>KHUSHAL KHAN KHATTAK

DIVAN OF KHUSHAL Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689) was a Pashtun poet, warrior, Sufi and chief of the Khattak tribe. He wrote in Pashtu during the reign of the Mughals and fought the fanatic Aurangzeb and admonished Afghans to forsake their divisive tendencies and unite. He was the father of fifty-seven sons, some of them fine poets and thirty daughters. He is the author of over 200 works in Pashtu and Persian, consisting of Poetry, Sufism, Medicine, Ethics, Religious Jurisprudence, Philosophy, Falconry, etc., together with an account of the events of his own life. His poetry is said to consist of more than 45,000 poems! There is no other poet in the Afghan language who created so many poems on such a wide range of subjects. He wrote many ghazals, ruba'is, qasidas, qi'tas and masnavis. Introduction on his Life, Times & Poetry; Various Forms of Poetry Used by Khushal; Selected Bibliography. Correct rhyme-structure has been kept and the meaning of these beautiful, powerful, and often Sufi spiritual poems. Appendix: The Poems of Khushal Khan Kattak from...Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans, by H.G. Raverty, [1868], (died 1906)... Large Format Paperback. Pages 331 COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Seemab, Jigar, Hali, Makhfi, Abu Nuwas and others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com.

Khushhal Khan Khattak (1613-1689) was a Pashtun warrior, poet and tribal chief of the Khattak tribe. He wrote in Pashto during the reign of the Mughal (Mongol) emperors in the seventeenth century, and admonished Afghans to forsake their divisive tendencies and unite. He was a renowned fighter who became known as the aAfghan Warrior Poeta. He lived in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains in what is now the North-West Frontier Province of western Pakistan. Khattakas life can be divided into two important parts - during his adult life he was mostly engaged in the service of the Mughal King, and during his old age he was preoccupied with the idea of the unification of the Pashtuns. His poetry consists of more than 45,000 poems. According to some historians the number of books written by him is more than 200. His more famous books are Baz Nama, Fazal Nama, Distar Nama and Farrah Nama.