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Sher Muhammad Khan Gandapur
Muhammad Jamil Hanifi
Encyclopaedia Iranica
GANDAPUR, Sher Muhammad Khan. b. Mehrdad Khn. b. Azad Khan, author of
the Persian Tawarikh e Khorshid e Jahan, an important chronicle containing
genealogical accounts and tables of Pashtun/Paxtun tribal groups. He belonged to the
Ebrahimzay section of the Gandapur Pashtun tribal segment. His dates of birth
and death are not known. He was the mayor of the city of Kulachi in the Dera
Ismail Khan district of Northwest Frontier Province for an unspecified period
during the third quarter of the 19th century. The book (pp. 304-5) includes
explicit reference to events in 1904 and 1905, which makes the actual date of
publication 1905 or later and thus raises doubts about the authorship of some
portions of the work. It was posthumously published by Sardar Mohammad Hayat
Khan, probably the same Mohammad Hayat Khan that the author refers to as his own
son (p. 306).
Sher Muhammad claims (p. 2) that when he was mayor of Kulachi, he composed a
brief history and genealogy of the Afghans called "Gulshan-e-Afghan" but as he
was preparing it for publication, due to the machinations of some government
officials, it found its way to Muhammad Hayat Khan (not to be confused with the
author's son), an assistant in the Bannu judiciary, who not only appropriated
the document but also used it as the basis for his own book Hayat-e-Afghani. It
is difficult to judge Gandapur's claim. Portions of Hayat-e-Afghani, however,
show clear resemblance to Gandapur's book. Nevertheless, Muhammad Hayat Khan,
without specifically naming anyone, refutes a number of Sher Muhammad's
assertions, especially those concerning genealogical chronologies and the
Gandapur's Pashtun identity and their stipulated descent from Muhammad Gisu Daraz
(pp. 279-98).
The Tawarikh e Khorshid e Jahan was reprinted in Peshawar under the title of
Tarikh e Khorshid e Jahan. The reprint is not dated
but it is likely that it was published after the 1978 revolution in Afghanistan
when a lucrative market appeared for reprints and translations of works dealing
with Afghanistan and its people. The original publication date and the name of Sardar Muhammad Hayat Khan, who had commissioned the original publication, were
omitted from the title page of the reprint. This book along with Muhammad Hayat
Khan's Hayat-e-Afghani and Niamatullah's Heravi's Makhzan-e-Afghani are three basic and
sometimes contradictory Persian sources for the dynastic history and
genealogical accounts of the Pashtuns.
Bibliography:
- Sher Muhammad Khan Gandapur, Tawarikh e Khorshid e Jahan, Lahore, 1894; repr.
Peshawar, 1980s
- S. M. Imamuddin, "The Tarikh e Khan e Jahan i wa Makhzan e Afghani," Islamic
Culture 22/2, 1948, pp. 129-42, 22/3, pp. 280-94.
- Muhammad Hayat Khan, "Hayat e Afghani", tr. H. Priestly as Afghanistan and
its Inhabitants, Lahore, 1981.
- Niamatullah Heravi, "Makhzan e Afghani", ed. and tr. B. Dorn as The History of the
Afghans, 2 vols., London 1965. Storey, I, p. 407.
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