Amir Hamza Khan , the Poet of Ghazal

Amir Hamza Khan , the Poet of Ghazal
By Zar Ali Khan Musazai
Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari was born in the village of Landi Kotal , Khyber in 1907. But he spent the more part of his life in Peshawar.It is said that in winter he lived in a small home situated inside of Aasia gate while in summer he lived in his own native village situated in the west of Peshawar in mountains near Durand line,Landikotal. The weather is commonly pleasant there and one can spend his time without having electricity fan. Hamza Baba was not a lonely person and he was always surrounded by his will-wishers, friends and disciples where ever he was. He was having a sound health and mind while he was hearing little loud and his eye sight was also very good and as for as his memory concerned was wonderful. Hamza baba remembered his all poetry and besides he had memorized the poetry of other poets belonging to other languages. He used to recite his poems in Urdu language but on the advice of his Pir Abdul Sattar shah Bacha he started his poems in his own mother language Pashto. He was an encyclopedia of Pashto literature. His services for Pashto language and literature are innumerable. He is known as Baba-e- Pashto Ghazal. As he says:
Sta pa Anango ki a Hamza da weeno sra de
Ta shway da Pukhto Ghazal zwan ao za de Baba kram
Translation:
(The color in your cheeks is the color of the blood of Hamza)
(0, Pashto Ghazal, you are grown up but Hamza became old)
Hamza baba was a student in Islamis Collegiate School but due to his family reasons he could not continue his higher education and left education in mid way while his love for Urdu poetry also diminished and gave his full fledged attention to his own language Pashto. After leaving his School he was soon married and employed in the office of Political Agent in Landi Kotal. Soon he left his job there and went to Bombay to try his luck there. Bombay was then a sort of Hollywood of sub- continent. Although this tour of Bombay proved to be a misadventure but Baba did not lose heart and the year of 1920 he succeeded in getting the role in a film. In 1941 he was called upon by Rafique Ghaznavi to write script, songs and dialogue for the Pashto film Laila Majnoon. Hamza baba was deeply trenched in mysticism and about his this experience he says: I stepped into the land of wonders in 1930. I was not consciously inclined that way before and it would be more true to say that I have not come here of my own but was simply dragged to it. Hamza baba took formal allegiance, in Chistia order , at the hands of his Pir Sayyed Abdul Sattar Shah commonly known as Sattar shah Bacha in Dabgari Peshawar.In 1937 a Pashto literary society called Bazm-e- Adab was founded by baba. Syed Rahat Zakheli was elected as its President while Hamza baba was elected as a vice-presidentand. Bacha Gul Niazi as its general secretary. Later on Hamza baba was made its president and he started looking after of this society. In the year 1950, this society was merged into a larger society called Olasi Adabi Jirga. The moving spirit behind this August Jirga was Sanobar Hussain Kakaji with Hamza Shinwari and Dost Mohammad Kamil as its vice-president and general secretary. Its membership consisted of Qalandar Momand, Ajmal Khattak, Mir Mehdi Shah, Wali Mohammad Toofan, Fazle Haq Shaida, Saifur Rehman Salim, Afzal Bangash, Latif Wahmi, Hussain Khan Soz, Ayub Sabir, Farigh Bokhari, Raza Hamdani, Qamar Rahi and a number of others. Apart from promoting poetry this Jirga also paid equal attention to the promotion of Pashto prose. For poetry as well as prose, it started holding regular sessions at the Balakhana of Kamil sab in Peshawar's famous Khyber Bazar.
Hamza baba had a great love for his own language Pashto and says:
The enemys say that Pashto is a language of hell
I will go to heaven with this language.
About his own land in India he writes:
I feel the taste of Pakhtoonkhwa in India,
when I come across an Afghan there
this shows his love for his mother land Pashtunkhwa.
In 1962 Hamza Baba published his first major work on Philosophy called Zhwand and in 1970 he published the accounts of his pilgrimage to Makka with his well known verse.
Hamza safar ka da Hijaz no hom
Za da Pukhtoon da Qafillo sara zam
Translation:
Even on my journey to Hijaz Hamza,
I go with caravans of the Pakhtoon
In 1970 he published the memoir of his Sheikh Syed Abdus Sattar Shah.
Important works of Hamza Baba

Poetry: Da zarrah aawaz, Ghazawooney, Baheer, Parey wooney, Saprlaey pa aaina key, Yoon, Szuand au yoon, Salgai and Naawey chapey (A travelogue).

Prose: Da Hijaz palour, (A travelogue in Pushto), Szuawer fikraunah, (Critical essays) Szuand, Wajood shahood, (Philosophical essays in Urdu), Insaan aur khuda (Urdu), Tajjliyat-i-Mohammadia (Pushto) and Insanee anaa au pooha (Pusht