Abdul Haq Betab

Nasir Amiri

Encyclopaedia Iranica

b. Mullah Abdul Ahmad Attar, scholar & poet laureate (Malek ul Shu'ara) of Afghanistan, b. Kabul 1262 Hijri (1883), d. 1347 Hijri (1968).

Abdul Haq was a pious, retiring, & modest man, whose home became a center for poets & scholars seeking the benefit of his erudition. He spent most of his life in teaching and research. He began his career teaching Persian and Arabic in Kabul secondary schools and worked his way up to become professor of literature at the University of Kabul. He was well versed in Persian and Arabic literature and such other traditional disciplines as Islamic jurisprudence, tradition, and Koran exegesis, as well as astronomy. A devout Sufi, he was a Khalifa of the Naqshbandi order.

As a poet he modelled himself on the poet laureate Abdullah Khan Qari (1871-1943). In 1952, Abdul Haq himself succeeded to this honour. He characterized his own poetry as a mixture of styles typical of Khorasan and India, adding humorously that this combination reflected the position of Kabul-halfway between the two.

His published works include Diwan-e Betab (1951), four books on prosody and rhetoric; Guftar e Rawan Dar Ilm e Bayan, Kabul, (1955), Ilm-e Bad, Kabul (1951), Miftah al Gomuz dar Ilm e Qafia wa Aruz, Kabul (1951), Ilm e Ma'ani, Kabul (1968), and a number of translations, including al-Safia and al-Kafia by Jamal-al-Din Abu `Omar `Otman b. Hajeb (1174-1249), on grammar (Kabul), and Manazel al-sa'erin by `Abd-Allah Ansari (published in Adab, 1962). One of Abdul Haq's poems was printed in Rahnama-ye ketab (1968-69)

Bibliography

1. Ariana Da'irat al Ma'arif, Kabul, 1970
2. M.H. Zobal, Nigah e Be Adabiat e Mo'aser dar Afghanistan, Kabul, 1958
3. M.S. Mawlawi, Dargodasht e Do Chehra-e Adab-e Farsi, Sokan 18, 1968-69, pp 1175-76