Abdul Hai Habibi

Abdul Hai Habibi ( Pashtun عبدالحى حبيبي; * 1910 in Kandahar ; † May 9, 1984 in Kabul ) was an Afghan poet , government official and historian .

Life

He was born in Kandahar in 1910 into a Pashtun family of scientists, he was the grandson of Emir Habibullah Khan . He became known as an excellent Kandahari who wrote many books. His father died early and he was educated in the Kandahar mosques . In 1920 he was admitted to primary school in Schalimar. Since his performance was particularly good, he got a diploma at the age of 15 and then worked as a teacher in the elementary schools of Kandahar. In 1927 he was the deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Tulo in Kandahar, and a year later he became its editor. In 1950 he had to flee to Peshawar because he was against the then Prime Minister Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan . In exile he published a magazine called Azad Afghanistan, Free Afghanistan. In 1961 he was allowed to return to Afghanistan. Here he worked as a professor of literature at the University of Kabul . 1966 was appointed President of the Afghan Society of Historians. He has published several books on the history of Afghanistan. He is the author of more than 115 books and more than 500 specialist articles on literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, poetics and the culture of the people of Afghanistan. Some of his books have been translated into English, Arabic, German and other foreign languages. He died on May 9, 1984 in Kabul at the age of 74.

career

Abdul Hai Habibi was a primary school teacher in Kandahar schools from 1925 to 1925. After his apprenticeship he switched to the newspaper Tuloo-e Afghan, where he was employed as deputy editor-in-chief until 1931. From 1931 to 1940 he was editor of Tuloo-e Afghan. Then he was from 1941 to 1944 President of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in Kabul. At the same time, he was Vice President of the Publications Department. During the same period he acted as an advisor to the Ministry of Education in Kabul. Afterwards he was chairman of the first College of Letters at the University of Kabul until 1946, and president of the Pashto Academy and professor of the history of Pashto literature.

In Kandahar he was president from 1946 to 1947. In 1947 he was a commercial attaché in Quetta, Balochistan. During the 7th session of the National Assembly, he was elected representative of Kandahar Province. He received the rank of professor from the University of Kabul in 1965. The Afghan Society of Historians installed him as president from 1966 to 1971. Habibi was a cultural advisor to Prime Minister Mohammad Musa Schafiq from 1972 to 1973 . From 1970 to 1977 he taught literature and history as a professor at the University of Kabul. From 1978 to 1982 he was a consultant in the Ministry of Information and Culture.

criticism

Pata Khazana , one of his major works, has been questioned for lack of strong evidence. The British Iranist David Neil MacKenzie concludes from the anachronisms that the document was only produced shortly before its discovery in 1944. MacKenzie's central argument relates to the use of the modern Pashto letters Dze (ځ [dz]) and Nur (ڼ [ɳ]) throughout the script. These were not introduced into the Pashto alphabet until 1936 when the Afghan government reformed the Pashto spelling. The two letters were never found at the same time in a real manuscript before 1935.

Habibi responded to his critics in 1977 by stating:

“I received the handwritten manuscript with the help of the late Abdul Ali Khanozay an Kakkar at Psheen in 1943. First I translated it into Persian, provided explanations and notes, and published it in 1944 through the Pashto Academy. In 1961 five thousand copies of the original edition were published by the Publications and Translation Department. Due to popular demand for the book, the third edition was published in 1976 by the Pashto Development Board of the Ministry of Information and Culture. This edition contains a complete facisimile of the original handwritten manuscript. Since its publication 33 years ago, different opinions have been expressed on this book and some people have cast their doubts on it. Some have said that I wrote the book together while others have claimed that it was forged by Shah Hussain, son of Haji Mirwais Khan. Such claims have been heard over the years, but unfortunately the critics have not compiled any detailed or scholastic analyzes of the work so that they can be examined, and if found refutable, commented scholastically. Scientists in the field have not yet discussed this book in detail. What has been written was brief and expressions of doubt. No scholastic or positive criticism from the point of view of linguistics or etymology is provided so that the authenticity or forgery of words can be evaluated and the facts clarified. "

- Abdul Hai Habibi 1977

literature

• Wali Ahmadi: Modern Persian literature in Afghanistan: anomalous visions of history and form . Routledge, London, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-43778-3
• Muḥammad Hōtak: Abd al-Ḥayy Ḥabībī, Khushal Habibi (1997). Pat̲a k̲h̲azana . University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-0265-5

Web links

• Biography of Abdul Hai Habibi alamahabibi.com