Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A Pashto book written by renowned Pashto poet and writer Prof Abaseen Yousafzai on the life and achievements of Malek Ahmad Baba, the founder of the Independent state of Pakhtunkhwa in 1520 AD, has been published here in on Monday.

The 250 page book titled “Da Pakhtunkhwa Bani” includes research papers, speeches, lectures, poetry and photographs of heroes of the land that was presented to an audience of more than 500 writers, poets, journalists, politicians and common people interested in the history of their ancestors at the 545th birthday celebrations of Malek Ahmad Baba last year at an international seminar at Fishing Hut, Chakdara, Dir district last year.

Malek Ahmad Baba, born in 1470 to Malek Sultan Shah became the head of the Yousafzai, the largest Pakhtun tribe after his uncle and ruler Malek Suleman Shah was killed in a fraudulent manner along with 700 elders of his tribe by the then Mughal Ameer (governor) of Kabul Mirza Olagh Baig.

Malek Ahmad gathered his defeated tribe and settled in Doaba, Charsadda before taking on his enemies one by one and eventually established an independent Pakhtun state whose boundaries extended from Chitral to Kabul and from Qandahar to river Indus in 1520. The book, researched and composed by Professor Abaseen Yousafzai, is his ninth book. The back title of the book is written by renowned pediatrician Professor Dr Abdul Hameed Yousafzai, convener Malek Ahmad Society for Historical and Anthropological Research (MASHAR).