; AfghanistanCONTENTS Subject ‘Afghanistan's Importance from the viewpoint of the history: and Archaeology "of Central Asla, Iranian Languages as a source of history, Geography of Bactria in greek Paxto folklore and the landey. Paxto literature at a glance, ‘A bullding by the name of Gow- hharshad in Kohsar of Herat, ‘The excavation of the Afghan Archaeological Misson in Kapl- Manuscripts of the literary works of Sultan Husain Byqara ‘The exhibition of ancient art of Afghanistan in London. New books, News. Cover: On payes 9, 95 and 96 Prof, AH. Habibi G. Morgenstierne Sami 8. Ahmed ‘Saduddin Shpoon Prof, Habibi Dr. Shahibye Mustamandi Dr. Mustamanai MLY, Wahidy “Suzjani Ahmad Ali Motamedt Page 27-89 40-50 51-64 65.56 90.96 97-102 103-104 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION EDITOR ‘Mohd, Kazem Ahang ADDRESS: Historfeal Society of Alghanistan Ghiasuddine Wat Kabul, Afghanistan ‘Tel; 20970, 21316 Kabul 100 Ate Provinces 104 At, One issue 25 Ate Foreign Countries $8 (inch post) ‘Afghan students half of the pri ‘Account number In “De Atghanis- tan Bank.” Dollar Afghanis 20588 3538Paxto Folklore And The Landey By ‘Saduddin Shpoon ‘Member of the Paxto Academy Because of the obvious fact that Paxto has not been a court lang- ‘uage in Afghanistan for a long time, it has remained, and still continues to remain, a spoken language. Only recently, thet i, roughly since half fa century ago has it fourd real contact with the ruling circles of the ‘country, and has thus begun to be regarded as our national language. In ‘the new Constitution Paxto le considered one of the two major languages ‘of Afghanistan, the other teing Dari Afghan rulers of the psst, as was the common practice with the rulers, hhad a circle of learned men, scholars and poets around them. But history gives scarce evidence of a Paxtoon in it, The Paxtoons who were there wrote in Dari because that was the tradition. And this accounts for the fact that today compared with Dari we have very few written materials in Paxto, be it Diwans, manuscripts or any other form of literary stock. ‘Taking into consideraton the fact that a large portion of the popu- lation of the country spesks Paxto, one is led to the conclusion that thi language must have a very large stock of oral literature. This concluston 4s true, Paxto is aa rich in eral Iterary tradition es Darl is in written. ‘The first valuable attempt to collect Paxto oral literature was made by the French scholar James Darmesteter in 1888, He gathered in one volume called “ “Chants Populaires Des Afghans” all sorts of verses that were popular among the Paxtioons of Peshawar and Kohat regions. He divided these songs into Sve genres; namely Mra, Charbaita, Ghazal, Kesa and Matal. 40Poxio Folklore ond... [Native scholars became aware of this vast treasure’ some thivty years ago. The famous Afghan scholar, Professor Abdul Hal Habibi was: the first to publish a series of articles on folklore and national poetry in ‘Tolo-i-Afshan” newspaper in Kandahar. Then followed Mohammad Gul Nurl's MILLI HINDARA or NATIONAL MIRROR in two volumes. The Paxto Academy, a research institute carved out of the former Anjoman- i-Adabi has made a valusble contribution in recording and editing dif- {erent forms of folk sings and oral stories, In 1955 it published a collec ton of folk songs in two volumes, Since then’ many articles have dealt ‘with this theme, and materials are being collected for more inclusive. col- legions by the Paxto academy and many individual, researchers. It Is beyond the scope of this paper to deal with all forms of folk lite- rrature in Paxto, I will confine the article only to one genre, namely Iandey. ‘This is one of the most unique forms of Paxto songs and is not comparable to anything but the Japanese Haiku, and even there the similarity is cervde. Here are some aspects ‘oll songs: which Inndey differs from the rest of Paxto 48) about eighty per cent of them are created by women. ») all andeys are anonymous; nobody knows who ereated. them. ©). They are non-musically composed, that is no one group of landeys is suited for a certain musical composition, In faet there is no group division {in landeys, 4d) Tt is one of the few forms of poetry that will not stoop to Arabie rules of versification and scansion, ¢) Tt is non-zhyming, 4) Teexlsts in every Paxto speaking community amd is not regional fi the sense in which other forms may be. Hor are we to define the landeys. So far we only read: that; “A. landey s,s couplet which has nine. syllables in the lst line énd thirteen in: the second”, I think this definition is incomplete. :Anansi ‘Before we attempt a new one let us see a landey in transeription: 4) First line: ‘De nino shpo poré rasnaghte 7 Second line Skarwate mree shwe ox ero 1a nansta yeme, 2) First line: