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Mahmood Tarzi & The power of Literature at Cultural development
Dr.M.Halim Tanwir
Afghan Journalist & Historian
Excellency Princess India, Excellencies Abdul karim Khuran the minister of information & culture of Afghanistan, mr.Omar Tarzi, President of Mahmud Tarzi Cultural Foundation
Excellencies,Ladies and Gentlemen,
From the outset, I would like to welcome you to the International Conference on “Establishing Afghanistan'sModern Diplomacy: the Influence of Mahmud Tarzi
First of all, I would like to express my gratefulness to have been honoured to take part in this conference, and hope that my lecture will cast a glimpse on the journalism _ diplomacy & the power of Literature at Cultural development. Of our celebrated Allamah Mahmood Tarzi and add to our understanding.
Excellencies, Ladies,Gentlemen;
Today, we have gathered here to examine the thoughts and roles Mhamood Tarzi ,The Afghanistan's great personality of the twentieth century.
Mahmud Tarzi is a man of thinking and contemplation with an interest in implementing his reformist and enlightened ideas.
The process of Enlightenment and efforts to overcome our historical underdevelopment and anti-colonization are associated with Mahmud Tarzi. After years of exile and forced deportation, Tarzi returned to his homeland with new acquired knowledge and exposure to the Enlightenment ideas. The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed the emergence of constitutional movement and reforms process in some Muslim nations, including in the Ottoman Turkey. The great French Revolution and the Enlightenment ideas offered a new hope to the reformists in the land “the sick man of Europe”, which was inflicted with the curses of colonization, authoritarianism and underdevelopment. The liberating message of “Equality, Liberty and Fraternity” overwhelmed many reformists and intellectuals of these lands. The authoritarian beliefs and systems who ruled for centuries over men's bodies and minds were confronted with the principle of “people sovereignty”.
The late arrival of Enlightenment ideas and promises to our nations was compounded by their association and utilization by the colonial powers. In other words, the modernity and Enlightenment in the East were not home-grown. It was primarily an effort by the colonized orient to overcome their defeat by acquiring the tolls and products of the Enlightenment and modernity. Any other interpretation is a misreading and misinterpretation of the history.
It is imperative that we contextualize the views and efforts of Tarzi in order to assess his achievements and also the constraints that he was subjected to. As a journalist, a poet, a writer, a translator, an intellectual and a politician his multidimensional personality have made him one of Afghanistan's historical personalities. He was the first statesman who laid down the foundation of a national government based on people sovereignty and citizens rights. His efforts are more appreciative when we realize that he was pursing his objectives in time when the palace was filled by the colonial's agents and puppets. His nationalism brought him to direct confrontation with the forces who did not want to accept new changes, ideas and institutions that were blossoming in the Occident following the French revolution.
No other Afghan had been steeped to this extent in such a cosmopolitan world and in Levantine culture, and the views he expressed at Kabul's royal court were entirely novel. His pro-Turkish aspirations had the Amir's ear, but met with opposition amongst conservative, pro-British elements represented by members of another Moḥammadzay branch that had returned from India, the Yaḥyā Khēl family, known as the Mosāḥebān (Saikal, pp. 46-49). Soon, he was surrounded by a group of “Young Afghans,” inspired by his reformist ideas and by the ideal of progress to which he hoped to convert his fellow countrymen.
Education, the compatibility of Islamic principles with modernization, economic development, European imperialism, independence and national unity, and pan-Asian solidarity were all topics covered by his newspaper (Gregorian, 1967, pp. 167-70; Schinasi, 1979, pp. 153-220), receiving Amir Ḥabib-Allāh's overall support. However, during the First World War, Ṭarzi and his friends took a more overtly political stance, arguing in favor of joining the war alongside the German-Turkish axis, whereas Ḥabib-Allāh decided that Afghanistan should remain neutral.
His career as a thinker was to take a new turn the following year when Amān-Allāh (q.v.; r. 1919-29) succeeded his father on the throne of Kabul and appointed Ṭarzi as his Minister of Foreign Affairs (April 1919). In harmony with the new Amir, who was one of his most ardent supporters among the “Young Afghans” and who was also his son-in-law, Ṭarzi began to reap what he had sown: he led the laborious Anglo-Afghan negotiations in Mussoorie (1920) and Kabul (1921), signed the treaties for Afghanistan's independence, ending forty years of British control, and steered Afghan foreign policy in a moderate direction. And he witnessed the implementation of a first wave of administrative, legal and social reforms, part of the structural transformation and difficult program to modernize the Afghan State, a program he had inspired.
