Hindko language Sufi poet’s work collection launched

PESHAWAR: The Gandhara Hindko Academy has launched a comprehensive collection of the work of the great Hindko language Sufi poet, Sain Ahmad Ali.

Titled “Ganjeena-e-Sain,” the 1035-paged bulky publication has almost 1,000 harfis (couplets), an important genre of the Hindko language literature.

Ali Awais Khayal, a young researcher at the Gandhara Hindko Academy, who has a flair for the Hindko language classic poetry, has compiled the book after carrying out extensive research on the subject. The collection is distinctive if compared to the earlier works on the topic as all harfis have been arranged in the alphabetical order, captioned topic-wise and explained in details by placing them in categories. The index in the publication facilitates the readers. The Gandhara Hindko Board, a literary and cultural organization, launched the book at a special function. It was arranged to mark the 82nd death anniversary of Sain Ahmad Ali who was born in Peshawar in 1842 and passed away in 1937.

The programme was hosted at the Dr Zahoor Ahmad Awan Conference Room of the Gandhara Hindko Academy which is run by the Gandhara Hindko Board under the public-private partnership. An octogenarian writer, Iqbal Ali, presided over the function. Syed Saeed Gillani, a senior Hindko language poet, writer and Urdu lyricist, was the chief guest. The speakers highlighted the life and work of Sain Ahmad Ali who hailed from Peshawar but was equally popular with the masses in the Pothohar region where he lived a considerable part of his life before moving back to the city of his birth. They recited verses from his poetry to spotlight the command of the great mystic over the arrangement of words, metaphors and allegories to portray human feelings. Gandhara Hindko Board General Secretary Muhammad Ziauddin said Sufi poets and the poetry they composed had a great role in the promotion of the literature and culture of a language. He said the Gandhara Hindko Board and the academy not only collected the mystic poetry of Sain Ahmad Ali but also brought the work into book forms. The literatus said the board and the academy had published books on the life and poetry of Sain Ahmad Ali along with producing a documentary film on him. “We have translated into Urdu and Pashto some work of Sain Ahmad Ali. But a greater part of his poetry is yet to be researched, printed so that the message of the great Sufi poet is disseminated to a wider audience,” he elaborated and said “Ganjeena-e-Sain” was part of such efforts.