Akhundzada Arif Hasan Khan
2 min readDec 11, 2021

MENTION OF SWATI RULERS IN “ZAKHIRA TUL MULOOK”

The famous book "ZAKHIRA TUL MULOOK" [Education of the Princes], by the famous 14th Century Iranian-Kashmiri saint, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani -- in which he mentions several minor Tajik Swati princes who were at that time under the overall tutelage of the Swati-Shahmiri Sultan of Kashmir, Qutabuddin Shah.

The princes mentioned included the local Swati regional governors Tughan Shah (Kunar), Bahram Muhammad Shah (Balkh + Badakhshan) and Sultan Ghiyasuddin (Pakhli). The Sultan of Swat Sultan Aliuddin Gabri (also called Alauddin) is also mentioned -- as is the Sultan of Kashmir, Sultan Qutabuddin (Shahmiri).

According to Swati writer Prof. Akhtar, Mir Hamadani has devoted the entire Chapter 3 of his book with good advice to Sultan Aliuddin (alias Alauddin) of Swat -- because that ruler was barbaric and proud and had bad habits. In the end Mir Hamadani was disappointed with the Swati rulers, and chose burial at Khatlan instead of Swat-Pakhli, after he died at Bajaur in 1386.

I have used two well known editions of this book: one is by Dr. Riaz, a Pakistani author who wrote in Farsi. The other is by an author in Iran, Anwari.Both these editions are available online at their own URLs, and at "Archive Org" website.

(P.S: As is evidenced from one of the images above -- the Iranian writer Anwari is not aware of the actual location of "Pakhli" and wonders that it is somewhere in present day Tajikistan!)

Akhundzada Arif Hasan Khan
Akhundzada Arif Hasan Khan

Written by Akhundzada Arif Hasan Khan

Scholar, Historian, Ethnologist, Philosopher, Activist.

No responses yet