Ghor Khuttree: marking 2000 years of history

Gor Khuttree -- marking 2000 years of history

Qk archives published by the NEWS on Sunday in 2011

By Dr Ali Jan

Gor Khuttree literally means the 'Warriors Grave', although there are no traces of any grave here. It is perhaps the oldest citadel in the ancient city of Peshawar. A recent UNESCO sponsored archaeological excavation at the site has established the city's historic profile which dates back to pre-Christian period of more than two millennia making Peshawar one of the world's oldest living cities.

It remained an important place for travellers for thousands of years. Buddha's alms or begging bowl was displayed here at one time. After the decline of Buddhism in the region following the invasion by Huns and Sassanians, it became a bastion for Hindu worship. Mughal Emperor Babar in the beginning of his memoir, Babarnama, recorded: "On Friday, the 1st Sefer in the year 932, when the sun was in Sagitarius (1525 AD, November 17th), I set out on my march to invade Hindustan." On reaching Peshawar, Babar with his usual curiosity visited Gor Khuttree and wrote, "There are nowhere in the whole world such narrow and dark hermit's cells as at this place. After entering the doorway and descending one or two stairs, you must lie down, and proceed crawling along, stretched at full length. You cannot enter without a light. The quantities of hair (cut off by pilgrims as offerings), both of head and beard, that are lying scattered about, and in the vicinity of the place are immense."

The present buildings built at the site mostly date back to Mughal, Sikh and the British period. Lying at the crossroads of the old trade-route, Gor Khuttree became a major caravanserai in Mughal times and mainly served as a stopping place for travellers coming from other parts of the world. It was converted into a fortified compound and two grand entrances were built on its eastern and western ends. The gates were kept locked at night to provide safety and shelter to the camel caravans laden with merchandise. A mosque was also built here by Jahan Ara Begum, daughter of Emperor Shahjahan.

During the early Sikh rule, around 1823, the mosque was destroyed and replaced by a temple to Gorakhnath in the south of the courtyard. Later Gor Khuttree became the residence of their Italian mercenary general, Paolo de Avitabile who also built a pavilion over its western gate. A rare pen and ink sketch of him dated February 1844 (originally done by 'C.G' in Calcutta) has recently been discovered in the dusty store-godown of Peshawar museum.

Avitabile was from Agerola, on the famous Salentine peninsula between Naples and Amalfi in Italy. The town square of San Lazzaro in Naples is named after him. He was a mercenary in the true sense who had also served in Napoleon's army. He ruled Peshawar from 1838-1842 with an iron hand. The local inhabitants of Peshawar used to call him 'Abu Tabilah'. When the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment passed through Peshawar on August 21, 1842 they were hosted by him. The service digest of the British regiment records: "The officers were entertained hospitably by the governor of the city, the Italian General Avitabile who had been recruited by Ranjit Singh to train his army and had stayed on to serve his son. They were impressed by the evidence of his methods of maintaining law and order. At each corner of the city there was a large gallows on which malefactors were hanging." (Service Record, the 31st Regt, 1842)

In 1842 Avitabile returned home to Italy laden with wealth and honours, and proceeded to procure for himself a large castle-like mansion, a magnificent funeral chapel in the local cathedral. People also credit him with having created a new breed of cattle by importing some Jersey cows from Britain, on his way home from Peshawar in 1842, and crossing them with the local variety; the result is supposed to produce a fine local cheese. He soon came to occupy the same funeral chapel that he had bought when he married his 12-year-old Italian niece who it is said poisoned him to death in 1850.

Yet long after his departure from Peshawar and this life some of his past subjects from this region were still searching for him. Sir Richard Francis Burton, the legendary explorer, linguist and translator of Arabian Nights etc (who also became the first Englishman to perform the ritual of Haj in the guise of a Pathan in 1853) records meeting a group of plain folks from the Punjab Frontier in Arabia "...who had walked from Meccah to Cairo in search of 'Abu Tabilah,' (Avitabile), whom report had led to the banks of the Nile." Burton noted: "Some were young, others had white beards -- all were weary and wayworn; but the saddest sight was an old woman, so decrepit that she could scarcely walk. The poor fellows were travelling on foot, carrying their wallets, with a few pence in their pockets, utterly ignorant of route and road, and actually determined in this plight to make Lahore by Baghdad, Bushir, and Karachi. Such -- so incredible -- is Indian improvidence!" (Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah -- 1855)

