''Yusuf Khan and Sherbano'' is a famous

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. 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''.

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'', released in 1970. The poem was translated into French by Benedict Johnson (in 1982) and into English by Heston and Nasir (in 1988). The story is transmitted by ''qissa-khwans'', a term usually translated as "storytellers" who "say" or "sing" (''Wayel'') the verses. Joshi's account of the origin of the material is that he found a manuscript containing the story written in

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 romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic 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

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.

Film adaptation

The tale was adapted into a 1970 Pashto film, '' Yousuf Khan Sher Bano'', produced by Nazir Hussain and directed by Aziz Tabassum''.'' It is considered to be the first Pakistani Pashto film, and marked the start of the Pashto film industry.

Translations

* 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

References

{{reflist, 30em Pashtun culture Sufi literature Pakistani folklore