Pir Roshan | |
|---|---|
| پیر روښان | |
| Born | Bāyazīd Khān Ansārī c. 1525 |
| Died | c. 1585[1] (aged 60) |
| Resting place | North Waziristan,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |
| Known for | Pashto literature Roshani movement Pashto alphabet |
| Notable work | Khayr al-Bayān |
| Spouse |
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| Children |
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| Father | Sheikh Abdullah[3] |
Bāyazīd Khān Ansārī (Pashto:بایزید خان انصاري;c. 1525 – 1585), commonly known asPīr Rōshān orPīr Rōkhān, was anOrmur warrior,SufiPir and revolutionary leader.[4] He is best known for founding theRoshani movement, which gained many followers in present-dayPakistan andAfghanistan, and produced a number of Pashto poets and writers. Pir Roshan wroteKhayr al-Bayān, one of the earliest known books containing Pashto prose, and also created thePashto alphabet, derived from theArabic script with 13 new letters. A modified version of this alphabet continues to be used to write Pashto. He wrote mostly inPashto, but also inPersian,Urdu andArabic, while his own mother tongue wasOrmuri.
Pir Roshan assembled Pashtun tribesmen to fight against theMughal emperorAkbar in response to Akbar's continuous military agitations. The Mughals referred to Pir Roshan asPīr-e Tārīk (English:Dark Sufi Master).[5] Due to Pir Roshan's spiritual and religious hold over a large portion of Pashtuns, Akbar sought help of various religious figures into the struggle, most notablyPir Baba andAkhund Darweza.[2] The Mughals persecuted his followers and executed many of them. A Mughal army eventually killed Pir Roshan and most of his sons. Only his youngest son, Pir Jalala, survived and later took up arms against the Mughals as the new leader of the Roshani movement.[6] The Roshani followers inWaziristan,Kurram,Tirah,Loya Paktia,Loy Kandahar (includingKasi tribesmen), andNangarhar continued their struggle against the Mughals for about a hundred years after Pir Roshan's death.
Bayazid was born in 1525 just outsideJalandhar inPunjab (present-day India), but early in his childhood, he moved with his family to their ancestral homeland ofKaniguram inSouth Waziristan (present-day Pakistan).[7] He descended from a prominent family ofMedina which traced its ancestry fromAbu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of prophetMuhammad.[5] His family was one of the many families who fled back to their ancestral land after the Turkic rulerBabur overthrew the AfghanLodi dynasty in India in 1526.[8] His grandfather was from theLohgar Valley nearKabul in the country of theBarkis, but had immigrated to Waziristan, while his grandson was born in India.[9] His father, Abdullah, was an IslamicQadi (judge). However, his father and relatives, and later Bayazid himself, also traded between Afghanistan and India.
Bayazid began teaching at the age of 40. His message was well received by theMohmand andShinwari tribesmen. He then went to thePeshawar valley and spread his message to theKhalil andMuhammadzai. He sent missionaries (khalifas) to various parts of South and Central Asia. He sent one of his disciples, Dawlat Khan, along with his bookSirat at-Tawhid to Mughal Emperor Akbar.Khalifa Yusuf was sent along with his bookFakhr at-Talibin to the ruler ofBadakhshan,Mirza Sulayman. Mawdud Tareen was sent to propagate his message toKandahar,Balochistan, andSindh. Arzani Khweshki was sent to India to convey the message to common people there. Besides, he also sent his deputies toKabul,Balkh,Bukhara, andSamarkand.[10] However, when he and his followers started spreading their movement amongst the Yousafzais, Bayazid came into direct confrontation with the orthodox followers ofPir Baba inBuner. He established a base in theTirah valley where he rallied other tribes. InOxford History of India,Vincent Smith describes this as the first "Pashtun renaissance" against Mughal rule.[11] When Mughal Emperor Akbar proclaimedDin-i Ilahi, Bayazid raised the flag of open rebellion. He led his army in several successful skirmishes and battles against Mughal forces, but they were routed in a major battle inNangarhar by Mughal General Muhsin Khan.
During the 1580s,Yusufzais rebelled against the Mughals and joined theRoshani movement of Pir Roshan.[12] In late 1585, Mughal Emperor Akbar sent military forces underZain Khan Koka andBirbal to crush the Roshani rebellion. In February 1586, about 8,000 Mughal soldiers, including Birbal, werekilled near the Karakar Pass between Buner and Swat while fighting against the Yusufzai lashkar led byKalu Khan. This was the greatest disaster faced by the Mughal army during Akbar's reign.[13] However, during the attack, Pir Roshan was himself killed by the Mughal army nearTopi. In 1587, Mughal generalMan Singh I defeated 20,000 strong Roshani soldiers and 5,000 horsemen.[1] MajorHenry George Raverty transpired the account from Akhund Darweza about Pir Roshan's coffin was seized in the midst of a battle between the Roshaniyya and Mughal forces. Some of his bones were burnt, and cast into the Indus river.[14] Pir Roshan's five sons, however, continued fighting against the Mughals until about 1640.[1][15]
Bayazid's sons were put to death with the exception of his youngest, Jalala, who was pardoned by Akbar as he was only 14 years old when he was captured. He later took up arms as Pir Jalala Khan and successfully engaged the Mughal armies.[2]
As part of a concerted campaign to destroy the Roshanis around 1619 or 1620,Mahabat Khan, under the Emperor Jahangir, massacred 300 Daulatzai Orakzai in the Tirah. Ghairat Khan was sent to the Tirah region to engage the Roshani forces with a large military force via Kohat.[16] The Mughal forces were repulsed, but six years later Muzaffar Khan marched against Ahdad Khan. After several months of intense fighting, Ahdad Khan was killed. The death of Jahangir in 1627 led to a general uprising of the Pashtuns against Mughal forces.[16] Ahdad's son Abdul Qadir returned to Tirah to seek vengeance. Under his command, the Roshani defeated Muzaffar Khan's forces en route from Peshawar to Kabul, killing Muzaffar. Abdul Qadir plundered Peshawar and invested the citadel.[16] It was not until the time of Mughal EmperorShah Jahan (1628–1658) that a truce was brokered – between Akbar's grandson and Bayazid's great grandson.
The religious view of Pir Roshan was considered heretical by his contemporaries of Pashtun tribes fromKhattak andYusufzai.[17] Roshan extended his dismissiveness to Shiʻism as well, deriding it as an inferior form of Islam invented by Iranian elites during the rise of Three Ottomans, as effort undermine it. Roshan claimed that Persians actually regards the Ottomans embodied the true Islam.[18]
Pir Roshan also originally wrote hisKhair al-Bayan inPashto, which meant that the text was more accessible to the Pashtuns than theArabicQuran and that those followers took some measure of pride in its composition.[19]
During the 19th century,orientalist scholars translating texts from Pashto and other regional texts termed his movement a "sect" which believed in the transmigration of souls and in the representation of God through individuals.[20] Ideologically, history assessors withleft-wing view has regarded him as reformer who fight against conservative value among Pashtuns during his era.[17]
Aminullah Khan Gandapur, in his bookTārīkh-i-Sarzamīn-i-Gōmal (History of the Gomal Land; National Book Foundation-2008, 2nd Ed. ISBN 978-969-23423-2-2; P-57-63), ascribed a chapter to the Roshani movement and to their strife and achievement with the sword and the pen.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Pir Roshan, was from the small Ormur or Baraki tribe, whose mother tongue was Ormuri