Asinaa pe foko né pabichs Second line: ‘Mas pe khivaro zlpo wane manor shena. ‘The two landeys ellad above have three striking similarities: ‘The frst 4s of course that the ‘first line of the first Iandey has the same number of syllables as the firs: line of the seoond landey. Likewise, the second ine of the firsh landey has the same number of syllables as the second line ‘of the second Iandey. The second similarity is thefr rhyme scheme; both end in NA and MA. ‘The difference of consonants M and N doesn’t count ‘m landey. The ear of a native is $0 used to it that he considers it as legl- timate to thyme M with N as N with N, The third similarity, and the one often overlooked in-deseribing a landey is the way syllables are arranged according to their rise and fall. Paxto language is highly accentuated and its poetry is not an exception. The quantitative rule of versification, borrowed from Arabic prosody is not suitable for the seansion of Pexto poetry. It is somewhat nore applicable to Dari poetry because of its long exposure to the influence of Islamic, especially Arable language. In fact Darl poetry has been seanned according to Arab Taqti (versfication rules) Zor so long 2 period that it is a matter of guess as to which meter is genuinely Dari ahd which is borrowed from Arable. But when scho- lars try Arabic scansion rules on Paxto poetry it invariably is artific- al and forced; the Semitic Iangunge is too quantitative for the Indo- Iranian, In Arab poetry, and in written Davi poetry, the number of char- acters-in each line should equal that of its counter-line, One thing that stops this rule from working in Paxto poetry is the frequent use of words formed of a cluster of consonats in the language. Words such as zhmenz (a comb), mzhor (son's wife), etc, which are very frequent in Paxto are considered two-syllabic and are treated similar to words such as tor (black) and ranz (illness), In this, Paxto has more in common with 2Paxto Folklore and, [Bnglish than it has with Arabic, ‘The terms I will use below by no means ‘meat that it is fit to Scan landey on Latin scale ratier then on Arable English poéts and scholars have their own difficulties in trying to adopt atin Prosody. I shall use these terms solely for two purposes, First to'méke it more obvious to those who read this paper, and second to ‘emphasize the qualitative aspect of Paxto folk poetry. ‘The first line of the landey is dimetre catalectic; it s made of two {feet plus one syllable. The second line is catalectic trimetre; three metres plus one syllable. Every foot in both lines consists of four syllables; three ‘unaccented followed by one accented syllable. The last catalected syllable {in each line is unaccented Seen from this vantage, there are altogether five similar feet in a landey two of which come in the first line and three in ‘the second, plus the twa unaccented syllables at the end of esch Hine. As ‘ean be seen the second line is merely one foot longer than the first. A. ‘practical definition of the genre would be “a non-rhymed two lined cat lectie verse with five anapestic paeon feet, two in the first line and three in the second, ending in MA or NA". ‘The tw6 lines of the landey do not rhyme, but the last lines of all the landey thyme with each other. The following endings are used in landey: INA as in KAWINA, MA as in SHEMA, NA as in LAASUNA. In each case it is either MA or NA affixed to a vowel preceding it. ‘The final A is often attached to the last syllable, or as a last syllable only for the purpose of rhyme, This A does not always change the meaning of the word to which it is attached, ‘The consanant preceding it, is either M or IN, If it is M the word does not, change at all. If it is N the meaning of the word changes slightly in two eases: It becomes voeative, asin MAYEN (lover) which becomes mayena (oh, lover); it tums singular into plural as GUL (flower) which becomes GULUNA (flowers). In éther cases it-does not add anything to the meaning of the preceding word as ZI (goes) which after it becomes ZINA still - means GOES. The endings ‘axe mostly attached.to verbs, and this is natural since in the Paxto language verbs usually come at the end of the sentence, Let us mow tum to the subject matter of the landey and its literary significance in Paxto folk songs. As mentioned earlier, one pect arity of Iandey is the contribution of women in it. In Dari and Paxto li- terature we have quite a number of women poets, But most of theseAtghaitan women write like men, pretend, to be'men and there is no aesthetic dif- ference between their pints of view. and those of men-poets, They have ‘praised xed lips, hair-thin waist and long locks of hhair as if they were sen and really thirsted for these things. They write poetry that their ‘contemporary men-poets