Mahmud tarzi biography of christopher
ṬARZI, MAḤMUD
ṬARZI, Maḥmud (b. Ḡazni, 1 Rabiʿ II 1282/1 Sombola 1244 Š./23 August 1865; d. Metropolis, 22 November 1933), writer, member of the fourth estate, politician, and a prominent luminary in Afghanistan in the chief quarter of the 20th c (FIGURE 1).
Through his father, Ḡolām Moḥammad Khan (1830-1900), son racket Sardār Raḥmdel Khan, Maḥmud Ṭarzi was a member of integrity distinguished Moḥammadzay Bārakzay Sardārs distinctive Kandahar (Qandahār); through his indolence, Salṭanat Bēgom, he was descended from the Sadōzay clan past its best the Popalzay tribe.
He was 17 years old when dominion father, who had fallen come across disgrace with Amir ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān (q.v.; r. 1880-1901), was expelled take the stones out of Afghanistan along with his full family. After three years bring into being Karachi (January 1882-March 1885), Ḡolām Moḥammad Khan left British Bharat for the Ottoman Empire. Purify took up residence in Damascus, where Maḥmud was employed dear the Secretariat of the district (Ḡ.
M. Ṭarzi, Divān, pp. 4-10).
The twenty years he fagged out between Damascus and Istanbul were intensely instructive for the rural Maḥmud. They gave him have in mind opportunity to receive a reliable modern education, to come be liked contact with European culture slab progressive and pan-Islamist ideologies, cranium to travel; having already cosmopolitan in British India and Irak, he went on a hunt to Mecca, made a petite visit to Paris (1889) abstruse toured the eastern Mediterranean (1891).
His encounter with Jamāl-al-Din Afḡāni in Istanbul (1897) was a dominant moment in his intellectual education: “seven months of conversations gust worth seven months of traveling” (Serāj al-aḵbār VI/5, pp. 1b-8). The encounter reinforced his belief that a progressive interpretation sunup the precepts of Islam would encourage the sort of arranged modernization that Muslim countries required.
When Amir Ḥabib-Allāh (r.
1901-18) awarded an amnesty to those dispossessed under his father's reign, pinpoint an initial exploratory visit (1902) Maḥmud returned to Afghanistan market his family after a 23 year absence (January 1905). Negation other Afghan had been steeped to this extent in much a cosmopolitan world and budget Levantine culture, and the views he expressed at Kabul's imperial court were entirely novel.
Ruler pro-Turkish aspirations had the Amir's ear, but met with candidate amongst conservative, pro-British elements insubstantial by members of another Moḥammadzay branch that had returned free yourself of India, the Yaḥyā Khēl known as the Mosāḥebān (Saikal, pp. 46-49). Soon, he was surrounded by a group noise “Young Afghans,” inspired by circlet reformist ideas and by rendering ideal of progress to which he hoped to convert reward fellow countrymen.
Thanks to his finish of foreign languages, he became Amir Ḥabib-Allāh's close informant circus world events, both in representation Muslim world and, in exactly so, in Europe.
He was besides appointed to run a paraphrase office (dār al-tarjama). He instructed history and geography at rendering new military school for work on year, he wrote, and geared up a bi-monthly publication, Serāj al-aḵbār (1911-18), which relayed his beliefs bracket was to become the leading newspaper of modern Afghanistan.
Just as signing his articles, Maḥmud second-hand his father's nom de feel “Ṭarzi,” or stylist, which empress father had personally transmitted face him and which he abstruse already used to sign consummate first published text (Dibāča).
Education, loftiness compatibility of Islamic principles add modernization, economic development, European imperialism, independence and national unity, tube 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 representation First World War, Ṭarzi good turn his friends took a very overtly political stance, arguing derive favor of joining the combat alongside the German-Turkish axis, squalid Ḥabib-Allāh decided that Afghanistan forced to remain neutral. This caused tensions between Ṭarzi and the Ameer, and ultimately put an simulated to the publication of Serāj al-aḵbār(December 1918) (Dupree, p.
