Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
amorous
folktale
A folktale or folk tale is a folklore genre that typically consists of a story passed down from generation to generation orally.
Folktale may also refer to:
Categories of stories
* Folkloric tale from oral tradition
* Fable (written form of the a ...
. Its format is an extended narrative described as ''qissa'' or ''
dastan
Dastan ( fa, داستان ''dâstân'', meaning "story" or "tale") is an ornate form of oral history from Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
A dastan is generally centered on one individual who protects his tribe or his people from ...
''. It is listed along with '' Adam Khan and Durkhanai'', ''Ramadad Khan'', and ''Ajab Khan'' as one of the important Pashto ''dastans'' which are available as
chapbooks
A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch.
In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklet ...
or in audio formats. The tale has also been termed as the Pukhtun version of ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
''.
Development
The story of Yusuf Khan and Sherbano was put to verse by poet
Ali Haidar Joshi
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
(Joshi was a pen name) in the 1960s and was turned into a film, ''
Yousuf Khan Sher Bano
''Yousuf Khan Sher Bano'' was the first-ever Pashto film released in Pakistan. It was released on 1 December 1970.Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
at a local fair wrapped around some medicine. He returned to the seller and got more of the manuscript.Heston, Wilma L. ''Footpath Poets of Peshawar''. in Appadurai, Arjun, Frank J. Korom, and Margaret Ann Mills. Gender, genre, and power in South Asian expressive traditions. Motilal Banarsidass Publishe, 1994. p310-311, 326-327 Joshi's account is given in a Lok Virsa tape recorded by Mumtaz Nasir in 1982.
Content
The story has supernatural elements, such as five holy men (''pirs'') who give the heroine the ability to travel large distance in thirty steps,
jinn
Jinn ( ar, , ') – also Romanization of Arabic, romanized as djinn or Anglicization, anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources)
– are Invisibility, invisible creatures in early Arabian mytho ...
s who bring a woman and a bed to a mosque at night for the pleasure of a
yogi
A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297-299, 331 Th ...
. These elements suggest an influence to the story from outside the
Pashtun
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
culture. However, the social structures in the story, particularly the use as villains of paternal male cousins is typical to Pashtun stories, and many Pashtuns of various social classes identify the story as one of their own, according to ethnologist Wilma L. Heston.
* Benedicte Johnson, Les contes legendaires pashtun: Analyse et traduction de cassettes commercialisees egendary tales in Pashto: Analysis and translation of commercial cassettes (1982) Memoire presente pour une maitrise d'etudes iraniennes A thesis University of Paris
* Wilma Heston and Mumtaz Nasir. "The Bazaar of the Storytellers." (1988) Lok Virsa Publishing House, Islamabad, Pakistan
* Bibi Jaan, ''Yousaf Khan aw Sher Bano'', Sahar, The Voice of Pashtuns, January 2011 Bibi Jaan, ''Yousaf Khan aw Sher Bano'', Sahar, The Voice of Pashtuns, January 2011, p19-24 accessed February 17, 2017 at http: www.khyberwatch.com/Sahar/2011/Sahar-Jan-2011.pdf