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wrote Pashto poetry. From that time until the 16th century there was little Pashto Literature of note
The body of existing literature of Pashto begins with the 16th century, and is mainly poetical in character, but there are also a few important works in prose, especially histories, such as Akhund Darveza's Makhzan-i-Pashto and Makhzan-i-Islam, and Afzal Khan Khattak Tarikh-i-Murassa. The principal poets are Khushhal Khan Khattak, Mirza Khan Ansari, a poet of the Sofi school, and the popular poets Abdur Rahman and Abdul Hamid, who have both left Diwans of a mystical character. Abdul Qadir Khattak, Ahmad Shah Durrani and Peer Mohammed Kakar are also looked upon as some of the best Pashto poets of the age.
Khushhal Khan Khattak is the most famous of the Afghan poets. He was the chief of Khattaks, a powerful and warlike tribe living around Peshawar. He was born in the early part of the 17th century, and died at a ripe old age towards its close. He lived through a portion of the reign of the Emperor Jehangir, the whole of that of Shah Jehan, and the greater part of that of Aurangzeb. Shah Jehan treated him kindly and generously. Aurangzeb reversed the temporizing policy of his father in relations with the Afgan tribes and thus made a bitter enemy of Khushhal Khan. Khushhal never alludes to Aurangzeb in his poems except in terms of extreme hatred and contempt. Khushhal's poems are full of expressions of patriotic feelings, decriptions of contest with the Mughals and of reference to his bold stand against the Emperor. He appears to have been indeed a man of most extraordinary vigour of mind and exceptional versatility of talent. His poems are the true expression of the national character and the circumstances of his adventurous life.
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