تلخیص
The Pushtūns or Pakhtūns occupy vast tracts of land in Pakistān and Afghānistān but
their ethnic origin still lies in obscurity this has given rise to pseculatio, very often
wild, based merely on emotions rather than reason. The most prominent among the
speculators was the highly venerated the Maulānā, ‘Abd al-Qādir, former director of
the Pushto Academy, University of Peshāwar, who set forth his views in 1967 in the
preface to the Urdu translation of Sir Olaf Caroe’s book, The Pathans. It is a lengthy
preface spreading over 44 pages, in which the Maulānā, besides telling us how this
world came into existence, throws ample light on what, in his view, was the origin of
the Pushtūns and their language, Pushto. The oldest part of the world where human
race and civilized life appeared first of all, the Maulānā informs us, was Central
Asia. In the remotest past, he says, when much of the present world was still under
water, Central Asia had all the elements – earth, water, sunshine – the combined
effect of which created an environment congenial for the development of human life.
God therefore selected this tract of land for the birth of human beings (Banī Ādam).
It was in this cradle, he further remarks, that the earliest humans received their
training in art and culture and then spread around in the world in search of livelihood
which mainly comprised hunting. Some of the hunting groups, the Maulānā says,
wandered too far away to be able to return to the homeland and settled in distant
lands losing all contacts with the original stock. There they developed their
languages in obedience to the climatic conditions of those lands. Those who came
back to Bākhtar (Bactria), an important place in Central Asia, and stayed on spoke
Pushto which was the mother tongue and spoken all over central Asia. The people
who spoke this language consequently came to be known as Pushtūns whose pi
FAZAL SHER , ABDUR RAHMAN. (2014) Ethnicity of the Pushtūns / Pakhūns, Pakistan Heritage, Volume 6, Issue 1.
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