During the Anglo-Sikh wars (1849) George Lawrence, the British representative and his family took refuge here for sometime. In the following years its eastern end became the City Mission House. The Illustrated London News (ILN) in an 1860 issue printed an image entitled 'Illumination And Fireworks At Peshawar' depicting a grand Viceregal procession of elephants passing through the old city towards the western (tahsil) gate of Gor Khuttree. The illustration was done on the occasion of the grand durbar of February 29 1860 when the Governor General and Viceroy of India held a reception of the principal chiefs of the various Pathan hill tribes who had assembled to pay homage to the representative of Queen Victoria. According to the ILN: "...the occasion was celebrated by illuminations and a display of fireworks of both of which natives are exceedingly fond; and they produce the finest fireworks by the simplest means. A little earthen dish, like a flat cup, is used, filled with oil, and with a piece of cotton-wick is put in it. These lamps are provided in great numbers, and are placed in rows along the tops of houses, and upon the cornices of the shops, over and under windows, around arches, and, in fact, wherever one of these tiny lamps can be placed. The effect is picturesque in the extreme. Everywhere the natives are sitting, perfectly still and quiet, in long rows, behind the lights, waiting silently to see the Lord Sahib pass by." (Illustrated London News, 1860)

In March 1869 Amir Shere Ali, the King of Afghanistan resided in the house which stood on the south-eastern corner of Gor Khuttree at the invitation of the missionary clergy. In the latter half of the nineteenth century it became the residence of the lady missionaries connected with the Church of England Zenana (female) Missionary Society.

Dr. Arthur Lankester opened the medical mission work in Peshawar at this site. It began on January 12, 1898, when a man from Ghazni in Afghanistan, some two hundred miles beyond the frontier, walked into the courtyard and asked for treatment. The hospital carried on until 1904 when it was shifted to much larger premises outside the walled city at the Mission Hospital, Dabgari Gardens.

An English archaeologist Gertrude Bell, mostly renowned for her findings in Iraq, visited Gor Khuttree in 1903 and wrote in her diary: "22 Jan -- We went to the Tahsil where there is a suite of empty rooms where the Amir's envoys are lodged, with a zenana for their women. The Tahsildar is an agreeable Persian speaking man. From the roof we had a wonderful view over the rabbit warren of mud coloured Peshawar and away across a plain set with trees to the hills of the Forbidden Land." (Diary of Gertrude Bell, 1903)

In 1912 a Fire Brigade Station was built on the premises. Two red antique fire engines are parked under the former municipal shed at Gor Khuttree. They are well-preserved and the name of the Merry Weather London Company that manufactured them in the early 1900s is still visible. During the British-era, Gor Khuttree also functioned as a Tahsil or District Police Superintendent's headquarter.

Recently an archaeological museum has been built on the south-eastern side where the original grand residence known as 'Serai-du-dar' ('The Jun of the Two Gates') had perhaps once stood. Objects recovered from excavations at Gor Khuttree are displayed here. It has an interesting ethnological gallery upstairs as well. The curator, Ihsanullah Khan, is a knowledgeable young man who gave me a splendid guided tour of the place.

Peshawar has a rich history which is gradually disappearing brick by brick. In the north of the compound is an appalling new construction -- a 'Marriage Hall' -- built in 1980s despite much public opposition, which is unfortunately a big blot on the otherwise charming ancient heritage site of Gor Khuttree.

QK Archives: Rahmat Shah Sail

Rahmat Shah Sail
Written by Shamsur Rahman Shams
Saturday, 20 May 2006
Sweet are the uses of adversity, says William Shakespeare. It is a poisonous toad which contains in its head a precious jewel. It gives us more scope for the exercise of our faculties and there is no better school for man. What is learnt in the school of adversity cannot be learnt anywhere else, either from books or from schools and colleges.

The noble and sublime of the world are those who have risen from the ranks. The world has benefited more form these struggling souls than by men nursed in prosperity.

Mr. Rahmat Shah Sail has suffered his full share of adversities. Born among a family of laborers in 1943, he went through many trials and tribulations during his childhood. His father, Amin Gul, and grandfather, Syed Gul, are stated to be the poorest people of Warter (Dargai) in Malakand Agency.

Sail was admitted to a local primary school for formal education at the age of five, but it became difficult for his parents to bear the expenses and thus he was deprived of getting any education. According to his colleagues he was the most intelligent student but after passing class three, he was compelled to leave school and assist his parents in earning a livelihood. He worked from morn to dusk and brought a few coins home to buy corn. His spirit, meanwhile, was no dormant. He had a heart filled with emotions and thoughts, and after a hard days labor he used to compose poetry to lessen his fatigue.


This capacity later developed and he emerged as a poet and was given a prominent place among the other poets of the territory. Nobody guided him except in showing him how to labor harder and harder. It is astonishing to note here that the early life of Rahmat Shah Sail was arduous and full of difficulties, but his early poetry was concerned with nothing but his roaming about confounded by the teasing love of his beloved. His early poetry is an echo of his grieved heart, not due to hard work but to the faithlessness of his beloved.

