzaiAbdali]

Why does it say banned under Samandri's name? Did he really get banned???

Antsy that people discover "pious forgeries" that were obviously fabricated by nationalist drunkards? By the way, I would venture to say that the last year has more than proven your cartoon is inverted - the blood drops are more or less coming from the wrists of the arms not from the guys in the middle. You can however go on living in a fantasy world.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I asked the same question on twitter a week ago, but did not get an answer. Twitter

I will ask the same question on my facebook page today.

I read deeper into Biddulph's work, he actually states directly in the intro on page xvi

It should be noted that though, in speaking of this section of the population of Afghanistan, I have done so under the modern and conventional designation of Afghans, this term is rarely used in these works, in which Khushhal Khan almost invariably, refers to his fellow countrymen of the various tribes under their common national designation in the East as Pathans.

Meaning this stanza is a forgery. It makes sense too since Romans as far as we know never encountered Pashtuns in warfare of any sort. The person who forged it should have known this and done a better job.

[maneatinglizard]

Why does it say banned under Samandri's name? Did he really get banned???

He was banned (temporarily I hope) for going too far in his trolling and talking about peoples’ mothers. Not related to this.

I read deeper into Biddulph's work, he actually states directly in the intro on page xvi



Meaning this stanza is a forgery. It makes sense too since Romans as far as we know never encountered Pashtuns in warfare of any sort. The person who forged it should have known this and done a better job.

Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a forgery, since he does use Afghan too (though I think its authenticity should be doubted unless we can find a source for it). The Roman thing is weird, but I’m not sure what they called Europeans at his time. It’s possible that they used “Roman” for European, though I think “Farangai” would be more likely.