Amir Kror

Amir Kror Jahan Pahlawan: We do not know the name of Amir Polad's father, the long time ruler of the capital of Ghor mountains, Mandesh. But from his own name composed of both Pashto and Dari components we can understand that he was born in an environment made up of the common culture of this land.

It could be said almost with certainty that the lofty peak of Koh-i-Baba (Baba Mountain), Shah Poladi and a region of the eastern Ghor, Dai Poladi are named after this Iron Amir. From the Pashto work Pata Khazana we know his son, Jahan Pahlawan Amir Kror, who succeeded him. The word kror means strong and sturdy and that which has a hard core.

The author of Pata Khazana, Mohammad bin Daud Khan Hotak (1142 H./1729 A.D.) introduces an old Pashto poet by this name who is the writer of a Pashto epic. He has taken the background and poem of this poet from Larghuni Pashtana (Early Pashtuns) of Shaikh Kata bin Yusuf of the Matazai tribe (C. 750 H./1349 A.D.) whereas Shaikh Kata had extracted it from Tarikh-e Suri of Mohammad bin Ali Busti (compiled c. 650 11./1251 A.D.) in Balishtan (southern Walishtan of Ghor and now a region of Terai, north of Kandahar).

Now, unfortunately, there remains neither Larghuni Pashtana nor Tarekh-e Suri, but what has reached us through the efforts of Mohammad Hotak in his biography of Pashto poets (Pata Khazana) is as follows:

Shaikh Kata Mathizay Ghoryakhel, who had reached celestial heights, in his book Larghuni Pashtana (Past Pashtoons) cites from Tarekh-e Suri (History of Suri), which he had come upon in Balishtan that: Amir Kror was the son of Amir Polad who became the governor of Mandesh in Ghor where he was known as Jahan Pahlavan. He is said to have conquered the fortresses of Ghor, Balishtan, Kheisar, Tamran and Barkoshak and assisted the Caliphate.

Amir Kror was a valiant fighter and challenged several people at a time. It is for this reason that he was known as Kror, meaning hard and strong. During the summer he stayed in Zamindawar where he had a palace resembling his citadel in Mandesh. In Zamindawar he spent his time hunting and in leisure. It has been stated in Tarekh-e Suri that these chieftains reigned over Ghor, Balishtan and Bost for several cen­turies. They are the descendants of Sur whose lineage goes back to the Sahak. Amir Polad heeded the call of Abu-al-Abas Safah against the Bani Umia. Mohammad Ibn Ali Albasti in Tarekh-e Suri writes that in the call to war by the Abbasids Amir Kror scored many victories. Therefore, he wrote this poem known as wyârháná (glorification). Shaikh Kata, God's mercy be on him, has recorded this poem from Tarekh-e Suri.

Shaikh Kata relates from Tarekh-e Suri that Amir Kror was a just man, who was a good speaker and often wrote poetry. He died in 154 H./771 A.D. in the battle of Poshanj. After his death his son, Amir Naser, took control of the territories of Ghor, Sur, Bost and Zamindawar.

Since the Abassid call to war Amir Kror gained many victories he composed some verses through which he expressed his feelings of pride called fakhria (or poem in which merits of the author are enumerated). Shaikh Kata has quoted this poem from Tarikhi Suri [2].

           I am a lion, in this world there is none more powerful,
           In India, Sind, Takhar or Kabul,
           Nor is there any in the plains of Zabul.
           There is none mightier than me.

           The arrows of my strong will, like lightning fall
           On the fleeing enemy I boldly recall:
           Defeated in battle they have been all.
           There is none mightier than me.

           The skies above, round my victories revolve
           Under the thunder of my horse's hooves mountains dissolve,
           Conquer will I countless lands as battles evolve.
           There is none mightier than me.      

           Under the lightening of my sword Jurm[3] and Herat lie
           Gharj,[4] Bamiyan and Takhar recant my battle cry;

           My name is known under the Roman sky,
           There is none mightier than me.

           My arrows fall on Merv, the enemy fears me
           On the banks of Haryaw-al-Rud[5] infantrymen quickly flee;
           Brave warriors tremble when me they see.
           There is none mightier than me.

           Conquer did I Zaranj[6] and respect to my sword accord,
           And the house of Sur the honor of kingship award
           But my kin I do reward.
           There is none mightier than me.

           To my subjects I show grace and remain kind
           To their  happiness and welfare I am not blind,
           For their prosperity, time I find.
           There is none mightier than me.

           In the mighty mountains, respected is my command,
           The world is mine, my name is famous through the land
           For days, nights, months and years; understand
           There is none mightier than me.

Shaikh Kata referring to Tarikh-e Suri relates that Amir Kror was a just man and wrote good poetry. He died in the battles of Poshanj in 154 H./770 A.D. [7] and was succeeded his by his son, Amir Nasir, who took control of the country and became the master of the lands of Ghor, Sur, Bost, and Zamindawar."" [8]

From this recent historical document whose relation is known, we know two men from the Sur family: Amir Kror and his son, Amir Nasir. These two emirs are not mentioned in other sources; and the latter was ruling over Ghor, the surroundings of Bust and Zamindawar around 160 H./776 A.D.

His father's epical poem is in old Pashto which describes the position, victories, bravery and belligerence of its author and contains such words that are not used in Pashto today.

Minhaj Siraj who is our only ancient source with regards to the Suri family says nothing about the rulers of this family after Amir Polad (C. 30 H./747 A.D.) to the time of Harun-ur-Rashid (c. 170H./ 786 A.D.) and this gap of 40 years is filled by the narrative of Tarikh-e Suri that has reached us through Pata Khazana.

