Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:50:08.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Art of Chieftaincy in the Writings of Pashtun Tribal Rulers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

MIKHAIL PELEVIN
MIKHAIL PELEVIN*
Affiliation:
Saint Petersburg State Universitymosprolege@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article surveys the views of Pashtun military-administrative elite on governance in the works of Khushḥāl Khān Khaṫak (d. 1689) and Afżal Khān Khaṫak (d. circa 1740). The texts under discussion pertain to the universal literary genre of “Mirrors for Princes” (naṣīḥat al-mulūk) and include the Khaṫak chieftains’ didactical writings in prose and verse, as well as still poorly studied documents on real politics from Afżal Khān's historiographical compilation “The Ornamented History” (Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ). Rooted in the medieval Persian classics, early modern Pashto “mirrors” are distinguished by local ethnocultural peculiarities which manifest in shifting the very subject from statesmanship to chieftaincy and declaring regulations of the Pashtun unwritten Code of Honour. The study proves that the outlook and behavioural patterns of Pashtun tribal rulers stemmed from a combination, partly eclectic and contradictory, of Islamic precepts, feudal ideologies of the Mughal administrative system, and norms of the Pashtun customary law (Pashtunwali).

Keywords

PashtunsPashto literaturemirrors for princespolitical authoritychieftaincyearly modern Islamic societies
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 485 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Summaries of the Middle Persian literary legacy and bibliographies see in Clìma, O., “Avesta. Ancient Persian Inscriptions. Middle Persian Literature”, in Rypka, J., (et al.), History of Iranian literature, (ed.) Jahn, K. (Dordrecht, 1968), pp. 45–47Google Scholar; Shaked, S., Safa, Z., “Andarz”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, II/1 (1985), pp. 11–22Google Scholar, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/andarz-precept-instruction-advice, updated 2011, accessed on 5 October 2017; C. G. Cereti, “Middle Persian Literature. i. Pahlavi Literature”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition (2009), available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/middle-persian-literature-1-pahlavi, updated 2013, accessed on 5 October 2017.

2 Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s Naṣīḥat al-mulūk, originally written in Persian and subsequently translated into Arabic, after the author's death was supplemented by an anonymous Persian writer with a much longer second part which focuses on real politics and has an explicit Iranian flavour in its ideology emphasising the statesmanship heritage of the Sasanian kings and the Magians, i.e. Zoroastrian clergy. A basic outline of the naṣīḥat al-mulūk genre and its development in Arabic and Persian literatures see Bosworth, C. E., “Naṣīḥat al-mulūk”, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, Vol. VII (Leiden and New York, 1993), pp. 984–988Google Scholar.

3 A brief introduction to the study of Qābūs-nāma with updated bibliography see in de Bruijn, J. T. P., “Kaykāvus b. Eskandar” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition (2010), available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kaykavus-onsor-maali, accessed on 5 October 2017. A recent research of Siyar al-mulūk see Khismatulin, A., “Two Mirrors for Princes Fabricated at the Seljuq Court: Nizām al-Mulk's Siyar al-mulūk and al-Ghazali's Nasihat al-mulūk”, in The Age of the Seljuqs. The idea of Iran. Vol. VI, (ed.) Herzig, E., Stewart, S. (London, New York, 2015), pp. 94–130Google Scholar; the author offers here a new extravagant attribution of Siyar al-mulūk to the Saljuq poet laureate Muḥammad Muʿizzī (d. circa 1124–8) and argues that the text of this work was based on the Niẓām al-Mulk's personal contract of employment.

4 E.g, see Najm-i Sani, Muhammad Baqir, Advice on the Art of Governance (Mau'izah-i Jahangiri): An Indo-Islamic Mirror for Princes, edited and translated by Alvi, S. S. (Albany,1989)Google Scholar. Earlier specimens of the naṣīḥat al-mulūk writings in Muslim India, Fatāvā-yi jahāndārī by Żiyā al-Dīn Baranī (d. 1357) being a major contribution to the genre within the court literature of the Delhi Sultanate, are explored in Auer, B.H., Symbols of Authority in Medieval Islam: History, Religion, and Muslim Legitimacy in the Delhi Sultanate (London, New York, 2012)Google Scholar.