7; Sims-Williams).
His career as a egghead was to take a newfound turn the following year just as Amān-Allāh (r. 1919-29) succeeded potentate father on the throne slant Kabul and appointed Ṭarzi whilst his Minister of Foreign Assignment (April 1919). In harmony versus the new Amir, who was one of his most earnest supporters among the “Young Afghans” and who was also king son-in-law, Ṭarzi began to glean what he had sown: stylishness led the laborious Anglo-Afghan retailer in Mussoorie (1920) and Kabul (1921), signed the treaties bring back Afghanistan's independence, ending forty ripen of British control, and steered Afghan foreign policy in cool moderate direction.
And he attestored the implementation of a labour wave of administrative, legal tolerate social reforms, part of magnanimity structural transformation and difficult announcement to modernize the Afghan Nation, a program he had inspired.
Yet at the same time, Ṭarzi remained critical. He believed dump the reforms should be enforced at a more moderate sky to allow the population count up adapt, and called for socio-economic reforms to be supported make wet an appropriate political structure.
Amān-Allāh rejected his criticisms have a word with distanced himself from his intellect in favor of an collection whose loyalty Ṭarzi believed outlook be debatable (Saikal, p. 83). Now that he no long had the young Amir's crop, Ṭarzi sought to retire, additional tried to do so untruth several occasions: by leaving Kabul, officially for health reasons, connected with open the first Afghan spot in Paris (Sept.
1922-Oct. 1924); by resigning as Minister for Foreign Affairs, but when coronate resignation was refused (summer 1925), he retained his title whilst reducing his activities to tidy minimum (1925-26); and lastly beside leaving for Switzerland (1927). Ṭarzi was however at Amān-Allāh's floor at the start of diadem long journey, accompanying him explicate Egypt and Italy (December 1927-January 1928), but not beyond.
Export April 1928, he returned make available Afghanistan, where he no long held any official position, grow left the country for fair to middling a few months later just as Amān-Allāh's regime collapsed (see BAČČA-YE SAQQĀ). After spending a rare months in Tehran, Ṭarzi correlative to Istanbul in October 1929, where he died five life-span later of cancer of righteousness liver, and was buried maw the cemetery in Eyüp.
In Metropolis, Tarzi had married an Covering, a Ḵōgiāni, who died mess Damascus.
He then married high-mindedness daughter of a Syrian dealer, Moḥammad Ṣāleḥ, who was regular muezzin at the Umayyad Asylum. Of their children, ten survived, five boys and five girls (Dupree, p. 21). His spouse, Asmā Rasmiya (1877-1945), was trace educated woman, and from 1920 to 1928, she and their elder daughters, in particular Ḵayriya, who married Prince ʿEnāyat-Allāh, direct Ṯorayā, the wife of Fetid Amān-Allāh, made a great imposition to the schooling and training of Afghan women (Schinasi, 1995, p.
449, 454), which was something Maḥmud Ṭarzi had everlastingly called for and believed vision be an absolute necessity (Nawid, 1995, pp. 359, pp. 362-63; Serāj al-aḵbār, I/7, pp. 7b-9).
Among the written works of Coat authors, those of Maḥmud Ṭarzi are second to none, both in form and in composition. As well as being hailed as the “father of journalism (Žubal) and overseeing the comprehensive production of Serāj al-aḵbār hold which he wrote most matching the articles, Ṭarzi was too a translator from the Turki language, an essayist (Rawża-ye ḥekam), and a poet (Žulida).
Take action brought a new genre signify prose to Afghanistan, including thus stories and travel writing (Siāḥat-nāma), and a different poetry kind that abandoned the delicate appearances typically found in the authoritative Indo-Persian style, in favor nominate harsh topics like schools, frugality, Europe or corruption (Adab straight fann; Ghani, 1988, p.
436).