write; But. landey describes beauty from a ‘women's point of view and no-czeator of Jendey fhas tried to depart 4rom her feminine emotions. Of course I am not referring to the ones clearly ‘attributable to men, very Tandey is a closed chain; it begins with the first line and ends With the second, The two lines give a sense of wholeness similar to Eng- Tish epigrams or the Japanese Haiku, It is a grammatically complete sentence with a subject and a predicate. Tt does not try to convey an imperfect meaning to be completed in another Iandey, because of the ten ‘to twelve thousand Iandeys common in Paxto no two are supposed to ‘mevitably fallow each other. The main reason may be that no series of ‘tandeys has been musically composed in one song, Another reason may be ‘tat no single person has made a series of Tandeys, and in fact nobody is seen in the act of making a landey. Landey is grown and cultivated rather ‘than created. Every Pactoon, everywhere knows some Jandey. by heart and molds them into sigs when. the ceasion demands, The songs are composed in different regions of Paxto speaking areas of Afghanistan snd Paxtoonistan, These songs are named after these regions, They are soalled ghatra or melodies. The most important’ of these are: De Tira gharra, de Kakarro ghica and ‘Wardaki gharra, however there is n0 such thing at de Tina Tendey or Wardell landey: ‘Landey, like the people it is used ariong has a restless-and nomadic shature and soon becomes the property of all the Paxtoons, As a result a Kakar knows and sings'almost the same’ landeys that are sung'in Tira, ‘One anain factor in this common ownership imay be the existence of no- ‘mad tribes zmonig the Paxtoons, A portion of the same tribe may'be ‘nomads while another may Iead a settled life: Different nomad'tribes may ‘move in the same direccion in one season’ of the year” and disperse in different direotions in another. Different tiibes may meet in some big nomadic market places at least once a year, ‘There they exchenge not‘orily materials, goods and commodities, but they also:trade culture, ‘How old is the Genre? no one knows for. certain, Paxtoon scholars adhere to the theory that it js evolved from ancient Vedic Chants, Tt ‘seems plausible, Some landeys do have ‘he’ sacred simplicity and direct= 4Paxto Folklore ant. ‘ness so characteristic of the Vedie Chants, but we hive né other evidence beyond this seeming similarity of style. Ivhave not found a Tandey which might in any way refer to the pre—Islamic era in Afghanistan, "The oldest Jandey T could find is one that goes as far'back as Mahmood of Ghazni Tt mentions one of his wars and a certain Malek Khaslo as s commander of one of Mehmood’s army divisions According to its subject matter lundey can be divided into five eate- ores 1) love and beauty 2) social tragedies 8) the epie 4) nature, depicted and described 5) departures and exodus LOVE AND BEAUTY In few other cultures does the theory of sublimation in literature hhold as true as it does among the Paxtoon. A Paxtoon lover (especially if itis a girl) has a hard lot and the opportunity of a meeting and a mar- riage is nil. She marries the man her father chooses Yor her and the father takes everything into consideration but the cholee of his daughter. Her only chances may be to exchange glances with him as he walks by her shack or her black tent or else down by the river where she fetches water ‘every evening. The very word GODAR, which simply nieans riverside or the part of the river where it is possible to cross it, has earned the corinota- ‘tion of a MEETING PLACE for lovers. One ean imagine the young boys of the tribe hiding behind the bushes or walking along the GODAR and a ‘bunch of girls filling their sheepskins by the river, giggling selfconsetously. ‘Any suspicions or rumors result in bloodshed, Under these ard clreumstances it Is amazing to know that love life continues and ‘the wildest landeys are crested, Here are a few examples in the original and translations. Zelfe me me pre kawe more Pozar are err ofoevo ne Tent Bacon lease let my hair grow, mother, done eut ‘trimmed treeAfghanistan 4 no place for song birds. GGolacb che pre she ben raa shin she [Zere che Zaks sine tol wojood wer sare marina You cut « flower ond another grows ‘ha ted, ar tender the fit ‘This ts not te way solih het Asmact ta lar de Wato rhea De mzcke aar de raa 10 bale lambe kena. God knows, here ir no wey to climb the sku, ‘And the earth, youve made t «blazing fire for me. ‘Sooshmet pe maine de armcan raaghta ‘Be yaare knob nighta Re mea fe ne reasns ‘The moon ree over my heed in the contr of the sey, In there no seep without en's ler or i ft only 1 who cant sleep? “rove me mamaa mamas notre kre ‘Mamaa kaepir sho de Rholgel tara trina ‘My heart cals iw uncle bout he's euch en fie, He