5 On the early Pashto writings see Kushev, V. V., Afganskaia rukopisnaia kniga: ocherki afganskoi pis'mennoi kul'yury (Moscow: Nauka, Glavnaia redaktsia vostochnoi literatury, 1980), pp. 21–48Google Scholar, 66–67; S. Andreev, “Pashto Literature: the Classical Period”, in Oral Literature of Iranian Languages, Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Ossetic, Persian and Tajik, (ed.) Ph. G. Kreyenbroek, U. Marzolph (London, New York, 2010), pp. 89–107; Pelevin, M. S., Afganskaia literatura pozdnego srednevekovia (St Petersburg, 2010), pp. 32–67Google Scholar.

6 Shāh, Pīr Muʿaẓẓam, Tārīkh-i Ḥāfiẓ-Raḥmat-Khānī, (ed.) and preface by Ṭāyīr, M. Nawāz (Peshawar, 1971)Google Scholar; Nichols, R., “Reclaiming the Past. The Tawarikh-i Hafiz Rahmat Khani and Pashtun historiography”, in Afghan History through Afghan Eyes, edited by Green, N., (New York, 2015), pp. 211–234Google Scholar.

7 Khaṫak, Khushḥāl Khān, Dastār-nāma, foreword by Rishtīn, Ṣ., glossary by Momand, D. M. Kāmil (Kabul, 1966)Google Scholar. Various aspects of this work are discussed in Majrouh, S. B., “Étude du Dastar-nama de Khoshhal Khan Khatak” in Proceedings of the XXV International Congress of Orientalists, Vol. 2 (Moscow, 1963), pp. 241–250Google Scholar; Kushev, V. V., “A Pashtun Ruler and Literary Figure of the Seventeenth Century on Political Ethics”, Manuscripta Orientalia, 6/2 (2000), pp. 20–38Google Scholar; Idem., “Dastar-nama Khushhal-khana Khattaka – pashtunskaia entsiklopediia XVII veka”, in Peterburgskoie vostokovedeniie, 10 (St Petersburg, 2002), pp. 75–93; Lorenz, M., “Chuschhāl-Chān über das Schahspiel”, in Ex Oriente. Collected Papers in Honour of Jiři Bečka, (eds.) Křikavová, A., Hřebiček, L. (Prague, 1995), pp. 101–104Google Scholar; Idem., “Dastār-nāma – sochineniie Khushhal-khana Khattaka (1613–1689)”, in Vestnik vostochnogo instituta (Acta Institutionis Orientalis), 2/1 (3) (Saint Petersburg, 1996), pp. 58–66; Idem., “Der afghanischer Dichter Chuschhāl-Chān in seinem Dastār-nāma über die Ehe”, in Eros, Liebe und Zuneigung in der Indogermania: Akten des Symposiums zur Indogermanischen Kultur- und Altertumskunde in Graz (29.-30. September 1994) (Graz, 1997), pp. 31–36; Inozemtsev, I. L., “Khushhal-khan Khattak o musul'manskoi muzyke”, in Sufizm v kontekste musul'manskoi kul'tury, (ed.) Prigarina, N. I. (Moscow, 1989), pp. 302–318Google Scholar.

8 Khaṫak, Khushḥāl Khān, Firāq-nāma, (ed.) with preface, notes and glossary by Hewādmal, Zalmay (Kabul, 1984), p. 60Google Scholar.

9 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 17.

10 Ibid., p. 15.

11 Khaṫak, Khushḥāl Khān, Kulliyāt, (ed.) with preface and notes by Momand, D. M. Kāmil (Peshawar, 1952), p. 567Google Scholar.

12 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 18.

13 See in Pelevin, M. S., Afganskaia poeziia v pervoi polovine – seredine XVII v. (St Petersburg, 2005), pp. 187–190Google Scholar; Idem., “The Development of Literacy and the Conflict of Powers among Pashtuns on the Eve of State Formation”, in Iran and the Caucasus, 16/2 (2012), pp. 141–152.

14 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 29.

15 Cf. Khādim, , Qiyāmuddīn, , Paẋtūnwalay (Kabul, 1953), pp. 13–35Google Scholar, 90–99; Bakhtanay, , ʿAbdullāh, , Paẋtanī khoyūna (S. l., 1955), pp. 12–19Google Scholar, 29–31, 56–61; Atayee, M. I., A Dictionary of the Terminology of Pashtun's Tribal Customary Law and Usages, translated by Shinwary, A. M. (Kabul, 1979), pp. 14–15Google Scholar, 59, 101–102; Steul, Willi, Paschtunwali: ein Ehrenkodex und seine rechtliche Relevanz (Wiesbaden, 1981), pp. 151–169Google Scholar; Rzehak, L., “Kodeks chesti pushtunov” in Afganistan: istoriia, ekonomika, kul'tura, (ed.) Gankovskii, Yu. V. (Moscow, 1989), pp. 61–62Google Scholar, 68–71. General overview of the Pashtunwali ideology and basic principles see also in Lindholm, Charles, Generosity and Jealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan (New York, 1982), pp. 209–238Google Scholar; popular description of the very spirit of Pashtunwali as perceived by an outsider see in Spain, J. W., The Way of the Pathans (London, 1962), pp. 46–54Google Scholar.