Yet at the same time, Ṭarzi remained critical. He believed that the reforms should be implemented at a more moderate pace to allow the population to adapt, and called for socio-economic reforms to be supported by an appropriate political structure. Amān-Allāh rejected his criticisms and distanced himself from his mentor in favor of an entourage whose loyalty Ṭarzi believed to be debatable (Saikal, p. 83). Now that he no longer had the young Amir's ear, Ṭarzi sought to retire, and tried to do so on several occasions: by leaving Kabul, officially for health reasons, to open the first Afghan legation in Paris (Sept. 1922-Oct. 1924); by resigning as Minister of Foreign Affairs, but when his resignation was refused (summer 1925), he retained his title whilst reducing his activities to a minimum (1925-26); and lastly by leaving for Switzerland (1927). Ṭarzi was however at Amān-Allāh's side at the start of his long journey, accompanying him to Egypt and Italy (December 1927-January 1928), but not beyond. In April 1928, he returned to Afghanistan, where he no longer held any official position, then left the country for good a few months later when Amān-Allāh's regime collapsed (see BAČČA-YE SAQQĀ). After spending a few months in Tehran, Ṭarzi returned to Istanbul in October 1929, where he died five years later of cancer of the liver, and was buried at the cemetery in Eyüp.
Ṭarzi introduced Kabul's intellectual circles to a new school of thought, one that addressed the issues of modern times, both in the Orient and in the West, as well as philosophical, scientific and religious questions, and the situation in Islamic countries. When he described the glorious past of the Muslim civilization, pointing out that mathematics and natural sciences were first developed by Muslim scholars, and when he analyzed the reasons why Muslims later lagged behind the West, in “What were we? What have we become?” (Āyā če bāyad kard? [What is to be done?] pp. 12, 51, pp. 52-53), it was to underscore the fact that the study of science and technology was essential to recover this strength, and that Islam was perfectly reconcilable with progress (ʿElm wa eslāmiyat).
Afghanistan and Afghans were also central to Ṭarzi's concerns. His first publication on returning to Afghanistan was a description of the country, written in verse (Afḡānestān, aṯar-e manẓum) and aimed at his fellow countrymen, whom he invited to take both a proud and critical view of their history (Āyā če bāyad kard, pp. 106-32) and to reflect on their main weakness, their lack of instruction and ignorance of the world around them, which had led the people to inertia (Rawẓa-ye ḥekam, pp. 140-41, 150-51). This was why he constantly called for all forms of knowledge acquisition.
He recommended that respecting the Afghan monarchy should be as much of a duty as respecting Islam's precepts, the two being inseparable, and also inseparable from respect for one's country, in which he included what he called the “shared country” that unites Muslims all over the world (Waṭan, pp. 88-89).
It was Mahmud Tarzi (1865-1933) who began promoting Pashtu as a national language in his newspaper Seraj ul-Akhbar (‘Lamp of the News’, 1911-1918). As well as supplying information and news, Seraj ul-Akhbar played an important role in educating and modernising Afghan society and it was under his influence that Pashtu prose began to develop in Afghanistan along Middle Eastern rather than Indian lines. Foreign works in translation, including numerous works by Jules Verne, were among the first books printed in Afghanistan. Tarzi also published his memoirs Travels on Three Continents about his trip to Syria, Egypt and France (1890). Tarzi was the catalyst of the modernisation movement within the ‘free press’ of his day.
While Tarzi’s efforts were directed toward educating the royal court and literati, the succeeding group of intellectuals tried to develop public education with a view to influencing the masses. The Literary Society, founded in Kabul in July 1931, helped prepare many Afghan teachers for work alongside French and Turkish professorTs at the University of Kabul during the 1930s and 1940s.
Reading a poem or an article of Tarzi that was written around 70 years ago poses a lot of problems even if, in the case of Afghan literature, we are in the lucky position that Tarsi’s language can still be understood by every speaker of Afghan writers and intellectuals. Still, culture has changed a lot, the attitude on poetry as well, and neither our own readings nor the traditional commentaries can ensure to read the ideas and the power of Literature at Cultural development. Of Tarzi in the way the author would have read them.
Yet, language itself, the act of speaking with all its shortcomings when it comes to love, especially divine love, has stayed much the same through the ages. Tarzi did not write his books for himself, but for an audience in order to teach them the experiences he had with the love of God and Afghan nationalism
Mahmud Tarzi is a man of thinking and contemplation with an interest in implementing his reformist and enlightened ideas
“He is a journalist, a poet, a writer, a translator, an intellectual and a politician his multidimensional personality have made him one of Afghanistan's historical personalities. He was the first statesman who laid down the foundation of a national government based on people sovereignty and citizens rights.”
A very good study of Tarzi which includes the insights of post-modern literary theory and of the traditional reading of him, has been conducted by constitutional afghan intelctuals Tarzi creates a lot of his imagery , uses images in various senses, and can be understood quite well without being tailored into standard explanations.
