Khushal Khattak

Khushal Khan Khattak (Pashto: خوشال خان خټک; }}; 1613 – 20 February 1689), also known as Khushal Baba (), was a 17th-century Pashtun poet, chief, and warrior. Khushal Khan served the Mughal Empire protecting them from Pashtun warriors over most of his lifespan. After being expelled from his tribal chiefdom and replaced with his son by his Mughal superiors, Khushal Khan turned against the Mughals. Afterwards, Khushal preached the union of all Pashtuns, and encouraged revolt against the Mughal Empire, promoting Pashtun nationalism in the last years of his life through poetry. Much of Khushal's poetry is in Pashto but some is also in Persian. Khushal is considered the "father of Pashto literature" and the national poet of Afghanistan.

Khushal's life was spent in serving the Mughal emperor and in his last years he struggled against the Mughal Empire who had fluctuating relations with the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (in present-day Pakistan) and Zabulistan (present-day Afghanistan). In order to restore his position as chief, Khushal challenged the powers of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and defeated the Mughal troops in many engagements. He was a renowned warrior who became known as a "Pashtun warrior-poet". The stand and fight attitude of Khushal was an important stance in Pashtun history, and his opinions and ideas form a new stage in the ideological and intellectual development of the Pashtuns. Besides poetry and prose works, Khushal also wrote various translations from Persian and Arabic into Pashto. He later died in Tirah (in present-day Khyber District of Pakistan). Provided by Wikipedia