16 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, pp. 47–49.

17 Ibid., pp. 83–84.

18 Ḥabīballāh al-Haravī, Niʿmatallāh Ibn, Tārīkh-i Khānjahānī va Makhzan-i Afghānī, Vol. 1–2, (ed.) with introduction and notes by al-Dīn, S. M. Imām (Dacca: Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1960–62)Google Scholar; English translation see in Dorn, B., History of the Afghans: Translated from the Persian of Neamet Ullah, Vol. 1–2 (London, 1829–36)Google Scholar. Recent discussion of the book see in Green, N., “Tribe, Diaspora, and Sainthood in Afghan History”, in The Journal of Asian Studies, 67/1 (2008), pp. 183–197CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Khaṫak, Afżal Khān, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, (ed.) with preface and notes by Momand, D. M. Kāmil (Peshawar, 1974)Google Scholar.

20 Iskandar, ʿUnṣur al-Maʿālī Kaykāvūs b., Qābūs-nāma, (ed.) Yūsufī, Ghulām-Ḥusayn (Tehran, 1988), pp. 4–5Google Scholar.

21 See in Pelevin, M., “The beginnings of Pashto Narrative Prose”, in Iran and the Caucasus, 21/2 (2017), pp. 132–149CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, p. 272.

23 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 26.

24 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, pp. 273–274.

25 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 26.

26 Ibid., pp. 29–35.

27 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, p. 540.

28 Khaṫak, Khushḥāl Khān, Bāz-nāma, (ed.) and prefaced by Hewādmal, Zalmay (Kabul, 1983)Google Scholar; idem., Kulliyāt, pp. 77–78, 253–254, 597–600, 626–627, passim.

29 Khushḥāl, Dastār-nāma, p. 46.

30 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, pp. 269–271, 273, 276–277.

31 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, pp. 818–820.

32 Ibid., p. 183.

33 Khushḥāl, Firāq-nāma, pp. 71–72; idem., Swāt-nāma, (ed.) with preface and notes by ʿAbd al-Ḥayy Ḥabībī (Kabul, 1979), pp. 20–32.

34 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, pp. 560–562.

35 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, pp. 301–316.

36 Ibid., pp. 482–285, 494–510.

37 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, p. 183.

38 Ibid., pp. 860–861.

39 Ibid., p. 268.

40 Ibid., p. 660.

41 Ibid., p. 221.

42 Ibid., p. 822.

43 Ibid., p. 368.

44 Ibid., p. 852.

45 Ibid., p. 582.

46 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, p. 264.

47 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, p. 853.

48 Ibid., p. 418; this is an allusion to the history of wars for succession to the Mughal throne between Aurangzeb and his brothers Dārā Shikūh (d. 1659), Shāh Shujāʿ (d. 1661) and Murād Bakhsh (d. 1661) in 1657–9.

49 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, pp. 586–587.

50 Khushḥāl, Swāt-nāma, p. 29; Idem., Kulliyāt, p. 528.

51 Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, pp. 104–105, 233, 847–848.

52 Khushḥāl, Swāt-nāma, pp. 22–23, 28.

53 See in Pelevin, M., “The Khataks’ Tribal Chronicle (XVII-XVIII): Extra literary Text Functions”, in Iran and the Caucasus, 18/3 (2014), pp. 201–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, p. 449.

55 Ibid., pp. 3–14.

56 Cf. Katkov, I. E., “Sotsial'nyie aspekty plemennoy struktury pushtunov,” Afganistan: istoriia, ekonomika, kul'tura, (ed.) Gankovskii, Yu. V. (Moscow, 1989), pp. 42–51Google Scholar.

57 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, pp. 264–265.

58 Ibid., p. 11.

59 Ibid., p. 10.

60 Ibid., pp. 7–8.

61 Ibid., pp. 9–10.

62 Ibid., pp. 12–13.

63 Ibid., pp. 292–293.

64 Cf. brief poetical account of these events in Khushḥāl, Kulliyāt, p. 942.

65 Afżal, Tārīkh-i muraṣṣaʿ, pp. 262–263, 266.

66 Ibid., pp. 423–425.