It was Mahmud Tarzi (1865-1933) who began promoting Pashtu as a national language in his newspaper Seraj ul-Akhbar (‘Lamp of the News’, 1911-1918). As well as supplying information and news, Seraj ul-Akhbar played an important role in educating and modernising Afghan society and it was under his influence that Pashtu prose began to develop in Afghanistan along Middle Eastern rather than Indian lines. Foreign works in translation, including numerous works by Jules Verne, were among the first books printed in Afghanistan. Tarzi also published his memoirs Travels on Three Continents about his trip to Syria, Egypt and France (1890). Tarzi was the catalyst of the modernisation movement within the ‘free press’ of his day.
While Tarzi’s efforts were directed toward educating the royal court and literati, the succeeding group of intellectuals tried to develop public education with a view to influencing the masses. The Literary Society, founded in Kabul in July 1931, helped prepare many Afghan teachers for work alongside French and Turkish professorTs at the University of Kabul during the 1930s and 1940s.
One of the fundamental activities of Mahmood Tarzi in the tenure of Habibullah Khan were revival of press and culture in Afghanistan. This work left impact on mentality of people . In addition to printing “Darul Saltanat”, other printing houses such as “Enayat” printing house also stared work that both printing would accept work of lithography and got extension. The printing house of topography that were a number of steam machinery for printing and machines of binding and zincography for printing of picture were also brought to Afghanistan and started working.
Effort was taken in part of fine arts. Experts were hired and employed in the fields of lapidary calligraphy and craft- most of these works were used for printing and publishing affairs.
In the printing section, books and pamphlets were published and printed and writings of Mahmood Tarzi and various other books as collection of cultural work were published and were offered outside for sale.
The foreign publication especially books and newspapers (pamphlets) from Turkey attracted the attention of educated Afghans and played a positive role in thinking revolution of the people in a long stagnancy governing them. At the beginning of the Second World War had impact on common mentality of the people of Afghanistan. And due to the hostility that they previously had with Russians and English, the world issue and foreign news and publication had become more interesting for the people throughout the country. Similarly, the industry of journalism as new phenomenon caused and played a positive role in happiness of people. The newspaper of “Serajul Akhbar” and other publications with the initiative of Mahmood Tarzi was pioneer in press of Afghanistan and caused a fundamental change in social culture and development of political thinking of the youths.
Mahmood Tarzi was one of the successor and follower of S.J.Afghani. After passing through strangulation period and tyrannical Kingdom could implement objectives of S.J. Afghani to an extent in the society of Afghanistan. The biggest task of this great person of pen and thought was revival of press and culture. So he could be called second father of press and founder of new journalism in Afghanistan.
Mahmood Tarzi established fundamental principles of journalism (news or report, training and entertainment) on press activities and he did not consider any field equal to journalism. He wrote in the editorial of the first issue of Serajul Akhbar the newspapers of this time set up as language of countries and states. At present time or in this era except the wild and sewage nations there is no state and nation that is not owner of newspaper” Because Serajul Akhbar covered articles about training education and objection on political proceedings. Tarzi was supporter of free press and he was brave, that a journalist frankly express to the people and talks about disorder and chaos of the society.
He also writes:
“The heart of human being is like always the needle of compass is inclined toward the direction of the country and if it finds a chance like an exhausted bird flies with its nest to that side.
he wrote in “Serajul Akhbar” that:
“Asia should be for Asians… the western countries as invaded the weak countries in the other continents also attempted to attack the Asian countries and plunder them…” (19)
With such a political position, the Britain India with Russia after the joint agreement attempted to hatch a conspiracy against programs of Mahmood Tarzi and to prevent propaganda of Mahmood Tarzi that was disseminated through Serajul Akhbar. These two countries assigned their agents in Afghanistan to start negative propaganda against Mahmood Tarzi as fighting and misery wanting person. This propaganda even affected the royal family and the King as well.
Tarzi effectively guided the second movement of the young constitutionalists called Mashroota Khwah. This led to reviving the first suppressed movement of the constitutionalists in Afghanistan. Tarzi served as high counsel and advisor during this event.
When Amanullah Khan took the political power after the death of his father he hired Mahmood Tarzi as his political consultant. But in the direct diplomatic negotiation between Afghanistan and its recognition by English, he did not lead the delegations before and after the independence. He disagreed with agreement of “Rawalpandi” and objected to the King. After the independence he was hired as a foreign minister of Afghanistan. From 1919 – 1922 (1298 -1301hs) he was minister of Foreign affairs of Afghanistan.
In 1922 (1301hs) he was employed as an ambassador and authorized minister of Afghanistan in France. And he improved the relations of France and Afghanistan and established of “Isteqlal”(independence)high school with assistance of France he also made contract with France about archaeological affairs in Afghanistan.
In 1924 (1303hs), with rebellion of (Mullah-e- Lang) Against Amanullah, he was again called to Kabul and rehired as a foreign minister of Afghanistan. In 1925 (1304hs) he resigned as a foreign minister because of mistakes of Amanullah Khan. Outwardly he presented the reason of his resignation his sickness.
