An Analysis of Muhammad Hussain Khan's (1883-1960) Works on Afghanistan

Abstract

Indian Muslims played their role in the intellectual development and enlightenment of Afghanistan. Besides Pashto and Dari/Persian languages, many of them wrote in Urdu and English languages. In Afghan historiography, particularly Urdu writings of Indian Muslims are ignored for some reasons. This research paper attempts to catalogue Muhammad Hussain Khan's works written in Pashto, Dari/Persian, Urdu and English languages about Afghanistan. He was a prolific writer. His seventy one books have been introduced in this article. He is the pioneer of new literary genres in Afghanistan such as drama and novel. His works remained in oblivion for a long time owing to unknown reasons. A cursory look at the subjects and themes of his works, gives an impression that he was an enlightened, moderate and precursor to development in Afghanistan. His works and ideas seem still very relevant to the current troubled situation in Afghanistan. Muhammad Hussain Khan, belonged to Urmarh tribe. His family was settled in Jallandhar. He had obtained Bachelor of Arts Degree from Muslim Aligarh University and was well versed in English, Urdu. Dari,  Persian, Arabic and Pashto languages. He served as teacher of History and Geography in Habibia School, Kabul in 1907. He joined the constitutionalism movement and arrested in that connection in 1909 at the age of 26 years and imprisoned in Arg (Palace) at Kabul and remained in prison almost for one decade. Finally he was released by Amanullah Khan. He also served as Director Primary Schools in the Ministry of Education in 1926. He has remained the editor of the Magazine Habib-ul-Islam in 1928 by Habib Ullah Khan Alias Bacha-i-Saqao (1891-1929). He escaped to British India after some time and returned in 1929 to Kabul.