THE MYSTERIOUS PAHLAWAN BABA OF SHABQADAR



In the early 1890s, a strange young man by the name of Pahlawan made his appearance in my hometown of Shabqadar, and settled on its outskirts by the right side of the main Shabqadar-Peshawar Road. There he acquired a lot of land where he built a large residential compound in the traditional style. Soon the locality came to be known as “Pahlawan Qalah” after his name, which it still bears. It is the first part of Shabqadar one encounters when approaching the town from Peshawar. I refer to Pahlawan as a mysterious figure because he is well known but hardly ever discussed. That seems to be the case with many issues in Pashtun lands…

Not only was his arrival in Shabqadar something of a mystery – his personality was also remarkably different, as we shall see later in this essay. He is said to have mentioned Bannu as his original domicile. Others say he belonged to Laghman which lay beyond the Durand Line (which had been made the international border at the same time as Pahlawan came to Shabqadar). Neither Bannu nor Laghman are the kind of places where one could expect to find a personality such as Pahlawan! That said, “Pahlawan” is a classical and very respectable Persian-Tajik title of historic importance which is still used, and this fact is common knowledge to all familiar with Iranian culture and history.

Despite the controversies surrounding Pahlawan’s origins and his personality, he quickly settled down in his new home to become a prominent and respectable citizen of Shabqadar. He formed matrimonial alliances with the Hindkikhel “Mohmands” of Shabqadar – another prominent community of the area, who, as their clan name, physiques and genetics suggest – were likely to have been Tanoli arrivals in this area from Hazara about 250 years ago -- and who subsequently got absorbed into the Mohmand Tribe. Nothing can be said for sure regarding Pahlawan’s true ethnic background till we get the reliable genetic data from his descendants – and that I have not yet endeavoured to do.

Ten years ago, I chanced to come upon the manuscript of a handwritten essay attributed to Pahlawan sahib from 1925 – in the possession of the late Professor Taj Muhammad Mohmand, who was related to Pahlawan and was a Hindkikhel and also my father’s cousin. From an examination of the document several facts became apparent to me: 1) The quality of the lined paper sheets and purple ink used suggested a rich person, of cultivated and sophisticated tastes for his time and place; 2) His beautiful handwriting showed a highly developed artistic faculty; 3) His style of Urdu indicated a first class education and mastery over this language; 4) The subject of his writing was Vladimir Lenin and his political philosophy – which shows that Pahlawan possessed an inordinate knowledge of subjects far above the average ken of most people living in that area at that time (and even now). Although I have not seen it since, I do not doubt that this document was from 1925 as was noted on it – which was the year following Lenin’s death. The fact that someone in a place like Shabqadar of 1925 should know about Lenin and be able to comprehend his actions well enough to write an eloquently worded opinion on the matter in what was then a foreign language, speaks well enough for itself. The high quality Urdu prose in which this document was written as well as its subject could indicate that Pahlawan had spent time in India, but not necessarily so. Although I am not sure and can do little to investigate the matter – the fact that his descendants were later active in Pashtun nationalism and leftist politics seems to suggest that Pahlawan may have been associated with the Congress Party and Ghaffar Khan. That would have been the only recourse available to such a person in those days.

Pahlawan’s religious orientation and reputation were said by all who knew him to be highly “controversial” – and that would only be natural if he was a communist, as suggested by the manuscript attributed to him. Some called him an atheist (which he probably was), others a Christian, others still a Zoroastrian and there were even those who typically accused him of being a Qadiani heretic. There is no doubt that the family he has left behind is noted in Shabqadar for its high level of education and its progressive and modern image still stands out in distinctive isolation from the rest of Shabqadar’s elite. There is no doubt that Pahlawan was a man of deep learning and many ideas, who adopted the “Pashtun” label and lived among a very rascally people whom he tried to reform, but without success. He certainly represented the archetypical Pahlawan of true Persian lore.

My late father told me that he was about ten years old when Pahlawan passed away at the age of eighty sometime in 1940. He recalled that all the mullahs of Shabqadar had refused to perform Islamic burial rites for Pahlawan, accusing him of being a “kafir”. That would severely damage his family’s social standing in Shabqadar and be dangerous for its safety, and therefore his sons had to bribe a mullah with 3000 Rupees to say his funeral prayers. That sum in terms of today’s currency would amount to about 1 million Rupees or more. Pahlawan is buried appropriately enough in a whitewashed grave of simple construction yet very unusual design standing on a raised walled platform, located outside his residence’s main gate – by the side of the high road connecting Shabqadar and Peshawar.