Kises me on the mouth. (Orval de yath kabel eter ere Pe ment raaghleeateamat gharre guloont ‘You spent all summer tv eo! Kabat ‘you return tn the fll ‘and want your flower Intat? Ze che warra wom Tewane new [De spine Bhule Ye kadra te Rhabera soem, {Lnar a erésy ebila then, (C1 toas generout ) 1 itt know the Balue of my lps SOCIAL TRAGEDIES: ‘in every society there are events, episodes and happenings which are considered catastrophie by the ethical codes of that society. As a rule these events stem from the Injustice Inherent in or forced. upon’ the society itself, True literature of any era might seem to have a double 6Paxto Folklore and. standard; on the one hand it is an integral part of culture and guardian of it, and on the other it is a rebellion against those aspects of culture ‘which do not correspond the basle human values and needs. The Indey fs not an exception, We will suffice by citing only one example of a tragedy reflected in it, This will also illustrate the conflict of twe eul- tures, namely that of Islam and of Paxtoon. It is a conflict between a culture which, out of necessity permits free assoclation of sexes and. a culture that stands for isolation and purdah for women. The story, told briefly below, is very simple: Majmoona t the newly married wife of Sher Aalom. She ts alo his cousin, Sher ‘Aclam already had a wife when he married Mmoona, The eo-wife was Jealous of Maimoona and soar waiting Yor an opportunty to dasroy her. One day while ‘Shor Aalom fe away a frlend comes for a visi When tld that Sher Aalam won! ‘be back for awhile he ask Matmoona to give him « chlam ot hookah before he avis. She’ brings out the pipe and alo the beautiflly, embroidered. tobacco ouch, Ite a ak pouch she had made when sill at her father's and brought I ‘with her as part of her Down. She ‘givet it to the gusit and does Into"the house 1 attend to her dally chores. The cowife maiker her plan. She steals the youch tater ‘and when Sher Aalam returns she tells him thal Maimoona has an affetr with @ ‘uet who 2 « frequent vitor while he te away, and thar Maimoona has gfven the ‘map, the tobseco pouch a foken of thelr growing love. Zo verkly the story. Sher Aalom goes to Meimoons's quarters and alk for the pouch, After a thorough search she comes back to him empty handed and sayr she is sorry to have lst. Sher Aalam ‘noears revenge in his heart but keeps i secret. The next mernhag he bids her to get (ressed for a walt to a far away village across the desert, She is 100 excited about ‘he vist to be rupicios, She remarks thet she didnt now they had reledives Dey- tnd the desert but that {¢ war © wonderf opportunity to leave the howe for the {flat time. She wather her foce docs her Nair, blackens he eyelashes and rubs woe nur bark on her tvth and Ups. They sale fer away into the desert. He stops and asks her get ready for the sleughier, She leughe at tat fiat and thinke 2 ix an nfl Joke, Then she Fnows he's serious end complies. She i slaughtered. SheF ‘Aslam rerurns 10 the village and relates the story. Here are two Jandais about this tragedy: aawond de:ROhwaar kx sheraatome De tomeako pe paso chaa kerri margoona God's curse be upon you Sher Aalam? Whoever hat slaughtered another for tobacco leaves? ‘Moimoone sha swe pe Rhondaa shivaAfghanistan De shar soy day mas tne casing Mtnoona tar twlting with tougher, ‘God, yo my coun ov cvaly wow’ ll me" The Eple ihe is obvious the history of Afghanistan is a history of wars, invasions and bloodshed. Tt is also a history of civilizations and cultural renais- fiance, but the fall has been as catastrophic as the rise glorious. Nowhere hhas the eyelle theory of history held truer. Because of these: destructions tnd wars sotne forelgners have beer led to believe that: aw Afghan 's @ bearded, turbaned warrior who will staby you in the backs at the first op- portinity, But a close and objective study of Afghan past wit show: that this country has-been attacked more than it has attacked. From ATexan- er the great to Genghir Khan snd then from Temerlaim to: the: British Imvasion, this country hus been subjected to humiliation and destruction. ‘The struggle for existence will turn anyone into a warvior. ‘The most recent example is the State of Israel, Landey has played an active role in the ‘Rfghen war drama and we have many examples of epic Tandeys. The one ‘about the battle of Matwand is-the most famous, This encounter took place’ fn Maiwand, a desert near Kandshar, and it was the first time the British sere defeated by a regular Afghan army. ‘This landey is attributed to Ma Taalai, a girl who fought on the front and who saw disheartedness in the ‘Afghan army. They say she turned the tide by singing: [Ke pe maiwond Re shasid ne she ‘sidedyo lasaya be nang Te de mats ‘Young love, if vote oot at a the ‘atte of Mlknand By God, someone fe saving you for a token of shame, ‘There is also this ene, im praise of the hero of Maiwand: ‘De Hindustan peranget Zor Ke zhere aya pe danas to Kuende be shoona ‘The wloes of the Briten are erying Tea Wet alt Be widone Uf this Ayub Hoes Tong We also have many epicolyric ladeys, Here is am example: Pe tor tal wishtalat raaihe CChe parharona de ganden khul darkewems, May you (oy lover) come home alt torn up. with black: bullets ‘And IM mend your wourds aed cover you wie Rives, 8Pexto FolMlore and. Landey is not an outdated genre, Right now there is someone some- where creating one. Neither has the gocial situation changed so much. We have a landey that must have been created quite recently. Tt deals with the issue of Paxtoonisten, an issue of national concern among all Afghans today: Fe de zalmo na poora ne she ‘Paxteonistaane Jenacki be de gana, ‘Oh Paxtoonistan, if our young men can not fulfill your ideal, 1's all right, we girls will justify (your freedom). NATURE DEPICTED AND DESCRIBED (On the map Afghanistan look lke the skeleton of a huge mam- ‘moth with the Hindu Kush as its backbone. The ribs are the small moun- tains that branch off from the Hindu Kush to the south and north, These ribs form narrow gorges between them. ‘The gorges widen into valleys and then open up into gray deserts, Some of these valleys have water, ‘thanks to the melting snow of the mountains. These are inhabited. There {s-a small fertile Iand, a few villages and a circle of trees disturbing the vvast wilderness around it, Even then they are s0 scarce that they can be considered incidental. The mountains and the deserts make the real Afgha- nistan on the map, Nature is the supreme ruler, and it is so despite all the plans and programs drawn to modernize the country. The country is simply too rough and barren to he brought under control in a few years. Landey shows man’s relationship with nature, Among the five thousand Iandeys at four disposal I have counted one thousand which nature or show its effect on the life of the Afghan. Some glorify mountains, some ‘want it smashed to pieces to reach home soon and some want more grass ‘on it for grazing the sheep flocks of thetr tribe Here is an example of the typical treatment of a mountain in landey. Incidental to say that the famous Norwegian Orientalist, Professor Mor~ gensterne likes this landey very much and recites it whenever he sees lofty mountain during his visits to Afghanistan, Pe favo ghro de Khudooy nazar dei Pe sore waar wweravl chanper goloon. God has an affair (an ey) with lofty mountains, With snow he cape them and around them plants flowers. When a Paxtoon lord and warrior sees that the chief of another valley has fallen in the war with the British he says: 9‘Alghanistan De loyo ahro kaitr ye: mere kerr De kamo ghro kesira Roudaay be de seatna. Alas suey kled the onle of the highee mountains, May Gad protect you, the eagle of the laser mountains! DEPARTURES AND EXODUS ‘The seareity of natural resources and trade of raising sheep has given the Paxtoon a wandering and nomadic nature. Afghan nomads, move to- ‘wards central and northern Afghanistan during the summer and In the all come down to eas'ern and southern Afghanistan and Paxtoonistan. A portion of the settled Afghans is also nomadic on occasions. Before the ‘partition of India whole tribes of the Paktia region would move into India uring winter for jobs and commerce, Rabindranath Tagore’s KABULT WALA is a good example of one such departed Afghan. Tt was'men who ‘went away, leaving their wives and children behind. A young than, who ‘id not have enough money to marry a gil, would disappear on moriing and years later come ack as empty-handed as when he left.” Some would fet rich and deeide to stay in India. A few would come back bringing with them stories of a paradise from which they were sadly driven away uit ry, India lured every one in Paktla, Here are a few examples of landeys dealing with departures: ‘De Mdostaan gota de 20g sha Zemaa pe for worba! ke sn welagedens. ‘ay what you earn fv Indta Become. polon to you Grav strands are beotnnina to avovar in my Black hain LMoseapet ta de enan forr arr (Chaar rag waakhte mee Pataate. ka mavens You're getting ready for departure, Why, don't you, drow a Knife and Bl me firt? rod ‘Tax de sapar moze pe psho kere De serve golo bagh pe chat spaare mayena, You're puting on your srcvalling boot, ‘Zo whom would you be entrusting your flower garden? ‘A few words about the transigtion, I have tried to be,as close to, the original as possible. In some, cases T have, completed the English meaning. in brackets, The selection has been on a random basis and such that ‘would ft the deeasion. Part of the selection is taken from my MIFA thesis, ‘and part done promptly ; 50