The file contains papers of the Political Agency, Muscat, concerning the transliteration of personal and place names in India and the Persian Gulf. The papers were compiled in response to requests from the Government of India for standardisation in the translation of vernacular names.The papers include: correspondence from the Under Secretary and the Secretary to the Government of India, drawing attention to the need for consistency in the spelling and arrangement of native Indian names in official lists, 1903-06; correspondence between the British Residency and Consulate-General, Bushire, and the Political Agent, Muscat, dated 1910-11, containing lists of transliterated names of persons, places, and tribes in Muscat, in accordance with a slightly modified Hunterian system of spelling and the system employed in Volume II of the
Persian Gulf Gazetteer; papers concerning an extract from 'A System for the Spelling of Names of Places etc. in Persia, Afghanistan, and Arabia', 1924; copies of the
First List of Names in Persia (South)and the
Second List of Names in Persia (North), by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, with associated correspondence, 1928-29; correspondence concerning circulars issued by the Protocol Department of the Persian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, communicating
changes to the names of certain towns in Persia [Iran], 1930-32; and correspondence concerning the new official names of the Kingdom and Ruler of Saudi Arabia, 1932.There is no correspondence in the file dated 1917-23.The other languages and scripts noted as being present in the file appear in lists of transliterated names.1 file (81 folios)The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 83; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-82; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.A previous foliation sequence between ff 37-82, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Divan-i Mir Zahi Afghani Muhashi (Collection of poetics of Mir Zahid) is a collection of Pushto poems of Mir Zahid Afghani Muhashi. There is no information about this person other than his name, which appears in this collection. It is not known whether Mir Zahid is the author or the compiler. The collection is a lithographic publication, printed in Lahore in 1915. The contents and genre suggest that it is most likely a copy of an older work of Pushto language and literature. The work is in five sections. Section one (pages 1-19) is organized by the Arabic alphabet and includes one or more poems starting with each of the 28 Arabic letters. Section two (pages 19-45) follows no order. However, the poems contain similar themes, such as the importance and value of unity in a society, the power and immortality of God, and other ethical and doctrinal themes. Section three, the longest section (pages 46-168), is organized according to an old Pushto alphabetic order, made up of 39 letters rather the current 45. One, or several, poems in this section starts or ends metrically with each of the Pushto alphabetic letters. Section four, which is only two pages, has few a Pushto rubayat (quatrains). Section five, also about two pages, has random verses from the poet, which seem to have been added by the publisher. All five sections contain various discourses about ethics, philosophy, knowledge, education, and related themes, major concerns of the Muslim literati classes, including Pushto poets, at the turn of 20th century, as well as earlier in the modern era. The collection has a number of distinctive, and even unique, characteristics. The poet or a later compiler has provided extensive commentaries and interpretations in the footnotes and margins. While the verses are in Pushto, the commentaries are almost entirely in Persian. In addition to its literary value, the book is an important source for intellectual history and for Pushto literary materials, which have remained unknown among scholars of Pushtun societies. The work has the official Afghan governmental emblem on its cover, but it also lists private sponsors. The first two patrons are introduced as "booksellers of Qandahar." The third person, the designer of the cover page, is identified as Abdul Rashid Mahboob; his name appears on the bottom right-side of the cover page. This lithographic edition is 172 pages in all. The pages have clear Arabic numbering. A Persian handwritten verse note on the second blank page of this copy invokes a religious discourse from the medieval Persian poet Abu Said Abu al-Khair and states that the writer of the note, either the compiler or a later owner, wishes to live until the year 2015 or 2017. World Digital Library.
Lithographed. Obedience to king, a religious decree and Islamic reference guide issued during the royal era in Afghanistan in 20th century. In Persian and Pushto; includes Arabic citations.
Dictionary of Pushto into Urdu. Kitāb K̲h̲airullug̲h̲āt yaʻnī Pushto Urdū Lugh̲āt (Pushto-Urdu Dictionary of Khairullah) was published in a lithographic version in Lahore in 1906. The author, Qazi Khairullah, took six years to produce the work. Khairullah, who is pictured in a simple drawing at the beginning of the book, was a church missionary and teacher of Pushto. The book has a preface in Urdu (pages 1-3), in which the author discusses the importance of having a Pushto-Urdu dictionary and its use as a supplementary book for schools that were being established in the borderland regions of the Northwest Frontier Province of British India. This is followed by a brief essay (pages 3-6) in Urdu, "Tārīkh-i Zabān-i Pushto" (History of the Pushto language), in which the author identifies Pushto as an Indo-European language (like Persian, Latin, and Sanskrit). He states that there is no textual evidence predating the arrival of Islam to support that Pushto had an ancient alphabet. The bulk of the work (pages 7-192) is the Pushto-Urdu vocabulary. The dictionary does not include the many words in Pushto that start with the letter ya, the last letter of Pushto alphabet. The volume presented here is the first Pushto-Urdu dictionary ever compiled. It was produced at a period in the history in the Northwest Frontier Province when Pushto- and Urdu-speaking peoples were interacting with each other in increasing numbers through contacts with the British Indian Army and at schools in the region. World Digital Library.
