Love, Honour and God

Mikhail Pelevin is Professor of Iranian Studies at Saint Petersburg State University. His recent publications on the early modern Pashto literature include the book in Russian, The Khataks’ Chronicle: The Corpus and the Functions of the Text (St Petersburg University Press, 2019).

"I feel comfortable saying that all subsequent workers in this (hopefully) rising trend will find recourse to Pelevin's monograph in the first instance. More broadly, if we do see a future in which Pashtun history is treated the same as other histories - a future in which historians (at last) find it impossible to avoid reading Pashto sources for this history - this book will be a cornerstone of that work." - James Caron, SOAS, University of London, in: South Asian History and Culture, 17:1 (2026), pp. 135-139 [DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2025.2593755]

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 Chronological Framework2 Primary Textual Material3 Objectives and Approaches4 The State of Research5 Conceptual Framework6 Transliteration1 Pashto Handwritten Books1.1 Pashto Writings and Folklore1.2 Manuscripts of Pashto Writings1.3 Chronology of Manuscripts1.4 Centres of Pashto Book Culture1.5 Copyists1.6 The Life of Manuscripts2 The Emergence of Pashto Writings2.1 The Beginnings of the Pashto Written Tradition2.2 The First Books in Pashto2.3 Islam and the Emerging Pashto Literature3 The Roshani Literature3.1 The Life of Bayazid Ansari3.2 The Works of Bayazid Ansari3.3 The Older Generation of the Roshani Authors3.4 Mirza Khan Ansari3.5 The Roshani Poets of India3.6 Forms and Content of the Roshani Poetry3.7 The Doctrinal Foundations of the Roshani Poetry4 The Religious Writings of Sunni Teachers and Spiritual Masters4.1 Common Features of the Early Religious Writings in Pashto4.2 Akhund Darweza4.3 The Makhzan al-islam and Its Authors4.4 The Continuation of the Makhzan’s Traditions4.5 Early Pashto Poetry in the Indo-Afghan Diaspora5 Khushhal Khan Khatak5.1 Early Years (1613–1641)5.2 The Tribal Ruler (1641–1664)5.3 The Prisoner of the Mughals (1664–1668)5.4 The Mughal-Afghan War (1672–1676)5.5 Later Years (1677–1689)5.6 Literary Activities and Creative Development5.7 The Diwan5.8 The mas̱nawī Poems5.9 Prose Works6 The Khatak Literary Circle6.1 Ashraf Khan Hijri6.2 ʿAbd al-Qadir Khan6.3 Sadr Khan6.4 Sikandar Khan6.5 Afzal Khan6.6 Other Khatak Literati6.7 The Followers of Shaykh Rahmkar7 The Development of Classical Traditionalism7.1 ʿAbd al-Rahman Momand (Rahman Baba)7.2 ʿAbd al-Hamid Momand7.3 Mystical-Philosophical and Love Lyrics7.4 Religious and Didactical Writings7.5 Literary Life in the Hotak Dominion of Qandahar8 Pashto Writings in the Durrani State8.1 Pashto Literature at the Court of the Durrani Monarchs8.2 The Poets of Pashtunkhwa8.3 The Family of Tsamkani Sheikhs8.4 ʿAli Akbar Orakzay8.5 Religious Works and Hagiography8.6 Stories in Verse and Prose9 Pashto Writings beyond Pashtunkhwa9.1 Politics and Literature in Rohilkhand9.2 The Family of Hafiz Rahmat Khan Barets9.3 Kazim Khan Shayda9.4 Pashto Poetry in BukharaConcluding NotesBibliographyIndex