On the one hand he used to help his parents while on the other he burnt midnight oil developing his emotional thoughts and expressing his feelings through his pen. As soon as his senses matured, his ideas and feelings ripened and his poetry took on new shape and color.

Emboldened also by a local poet, Rahmat Shah Sail won a position and became famous for his poetic and literary talent. Now, instead of composing only love poetry, he gave vent to many other subjects and made his poetry universal. He started studying the work of ancient and modern poets. He went through the works of Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Abdul Hamid, Ali Khan and other Pashto poets, as well as those of Sahir Lodhianvi, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Josh Maleeh Abadi and Urdu. He was considerably influenced by their technique and sublime style.

Though uneducated, Sail is the author of three books, Da Weer Pa Chum Ka War Da Naghmu and Da Lumbu pa Soori. The former contains sonnets and the latter ghazals, plots, stanzas and tappas. His third book, Da Khaistoonu Da Sparly Badoona has come to the market recently. It is compiled from his latest ghazals written in modern Pakhtun society.

Saadullah Jan Burq, a renowned poet and a distinguished writer, writes about Sail that if a flower has color but no fragrance or fragrance but no color, it can not be called a rose. Only when it has both these features does a rose attain perfection and as every flower is not a rose, so every poet can not be compared with Rahmat Shah Sail. What makes Sail most highly regarded is his melodious poetry. There is a harmony between his poetry and voice. His poetry is more impressive when recited by himself.

His ghazal interprets various aspects of life. If he talks about the rosy cheeks of his beloved, he also feels light and darkness, happiness and sorrow. If he discusses flowers, he also refers to the thorns surrounding them. The salient characteristics of his ghazals are their separateness, mannerisms and similes. These make his ghazal completely different from that of other poets.

Sail writes poetry and prose and has full command on both. He is full of vigor, courage and capable to continue and spread his work:

He writes:



My wisdom is not to be perished or destroyed. Only hard times will paralyze it.

On analysis, two things emerge: his poetry is dominated first by delicacy and second naturalness. Every verse he says in such a natural and delicate manner as to touch the heart. He says:



O my beloved! Why does my presence so confuse you? I am like spring and will make blossom your youth.

He is a highly anxious lover ready to suffer every sort of agony to get the hand of his beloved:



Saqi! Give me wine of the rosy eyes today. No matter if I am anguished for it tomorrow.

Any poet or writer who, after observing certain facts, tries to hide them or produce in a different way does not fulfill his responsibility as a poet or writer and is said to be coarse and dishonest. Sail stands innocent of any such act.

He is a sensitive heart. Virtuousness and good feelings are overflowing in his personality. Being a true Pakhtun, he is greatly distressed to see the disloyalty of his Pakhtun brethren and says:



Owing to the disloyal nature of my Pakhtun brothers, I am compelled to make relationship with strangers.

Rahmat Shah Sail pays rich tributes to Baba-e-Pushto Khushal Khan Khattak and is greatly impressed by his poetry.

His own life is an imitation of Khushal Khan who endured forays, house arrests and imprisonment. Sail was also imprisoned and put to severe trails for nothing, besides voicing his opinions. Even in jail, he did not give up his line of action. It was the result of these tortures and torments that Sail's poetry contains many dreadful events and examples of human cruelty that took place in the past. In his sonnet Hiroshima, he depicts the destruction of nuclear disaster and criticizes the words-with-out-action approach of the global powers towards preventing the nuclear race. He reminds the two superpowers and other states of the world of the widespread devastation caused by the bomb in Hiroshima and urge them to work for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. He says that it is of no avail merely to show anger and resentment over the tragedy but the need is to take some practical measures to prevent such calamities. In another such poem "Vietnam War", Sail calls for the co-operation and unity of Muslims through out the world to foil the barbarism and evil designs of those treacherous nations who try to mar global peace.

At present, Rahmat Shah Sail runs a tailoring shop in Dargari Bazar to earn his livelihood but most of his time is spent in literary activities. He is a member of Pashto Adabi Jirga, Malakand Agency.

Khatir Afridi, Ikramullah Gran and Shamsul Qamar Andesh are his favorite poets among these colleagues. He holds Amir Hamza Shinwari in most high regard for his meritorious services to the cause of Pashto literature.

It is quite unjust an ugly spot on the Pashto language, that a man of such literary talent sews cloths to make his both ends meet. He has been denied his due place in society due to his great sin of not having passed examinations in any school or college, even though he has more ability than a well-educated person. If supported, he will be able to do more for the betterment of his mother tongue; otherwise it is feared that the may give up his struggle due to constant disappointment.