Khushal Khan Khatak
(1613–1689), Pashtun poet-warrior. Khushal Khan Khatak, a chief of the Khataks, one of the Pashtun tribes inhabiting the North-West Frontier Province in present-day Pakistan, is best known for his poetry in Pashtun, an Iranian language. Khushal Khan also wrote prose on subjects such as religion, society, politics, Pashtun-Afghan national unity, war, love, chivalry, philosophy, and even sports and falconry. Altogether, his works make up forty thousand verses. His Tarikh-i-Murassa (Jewel-Studded History), which his son, Afzal Khan (d. 1748?), compiled, sheds light on events of Mughal (1526–1857) rule in India during the mid-seventeenth century.
Khushal Khan was critical of Aurangzeb Alamgir (1618–1707), a Mughal ruler and son of Shah Jahan (1592–1666), who denied him chieftainship of the Khatak tribe and appointed other Pashtun warlords as local governors. Khushal Khan was contemptuous of Aurangzeb's religious fanaticism and greed for power: Aurangzeb jailed his father and killed his brothers to gain the throne of India. Khushal Khan spent most of his lifetime fighting against the Yousazais, a pro-Mughal fellow Pashtun tribe.
Further Reading
Caroe, Olaf. (1965) The Pathans, 550 BC–AD 1957. London: Macmillan.
Kamil, Dost Muhammad Khan. (1968) On a Foreign Approach to Khushal: A Critique of Caroe and Howell. Peshawar, Pakistan: Maktabah-i-Shaheen.
MacKenzie, D. N. (1965) Poems from the Divan of Khushal Khan Khattak. London: Allen and Unwin.
This is the complete article, containing 213 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
