oon after ascending the throne in 1919, Afghan King Amanullah Khan succeeded in securing independence from the British. He soon became an eyesore for colonialists. To shatter his dream of a prosperous Afghanistan, the British recruited many so-called clerics, spiritual leaders and local spies. In the end, they succeeded in toppling his regime in 1929.

In those days, only a handful of clerics stood with Amanullah Khan. Mullah Abdul Salam Ashezai was one of those. He sternly opposed the British conspiracies against the Afghan king.

Believing in sovereignty and patriotism, Mullah Sallam Ashezai appeared as a defiant poet and writer to counter the aggressive enemy.

Mullah Ashezai was born into a religious family in 1882 in the Shakha village in Balochistan’s Qilla Abdullah district. After early Islamic studies under his father, Mullah Habash Ashezai, he moved to Pishin and, later, Kandahar for higher studies.

He was a poet for a turbulent age. His poetry collection, Sosan Chaman, details many rude tales of the British tyrant regime, showing how mercilessly the British persecuted the people raising their voices for their due rights.

Dr Abdul Rauf Raffiqui, the Quetta-based Pashto scholar and poet, says there are indeed a lot of similarities between the classical Pashto poet Khushal Khan Khattak [1614-1689) and Mullah Ashezai. Khattak had been a harsh critic to the Mughal emperors, especially Aurangzeb Alamgir, who later sent him behind bars for more than five years. Mullah Ashezai was jailed for defying the British and their facilitators.

Celebrated Afghan writer and poet Allama Abdul Shakoor Rashad has shed ample light on Mullah Ashezai’s work. He writes, “Ashezai was a renowned Pashto poet who belonged to a territory that used to be an integral part of the historical Kandahar prior to the treaty of Gandamak (1879) and Durand Line (1893).”

He was a poet who never wrote to entertain the kings. As a poet, he protested against injustices meted out to helpless people. He used literature to serve the society.

Sosan Chaman is the maiden poetry collection of Mullah Sallam Ashezai, in which he sternly criticised the Raj’s policies. The book, printed in 1934 from Lahore for the first time, gained unbelievable popularity among the people living in British-occupied India. The 400-page poetry collection carries about 300 ghazal arranged in alphabetic order.

The British authorities ordered all copies of the book to be burnt and imposed a ban on its further publication, fearing that it might provoke public sentiment against the Raj. The government also imprisoned him for being a threat to colonial interests.

After about a month, the government was forced to release him as people protesting against his arrest gave the government an ultimatum in this regard.

Recalling the burning of the book, Mullah Ashezai, composed the following couplets:

He was a poet who never wrote to entertain the kings. As a poet, he protested against injustices meted out to helpless people. He used literature to serve the society.

Che angraiz Sosan Chaman pa oor ki wachaw

Pa ma ham da Ibrahim musibat raghai

[When the British set ablaze my book, Sosan Chaman, I endured the calamity like Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) had

Khushal Khan zamano warkai wa Mughal ta

Band la khwad byaee tarborona azizan ma

[Khushal Khan Khattak’s own sons facilitated the Mughal empire to jail their father,

So it not surprising when my kinsmen have pushed me behind bars]

Mullah Ashezai made several efforts to re-publish his book, but in vain. Late Abul Khair Zaland, a Pashto poet, narrates that once Mullah Ashezai showed him a copy of a letter to him that the British agent to the governor general had written in response to his [Ashezai’s] letter seeking permission to re-print the book. The agent to governor general expressed astonishment in his letter that “such a staunch enemy of the Raj” was still alive. He also warned Ashezai not to write such letters to the British office in the future”.

Almost ten years after independence, Anwar Adil, the then deputy commissioner of Quetta, allowed Mullah Ashezai to re-publish his book.

Talab-i-Madhab is the second collection of Mullah Ashezai’s poetry. It consists of short rhyming couplets. The book deals with fiqhi principles and addresses subjects like salat, zakat and nikah.

His third collection is Zardana Durr, written in masnavi style. It contains his political narrative.

Many Pashto poets, both his contemporaries and those from a later era, have paid rich poetic tributes to him. He has been lauded as an unbowed resistance hero. Mullah Allah Mohammad Adozai, one of his contemporaries, remembers Mullah Ashezai in following verses:

Za yaw so sifata kazham da Qazi nan

Da Kozhak pa ghra ki nast dai shin tuti nan

Afarin Sadafarin pa dasi zoi sa,

Che ye kray da ghaza da Firangi nan.

[Today I have taken a vow to admire the brilliant skills of my fellow Qazi [Mullah Ashezai],

Who, like a parrot, nestled among the hill of Kozhak.

Salute a hundred times to such a son of the soil who has fought a holy war against British colonials]

This dauntless Pashto poet breathed his last on January 26, 1974, at the age of 92. He was laid to rest in his native graveyard at Shakha.

The writer is a Zhob-based columnist and a lecturer at the Government Degree