According to G.P.Tate, the author of "The kingdom of Afghanistan" - the first to use Pashto for literary purposes was the famous Pir Roshan in the 7th century. His arch rival Akhund Derweza (1533-1638) was also compelled to use Pashto to arouse his followers against the Roshania movement. Apparently, both the giants exploited religious and mystic sentiments of their followers. The windfall of that movement was the freedom of Pashto prose from the influence of Arabic and Persian languages.
The most remarkable achievement of that era was the innovation by Pir Roshan that made the writing of Pashto easy. He realized that Pashto could not be written in Arabic script owing to some of its peculiar sounds. He therefore, invented 13 alphabets to represent those sounds. Some of these alphabets patched up vocal differences between the hard and soft dialects of Pashto as well.
Subsequently, Khushal Khan Khattak came to be known "The father of Pashto". Apart from his unsurpassed works in verse and prose on various topics including hunting, falconry, medicine and religion, he compiled a deal of information on the history of Pashtoon.
Then comes Syed Rahmatullah alias Rahat Zakheli(1884-1963),the harbinger of modern Pashto prose. He introduced or revived almost every genre of the time in Pashto. He wrote the first imaginary novel, published in 1912 under the title of "Mah Rukh".His short story "Konda Jeenae" was published in the newspaper AFGHAN in 1917.It was the first but a perfect short story. He compiled history and grammar as well in Pashto.
In the political arena, Bacha Khan gave due attention to the renaissance of the Pashto language, literature and culture. He encouraged and sponsored Pashto poets and writers. Professor Hafiz Mohd Idrees wrote a novel "Peghla" which is considered the first comprehensive novel in Pashto. Said Rasul Rasa, Abdul Rahim Majzoob and Fazal Haq Shida modernized Pashto literature by introducing odes and some other genres of English literature. At this juncture, Pashto took a sharp turn to change its oriental style into a European style. Said Rasul Rasa was a good poet but he is best known for his five novels "Mafroor, Shamae, Khund Kushi, Maimunae and Maikhana".
By that time Pashto received momentum in Afghanistan also with the emergence of a number of good writers, Saleh Mohd Hotak, Abul Haye Habibi, Gul Pacha Ulfat,Qiamuddin Khadim, Siddiq Ullah Rishtin, Zelmay Hiwadmal, Abdul Rauf Benawa and many others. Abdul Mahak wrote "Zamararudda" in three volumes on the post revolutionary situation in Afghanistan.
A great number of Afghan writers are busy nowadays in almost every field of literature. In the field of research, the PhD holders, whose thesis have been published include Iqbal Naseem Khattak, Rajwali Shah Khattak and Mohd Azam.
Some writers work on the religious matters also. The outstanding in this field is Faqir Mohd Abbas Qadria whose work in various sizes from 10 to 1000 (One thousand) pages-have been published in more than 3000 (Three thousand) books.
Pashto language was popularised by the print and electronic media. The poets and writers widened the vision and mental horizons of the Pashto. About 18 radio stations, including those from India, USA, England, Germany, Russia and China, are now broadcasting literary programs in Pashto which now enjoys the 41st position among the languages of the world.
Reference by: www.khyber.org
