Faiz Muhammad Kāteb ( prs, فیضمحمد کاتب) also known as Kāteb () was a contemporary writer and historian. He was Afghan court
chronicler
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...
, a skilled
calligrapher
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
and secretary to
Habibullah Khan
Habibullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: ; 3 June 1872 – 20 February 1919) was the Emir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his death in 1919. He was the eldest son of the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, whom he succeeded by right of primogeniture in October 1901. ...
from 1901 to 1919.Kitab-e Tadakkor-e Enqilab, Translation: Shkirando as "Kniga Upominanii o Myatezhe" Moscow, 1988. p. 20
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, he spent a part of his life in
Nawur District
Nawur ( fa, ناور), is the largest district in Afghanistan's Ghazni province by area. Its population, which is entirely Hazara people, Hazara, was estimated at 91,778 (more than half of whom were children under 12) in 2002. The Jikhai River o ...
another district of Ghazni, and died in
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
by local
mullah
Mullah (; ) is an honorific title for Shia and Sunni Muslim clergy or a Muslim mosque leader. The term is also sometimes used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and sharia law.
The title has also been used in some Miz ...
s, in 1880 he and his family moved first to Nawur and then, because of sectarian strife, to
Qandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the ca ...
in the same year. In 1887 he left Qandahar for a year's travel that took him to
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
and
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
where he spent some time studying
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Jalalabad
Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلالآباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...
and was invited in 1888 to join the administration of the Afghan amir
Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Ag ...
.Kitab-e Tadakkor-e Enqilab, Translation: Shkirando as "Kniga Upominanii o Myatezhe" Moscow, 1988. p. 13
History
He was soon attached to the entourage of the amir's eldest son, Habib Ullah Khan, at the recommendation of one of his teachers, Mullah Sarwar Ishaq'zai. Kateb accompanied the prince from Kabul to Jalalabad in 1311/1893-94. There is a manuscript attributed to him, dated 29 Rajab 1311/5 February 1894, which places him in Jalalabad at this time. In 1314/1896, when Habib Ullah's younger brother Nasr Ullah Khan toured
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on a state visit, Habib Ullah assigned Kateb to copy and post in the Charsuq, Kabul's main marketplace, the detailed letters sent back by Nasr Ullah recounting his activities, so that “noble and commoner alike would be apprised of the honor and respect that the English were according him”.
During Habib Ullah's reign, Kateb was involved, if only peripherally, with the Young Afghan movement led by
Mahmud Tarzi
Mahmud Tarzi ( ps, محمود طرزۍ, Dari: محمود بیگ طرزی; August 23, 1865 – November 22, 1933) was an Afghan politician and intellectual. He is known as the father of Afghan journalism. He became a key figure in the history of ...
. He is said to have been associated with the publication of Tarzi's reformist journal, ''Siraj al-Akbar'', and three other journals, ''Anis'', ''Ḥayy alal-falah'', and ''Aina-ye Irfan''. After the assassination of his patron in 1337/1919, Kateb worked for a time at the
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
on textbook revision. Sometime later, he was appointed to a teaching position at the Habibiya Laycee ''(Habibiya High School)'' in Kabul.
During the reign of Aman Ullah Khan (1919–29), the Iranian minister in Kabul Sayyed Mahdi Farrokh compiled a “who’s who” of contemporary Afghan leaders. His sketch of Kateb characterizes him as a devout
Shia Muslim
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
, highly regarded by the
Qizilbash
Qizilbash or Kizilbash ( az, Qızılbaş; ota, قزيل باش; fa, قزلباش, Qezelbāš; tr, Kızılbaş, lit=Red head ) were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the ...
community of Kabul, as well as a leader among his people, the Hazaras, and an important source of information for the Persian mission about what was going on in the capital.
In 1929, the
Tajik
Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to:
* Someone or something related to Tajikistan
* Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan
* Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan
* Tajik (surname)
* Tajik cu ...
outlaw Habib Ullah Kalakani, ousted Aman Ullah Khan and took control of Kabul for nine months (January to October 1929). During this uprising Kateb, who spent almost the entire period inside the city, kept a journal which was the basis for an unfinished monograph entitled ''Kitab-e Tadakoor-e Enqilab'' which he began shortly after the fall of Habib Ullah Kalakani.
During the occupation, Kateb was forced to take part in a delegation sent by Kalakani to negotiate with Hazara groups opposing the Tajik leader. According to his account, he managed to subvert Kalakani's plans and caused the mission to fail. However, he and the mission's leader, Noor al-Din Agha, a Qizilbash Shiʿite from Kabul, paid a heavy price for this: both were sentenced to death by beating. Kateb alone survived the ordeal and was saved by a colleague. The Persian mission in Kabul, under a directive from
Reza Shah
Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...
to do what it could to aid the Shiʿites of Kabul, sent medicines to his house. He eventually recovered enough to travel the following year to Tehran for more medical care. After less than a year there, he returned to Kabul, where he died on 6 Shawal 1349/3 March 1931, at the age of sixty-eight or sixty-nine.