Qavaʼid-i Pushtū (Pushto grammar) is a linguistic work, produced by Pushto Tolanah (Pushto Academy), an Afghan governmental literary organization that was founded in 1938 in Kabul to promote Pushto language, literature, and history. This particular manual was written in Persian by Muhammad Aʻzam Ayazi, a member of Pushto Tolanah, and published in 1939 for both Pushtun and non-Pushtun readers interested in learning the Pushto language. The manual is 224 pages long and is organized into a detailed table of contents, acknowledgements, and 14 sections, each of which is divided into numerous chapters. Section 1 (pages 1-10) is a detailed description of the Pushto alphabet. Section 2 (pages 10-35) is devoted to discussion of the morphology of the language. Section 3 (pages 36-51) discusses Pushto adjectives, their various types and usage. Section 4 (pages 51-67) deals with pronouns, their use, and agreement in the language. Section 5 (the longest section, pages 67-146) is about verbs, their various forms, usage, and conditions. Section 6 (pages 146-55) deals with adverbs in Pushto. Section 7 (the shortest section, pages 155-58) discusses prepositions. Section 8 (pages 158-61) deals with verb phrases. Section 9 (pages 161-64) discusses vowels. Section 10 (pages 164-73) deals with compound words. Section 11 (pages 173-79) discusses syllabification. Section 12 (pages 179-81) deals with punctuation marks. Section 13 (wrongly headed "section 14," pages 182-212) deals with sentence formation. Section 14 (pages 213-22) has a list of Pushto infinitives alongside their Persian meanings. The concluding pages list corrections to the text. World Digital Library.
Risālah-i Puṣhto It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr (On the obedience of the ruler in Pashto) is a tract meant to encourage obedience to the ruler of Afghanistan. The expression ūlā al-amr refers to one who is foremost in authority, and the title of the book references a Qur'anic verse (5:59), "Oh Believers! Obey the Lord and the Prophet and those who are foremost in authority amongst you," which is quoted at the beginning of the work. Numerous quotes from the hadith literature (primarily from the collection of al-Bukhari) follow. The Arabic text of each hadith is followed by an explanation in Pashto, several of which equate disobedience with jahāla (ignorance, i.e. of religious precepts) and contrast it with shahāda (bearing testimony or witness to Islam). The aim of the work is thus plainly the garnering of legitimacy and authority for the then-ruling Afghan emir, Habibullah Khan (reigned 1901-19). The Persian original of this work was composed by Maulawi ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan (1878 or 1879-1919), who, ironically, appears to have been jailed for his involvement in the constitutional movement in the early 1900s against the authoritarianism of Habibullah Khan. By the time he composed the It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr, ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan was serving Habibullah Khan in the role of mullā-i darbār (court theologian). Both ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan and the translator, Salih Muhammad, were teachers at the Habibiya School founded by Habibullah Khan. The Pashto translation of It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr was printed by the Dar al-Saltanah press in Kabul. The cover states that it is the first Pashto work printed in Afghanistan, and that it was meant to be distributed free of charge. World Digital Library.
Uṣūlnāmah-ʼi taʼziyahʹdāri dar Afghānistān (Guidebook for visits of condolence in Afghanistan) is a short tract consisting of 13 injunctions concerning public mourning in Afghanistan, particularly with regard to visits of condolence. The tone of the text is largely proscriptive. It prohibits repeated visits to the survivors of the deceased, and requires that such visits occur in a three-day period following the death of the person being mourned. Also included are injunctions against excessive displays of grief and condolence visits by young women in cases when the deceased is not a woman or a close male relative. The text is presented in the two principal languages of Afghanistan, Pushto and Dari, in side-by-side columns. The book was published in 300 copies on April 9, 1939, corresponding to the early reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah (reigned 1933-73). Uṣūlnāmah-ʼi taʼziyahʹdāri dar Afghānistān is important in offering a rare look at the intrusion of the rapidly modernizing Afghan state into areas that previously would have been the exclusive domain of religion and traditional belief systems. World Digital Library.