Texts of Islam

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī: Introduction

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This is a biographical-critical introduction from Henry George Raverty's 1868 anthology *Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans*, covering the 17th-century Pashto poet Mīrzā Khān Anṣārī. Raverty establishes Mīrzā Khān's lineage as a descendant of Bāyazīd Anṣārī (Pīr Ros'hān), the founder of a heterodox Islamic sect blending Sufi mysticism with Hindu transmigration beliefs, which brought Mīrzā Khān into repeated conflict with the orthodox clergy under the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The piece details how Mīrzā Khān navigated these dangers through strategic retreat into the courts of tolerant Hindu princes, where he was protected and patronized. Raverty also analyzes Mīrzā Khān's language, arguing against contemporaries who took Sanskrit loanwords in his Pashto verse as evidence of Sanskrit linguistic ancestry, attributing them instead to his long residence among Hindu communities and the historical presence of pre-Afghan Hindu populations in the region. The introduction closes by noting that Mīrzā Khān reportedly renounced his heterodox views in old age and died reconciled with orthodox Islam. Raverty judges his poetry the most difficult and sublime in the Pashto tradition, deeply saturated with Sufi mysticism.

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī: Introduction

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