Publications
Kateb is best known for his books on Afghan history. During Habib Ullah's reign, he accepted two commissions to write a comprehensive history of Afghanistan covering events from the time of Ahmad Shah down through the reign of Habib Ullah Khan. The first was a history of Afghanistan entitled ''Tohfat ul-Habib'' (''Ḥabib's Gift'') in honor of the amir, but Habib Ullah Khan deemed the finished work unacceptable and ordered Kateb to start over. The revised version is the three-volume history of Afghanistan entitled ''Siraj al-Tawarikh'' (''Lamp of Histories''), an allusion to the amir's honorific “Lamp of the Nation and Religion” (Siraj al-mella waʾl-din). There were also problems in publishing it, the third volume never being completely printed. It is thought that the process of publishing the third volume lasted several years and only ended after Habib Ullah Khan's death. Some say the publication on the third volume was halted at page 1,240 for unspecified reasons. Habib Ullah Khan's successor, Aman Ullah Khan, was initially interested in the work and typesetting resumed in the mid-1920s, but when the amir reviewed the material in it on Anglo-Afghan relations, he reportedly changed his mind, and ordered all published but still incomplete copies of the third volume taken from the press and burned. Despite this reaction, Kateb continued work on his chronicle. The manuscript of the remainder of the third volume is widely believed to have been finished, and the autograph was reportedly turned over to the Afghan archives by Kateb's son. Volumes devoted to Habib Ullah Khan and Aman Ullah Khan may also have been written. A ''farman'' issued by the latter announced that Kateb had been ordered to complete the ''Siraj'' and then begin work on a chronicle of the reign of Aman Ullah Khan to be entitled ''Tarikh-e Asr-e Amaniya''. There is some evidence to suggest he did indeed carry out these commissions, although nothing more was ever published.
Besides ''Siraj al-Tawrikh'', Kateb wrote the following works:
* Tuhfatul Habib' Afghan History (1747–1880), in two volumes. (The original script, hand-written by Kateb, exists in the National Archive in Kabul)
* Tazkeratul Enqilaab accounts of the days of Habibullah, Bacha-e Saqaw
* History of Ancient Prophets/Rulers, from Adam to Jesus
* Hidāyat-i kisht-i gul-hā va qalamah-hā va ḥubūbāt va ghayrah (1921–1922)
* Jughrāfiyā-yi ṭabʻī va Afrīqā
* Tarikh-e Hokama-ye Motaqaddem, compiled while he was working at the Ministry of Education;
* Fayz al-Foyuzat, a fragment of which, called ''Afghan Treaties and Agreements'' (ʿahd wa misaq-e afghan) was published in Sayyed Mahdi Farrokh's ''Tarikh-e Siasi-ye Afghanistan'' (Tehran, 1314 Š./1935) and which, in tune with the times, was a sharp critique of the Abdul Rahman's relations with the British;
* Faqarat-e Sharʿiya, which is not known to have survived; and
* Nasab-nama-ye Tawaʾef-e afghena wa taʿaddod-e nofus-e ishan, also known as ''Nijhad-nama-ye Afghan'', a description of Afghan tribes and non-Afghans residing in Afghanistan. The ''Nijhad-nama'' was published in Persia in 1933 from a manuscript thought to be the autograph and held in the ''Kitab Khana-ye Milli-ye Malik'' in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
Among the works he is known to have copied is a 230 folio collection of ''farmans'' issued by the Mughal ruler
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
(1068–1118/1658–1707) which he completed in Jalalabad in 1312/1894; the divan of ''Šehab-e Torshizi'', a late 18th-century poet from
Herat
Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...
; and ''Risala-ye fiuz'', a treatise on explosives.
In the late 20th century, an American scholar
Robert D. McChesney
Robert Duncan McChesney (born May 10, 1944''Directory of Foreign Area Fellows'' (Foreign Area Fellowship Program, 1973), p. 131.) is a scholar of the social and cultural history of Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Academic career
Robert D. Mc ...
extensively researched Kateb's life and written works, in particular the Siraj al Tawarikh. In 1999, he published a translation of Tazkeratul Enqilaab's under the title ''Kabul under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's account of the 1929 Uprising'', and in 2012 McChesney and Mehdi Khorrami completed the first English translation of ''Siraj al-Tawrikh''.McChesney, Robert, and Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, eds. History of Afghanistan, 6 Volume-Set : Fay Muammad Ktib Hazrah’s Sirj al-tawrkh. Leiden, NLD: BRILL, 2012.
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encycl ...