Letter No 69:- Written By Mirza Muhammad Ghufran to Mehtar of Chitral H.H Shuja Ul Mulk

Year 1919 AD

Translated by:- Arshad Irfan

Stage:- Revising and Editing

Letter No 69:- Written By Mirza Muhammad Ghufran to Mehtar of Chitral H.H Shuja Ul Mulk

Category: - History

Copyrights: - Study Purpose only

Written in: - Persian

Date: - 06 October 1919 AD

Description/ Background: - This letter was written in Persian by Mirza Muhammad Ghufran (1857-1926) to the Mehtar of Chitral HH Shuja Ul Mulk (1881-1936 AD). In 1893 Miza Muhmmad Ghufran completed his work on history for the first time which is available in the form of a manuscript and called the First Manuscript of Tarikh Chitral, which was translated in Urdu by Munshi Aziz Uddin. There is another history book of 100 pages written by Mirza Ghufran after the siege of chitral 1895 AD which is also available in the form of manuscript.

In 1919 AD Mirza Muhammad Ghufran completed his more comprehensive work on a history of Chitral, the letter seems like the cover letter of that second manuscript of Tarikh e Chitral which he sent to the Mehtar Shuja Ul Mulk. Later in 1921 AD, HH Shuja Ul Mulk ordered to Burn all the printed copies of this book but some of the copies remained safe.This book is considered the most authentic source of history of the region.

Translation of the letter:-

Your Majesty

The Compiled “ Tarikh e Chitral” is sent to your highness.There maybe gapes in it if you find some underline those gaps, in a spare time take it from a table and read eight pages interval, it will take few days to complete it. But underline the gaps carefully because sometimes, at first glance, something seems unpleasant but it would not be. If your majesty wants his name to be animated, mentioning the Noble people who lived before the king is important. I ascertained that from Rayees ten rulers ruled but no one wrote about them and no one was familiar to their names. Because of your highness, so many dignified people of Chitral names have been animated in history.This is because it illustrates the greatness of the king that such dignified and intellectual people were lived in an empire of the king, because the king himself is a single personality if you consider the people of the state are animals, what will be the status of their king? If the people of Chitral knows the value of writing their history or not, I don’t expect anyone, thanks.This reward is enough for me that, history has been written of an era and your highness name is mentioned in it. If anyone offended of not having their names in it or didn’t admire them they should write their own history and save it with themselves.

I didn’t know about the English historians/history but I studied the Muslim historian books, for example, Nasikh utawarikh , Akbar Nama , Tarikh Amir Sahib Baiqaran , Turuk Nazan Hind, Taj Uttawarikh and many other Arabic books on history. If you will find it obnoxious, kindly throw it into the river I don’t have any other copy that should be remained with me , this is the only manuscript and if you want to add something in it I wrote it with a wide margin Ghulam Mustafa is there to write according to your choice. In the restless condition, I wrote this book, half of the book is written hurriedly at vociferous council office and scribbled as well and the other half, I started this year, I tried to write it calmly but never found a moment of peace to write a single sentence of it. For writing a book, spare time is needed. Munshi Aziz Uddin went to Dolomuch but sometimes when he needed information about different events he came to Chitral in the garden of late Mehtarjaw Baharder khan, restfully completed a book , although he translated my book, therefore your highness consider me unable to do anymore. I think the map of the villages which is added to this book need to be removed, they are lengthy it was made on your order, anyhow you know better.

Yours Sincerely

Signature of Mirza sahib

06th October 1919 AD