In 1928 (1307hs), he went to Swiss for his treatment for one year and returned to Kabul. This was the time when the rebellious and uprising against acts and deeds of Amanullah Khan started and extended to different parts of the country. Mahmood Tarzi with his and Amanullah families left Kabul for Kandahar 4 March 1928 (13 Hoot 1307hs) and after getting the visa of Iran he with his family went to Herat and from there to Iran. He stayed in Shamiran city of Tehran for ten months and then he went to Istanbul of Turkey. In Turkey where suffering the pain of home sickness and exile he wanted to write the memories of his life. He wrote the first part of his memories that contents his childhood and youth and his first exile (banishment) from Afghanistan. But the diseases of liver cancer did not let him to continue living and writing and he passed away 22 November 1933 (2 Qaus 1312hs) at the age of 68 and he was barried adjacent to Tomb of “Abu Ayub Ansari”
Mahmood Tarzi during his last days of refuge in Istanbul sad days in memory of his country and he would cry in the parks and his home and recited the poem:
If in exile, the death take my life
Who dig my grave and who sew my shroud
Leave my coffin on the top of a mountain
So that the wind carry my dust to my father land
Sarajul Akhbar is considered to be second ascending step in history of journalism of Afghanistan that about thirty years after the stagnancy of political culture and death and strangulation of press in tenure of Abdul Rahman Khan,the Serajul Akhbar was published on 11 January 1906 (22 Jadi 1285hs) in tenure of Kingdom of Habibullah Khan. Serajul Akhbar in the first period was called Serajul Akhbar of Afghanistan and was publishing organ of state.
Amir Habibullah Khan assigned the responsibility of chief in editor of Serajul akhbar to Maulawi Abdul Rauf who was also a royal teacher. After the publishing of the first issue “Serajul Akhbar Afghania” the English showed severe reaction and started negotiations with the King and expressed their opposition to continuation of publishing of the paper. And based on the agreement that Amir had signed in his official journeys to India with English, the Britain state regarded itself as in charge or responsible of the political affairs of Afghanistan and retired (encouraged Habibullah Khan to follow the policy of his father in order that English organize and manage the affairs of Afghanistan in accordance with the planned programs of English. After publishing of its first issue, Serajul Akhbar was banned and stopped publishing.
Serajul Akhbar was published with the contents of news, internal and external reports. And social topics was printed in printing of “Darul Saltana” (house of state) In Kabul.
Six years after the press and cultural vacuum, in the second period the Serajul Akhbar was published with effort and initiative of bright minded in 1911(1289hs) in Kabul. In the second period this newspaper by name of (Serajul Akhbar Afghania) whose editor in chief was Mahmood Tarzi who was one of the competent and able and reliable people to the Amir Habibullah Khan and he opened the way in history of press.
Tarzi was one of the harsh opponents of colonialism and he advantaged from this position in rehabilitation of press in Afghanistan. “…Tarzi would consistently criticize European diplomacy about Afghanistan. He believed that the establishing of fundamental civil society bring change in political and social structure of Islamic countries including Afghanistan.
The articles of Mahmood Tarzi were for political independence of Afghanistan and other Islamic countries from domination of Europeans…
“Serajul Akhbar Afghania” from first up to 12 issues was in 12 pages and then in 16 pages. In the beginning for one year it was printed in stony printing and then in a more complicated with pictures. The Size of it was 24x22cms. In the 500 copies and after increased to one thousands .
Habibibullah Khan with consultation of English warned several times to Mahmood Tarzi to avoid publishing of political articles on the Serajul Akhber. But the nationalist thoughts of Mahmood Tarzi could not submit and surrender to those warning. He kept in harmony with other bright-minded people in reproaching colonialism and restoration of political independence of Afghanistan.
“It played an important role in the development of an Afghan modernist movement, serving as a forum for a small, enlightened group of young Afghans, who provided the ethical justification and basic tenets of Afghan nationalism and modernism
Habibullah Khan restricted activities of Mahmood Tarzi. The finance (budget) for publishing of Sarajul Akhbar was cancelled and the order was issued that the place of printing of this newspaper be shifted.
Mahmood Tarzi with two young revolutionary journalists such as Abdul Rahman Luddin and Abdul Hadi Dawi carried tools and equipment of printing to residence of Abdul Hadi Dawi. Abdul Hadi Dawi by a pen name (Preshan) would publish articles and poems. With publishing of this poem.
It was not bad if knowledge (awareness) was increased in the country
To conclude, I hope I could show with this lecture that the literary theories of Mahmood Tarzi do provide insights into classical Dari literature and even help to explain how a great books like Tarzi wrote his experience and translation for a in order to impart his experiences to us.
Thank you very much!