PESHAWAR: Noted Pashto poet, research scholar and TV anchor Mohammad Aftab has recently retrieved 300-year-old Persian and Arabic manuscripts from magnum opus of his grandfather that had been stuffed in his residence in Manga Dargai, Charsadda district.

The old manuscripts are illustrated with typical Mughal paintings and mosaic with first two pages done in golden patterns. He said that all the manuscripts were in their best condition, having golden colourful patterns all over the edges. The researcher said he had preserved the rare manuscripts in his home’s private collection room besides other things including old utensils, agriculture tools, old radio sets, cultural dresses and rare books.

Mushtaq Majrooh, a senior research scholar, remarked that such old manuscripts should be properly researched and preserved. The manuscripts appeared to have been compiled in Mughal period especially during the reign of Aurangzeb Alamgir’s sons, he commented.

Aftab says all the manuscripts are in good condition

“Books used to be written in Mughal era without page numbers as the first word or phrase called ‘Raiqaab’ placed at the end, would also mark the beginning of the next page.

The Persian alphabets in that era didn’t include the letters for Persian sounds for Gaaf as it is obvious from Shah Waliullah’s translation of the Holy Quran into Persian. “Similarly, the letters peh, ch, and jeh were added later on,” he maintained.

Mr Aftab told this scribe that he found those old manuscripts in the private collection of his late grandfather, Saadullah Khan, who was a devoted companion of Bacha Khan, while looking for a copy of Toorsam Khan Baba’s Diwan (1865-1950), a classical Pashto folk poet and resident of Dwa Saru area in Charsadda, on whose life and works he had been doing research as an MPhil scholar in Pashto Academy of the University of Peshawar. He said he had also retrieved a copy of Toorsam Khan Baba’s works carrying Urdu, Persian and Pashto poems and lyrical ballads.

“The Diwan of Toorsam Khan Baba completed in March 1904 has composed poems on the pattern of Hindi musical tunes (Raags) which I believe is a new thing. I have not come across such a style of composing poetry in Pashto literature. The poet has written poems keeping in view specific metres of Hindi musical tunes,” the young scholar stated.

Sharing his information with Dawn, he said that the untitled Arabic manuscript written in Kufic script seemed older than the Persian and was in fact a collection of different types of Durood Sharif – Sending blessings on Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). Quoting a scholar, he said, Kufic was the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts.

“Kufic script style developed around the end of 7th century in Kufa, a place in old Iraq, from which it takes its name. Kufic was prevalent in manuscripts from the 7th to 10th centuries. Till the 11th century, it was the main script used to copy the Holy Qur’an.

Professional copyists employed a particular form of Kufic script style for reproducing the earliest surviving copies of the Holy Qur’an, which were written on parchment and dated from the 8th to 10th centuries,” he elaborated.

Mr Aftab said the copies of Persian and Arabic manuscripts were open for researchers and being displayed at his private gallery in his hometown. Talking about the Persian manuscript, he said it was again illustrated with colourful typical Mughal era mosaics and done in golden work on its title cover.

“The manuscript carries name of the author – Mir Abdul Sattar – at its end along with date of completion of his work as per tradition of the Islamic calendar,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018