A LOOK AT AMIR KROR'S POETICAL PIECES

The poetical piece that Amir Kror left behind and was recorded in Tarikhi Suri of Mohammad bin Ali Busti and subsequently copied by Shaikh Kata in his book Larghuni Pashtana and has reached us through a third medium (Pata Khazana) is the earlier Pashto poem at our disposal to date, and not definitely the earliest or most ancient piece of Pashto poetry. For it is possible that there would be another work or even works older than Amir Kror's epics which have not come to hand and of which we do not know as yet. But from the viewpoint of maturity of its style, manner of expression, and content this ancient piece shows that Pashto poetry should have passed through its earlier stages already to reach this degree of literary maturity. And this poem is about one century older than the older preserved Dari poems of Abu Nafs Sughdi and Abas Meruzi (2nd century H), Hanzala Badghisi (died 220 H./834 A D), Feroz Mashrioi (280 H./893 A D.) and Abu Saleek C'argoni (280 H./893 A.D.)

The sequence or chain of eloquence in the Pashto language does not begin with this epic of Amir Kror, but it is the only piece left to us from those days. And as we see, this chain has been continued in the court of Ghor during the later periods also.

(1) With respect to the metrical structure and poetical measure it does not resemble any of the recorded structures or meters that have been imitated from the Arabic or Dari prosody of Khalil bin Ahmad in the later Pashto poetry. But we know that the singers of popular Pashto songs always exist in every village and tribe, and they have many varied and independent meters which are based on the number of syllables and stress or accent, which signify the prosodic character of the language. This epical poem of Amir Kror, whose literal translation was given in the foregoing pages, is based on these special poetic measures. That is to say in each stanza first there are two rhyming hemistiches of fourteen syllables each. These ale followed by a shorter hemistich of six or seven syllables ending in the repeating hemistich of six syllables. This last repeating hemistich is called kasr in Pashto.

(2) This old poem, with its poetic measure, has also a special feature from the viewpoint of linguistics, for it is entirely free of foreign words, and with the exception of the Arabized proper names that have entered it, all the other words are Pashto words. It also contains words that are not used any longer, but in their roots they show a connection with the living words, which indicates that there were wide rules of derivation and grammatical changes in this language some of which are not seen today. For example zaran (brave) derived from zra (heart) dashan (enemy) an adjective derived from dush (horrid), and palan (foot) an adjective derived from pal (footstep).

3) There are some words in this old poem which do not convey their original old meaning and are no longer used in the language. For instance, the word mun which in Hindi means heart, soul, and will.[9] According to Alberuni, actually it is heart, and also since the locality of will is the heart, it is called mun,[10] and this word as used in Amir Kror's poem conveys the meaning of will and determination. And perhaps, the gerund manal meaning to accept also comes from this root.

The words atal (champion, hero, genius), dariz place of standing, hask which is now an adjective, high, and nmanz comes horn the root of nmunz, nmanzal and the namaz of Dari. These are instances of the gradual change of language during the last ten centuries. And we know also that Pashto language at that time was much purer than it is today.

4) In olden times (about the composition of this epic) among the adverbial particles and suffixes of place we had ""iz"" and it conveyed the meaning of adverb of place. For example, in this poem we have the word dariz from adre and ""iz"" which together mean the Arabic mumber and mawqaf (pulpit and stand) and today we no longer have such adverbs of place. But in the writings of the middle poets also there were such particles of adverb as a sample of which we have only two other words: khatiz (i.e. place of rising--East) and lwediz (or place of setting-West) instead of which we use lmar khata and lmar lweda today.

5) As regards content also this old epic is a ""pure and unmixed"" poem for, there is the pure and simple feelings of rule implied in it contained by admixtures of other literary qualities. Its thought too—like its poetic mold—is pure and unadulterated. From this we could infer that though the Arabized names of places like Jurum and Hariwalrod are indicative of the author's association with the Abbassid Arabs, the helpers of Abu Muslim Mervzi, and the missionaries of the Abbas family caliphate who were certainly Arabic speakers—the intellectual influence of the Arab culture was not widely spread. For the word Jurum (Garamser) as attested by Billazuri, has been used in a poem by Ibn Mufarrigh, an Arab poet (around 60 H./ 679 A.D.) from the first half of the first century (H.) to refer to this same Garamser of southern Afghanistan,[11] and was present till the time of Minhaj Siraj (13th century).

6) Considering the maturity and beauty of this poem together with its verbal and conceptual ripeness, it could safely be said that Pashto poetry has had a good background at the time when this piece was composed by its author, and is not a newborn without any precursor. Since we see that the various kinds of Pashto poetry continue with considerable force and solidity after this period also, we can state that Pashto was an original language with a strong foundation and capacity and solidity for expressing a variety of ideas and epical, emotional and literary content a thousand years ago. And following that during the Islamic period it has brought into existence a literature that is rich and full of content in Central Asia one of whose cradles was the land of Ghor and the courts of the Suri family rulers.

References

[1] AlamaHabibi.com [2] Pata Khazana, p. 30, Kabul 1944. [3] Juroom plural of Jurm, Arabicized form of garam meaning Garamser and the southern parts of Afghansitan. [4] Gharj is the Arabicized form of ghar and Gharjistan is the Arabicized form of Gharistan in the southwest of Ghor. [5] Harivalrud is the Arabicized form of Harirod and this form indicates the influence of Arabic decorum on Amir Kror. [6]Zaranj is the Arabized form of Zaranj and is the name of the capital of Seistan. [7] Poshanj is the Arabized form of Pashang, the present-day Ghorian to the south of Heart. [8] Pata Khazana, p. 30, Kabul, 1944. [9] Hindi Dictionary, p. 703. [10] Kitab-ul-Hind, Vol. 11, p. 45. [11] Futuh-ul-Buldan, p. 440.","utf-8"