Ṭarzi introduced Kabul's intellectual circles shape a new school of supposing, one that addressed the issues of modern times, both attach importance to the Orient and in leadership West, as well as sagacious, scientific and religious questions, pointer the situation in Islamic countries. When he described the famed past of the Muslim sophistication, pointing out that mathematics move natural sciences were first mature by Muslim scholars, and as he analyzed the reasons ground Muslims later lagged behind righteousness West, in “What were we?
What have we become?” (Āyāče bāyad kard? [What is principle be done?] pp. 12, 51, pp. 52-53), it was assail underscore the fact that leadership study of science and field was essential to recover that strength, and that Islam was perfectly reconcilable with progress (ʿElm wa eslāmiyat).
Afghanistan and Afghans were also central to Ṭarzi's dealings.
His first publication on reappearing to Afghanistan was a sort of the country, written of great magnitude verse (Afḡānestān, aṯar-e manẓum) take up aimed at his fellow countrymen, whom he invited to hire both a proud and cumbersome view of their history (Āyāče bāyad kard, pp. 106-32) explode to reflect on their go on weakness, their lack of code and ignorance of the universe around them, which had mystified the people to inertia (Rawẓa-ye ḥekam, pp.
140-41, 150-51). That was why he constantly commanded for all forms of knowing acquisition.
He recommended that respecting authority Afghan monarchy should be though much of a duty whilst respecting Islam's precepts, the yoke being inseparable, and also invincible from respect for one's native land, in which he included what he called the “shared country” that unites Muslims all honor the world (Waṭan, pp.
88-89).
When Ṭarzi and the Yaḥyā Khēl family returned from exile fall back the very start of position 20th century, Afghanistan's political tell off intellectual elite were given their first glimpse of the philosophy of modernization. Ṭarzi's stature in your right mind a result of his continuing vision, his ideals for leadership radical transformation of Afghanistan uncontroversial by Islam, and his concrete efforts as a militant leader to ensure that his express found its legitimate place slightly a nation.
Bibliography:
Maḥmud Ṭarzi's published works.
Except for “Dibāča,” in Ḡ.
Category. Ṭarzi, Divān, Karachi, 1892-1893, pp.
1-22, curriculum vitae of Ḡolām Moḥammad written tough his son as an inauguration to his father's collection rot poems; Žulida, Istanbul, 1933; obtain Reminiscences. A short history motionless an era (1869-1881), tr. dispatch ed. W. Tarzi, New Dynasty, 1998, all other works sun-up Maḥmud Ṭarzi were published stem Kabul either at the pronounce printing press as a endpiece offered (hadiya) once a best with the last issue personage Serāj al-aḵbār, or at Sovereign ʿEnāyat-Allāh's private press as quarter of a collection called Ketāb-ḵāna-ye maṭbaʿa-ye ʿEnāyat (see Schinasi, 1979, pp.
259-61). Besides two newspapers and translations from Turkish mimic a five-volume history of illustriousness 1905 Russo-Japanese war, and flawless four novels by the Gallic author Jules Verne, they lean Adab dar fann or Maḥmud-nāma, 1913; Afḡānestān, aṯar-e manẓum, 1912; Āyā če bāyad kard?, 1912; Az har dahan soḵani wa az har čaman samani, 1913; ʿElm wa eslāmiyat, 1912; Majmuʿa-ye aḵlāq,ca 1968; Moʿallem-e ḥekmat, 1916; Moḵtaṣar-e joḡrāfiā-ye ʿomumi, 1915; Parākanda, 1915; Rowża-ye ḥekam, 1913; Siyāḥat-nāma-ye se qeṭʿa-ye ru-ye zamin unswerving 29 rōz, Āsiā, Orupā, Āfriqā, 1915; Towḥid-e ḵāleq-e yagāna ba-zabān-e mawālid-e t¯alāt¯a, 1914; Waṭan wa maʿāni-e motanawweʿa-ye ḥokmiya-ye ān, 1917.
An anonymous guide to mark entitled Resāla-ye romuzāt-e taḥrir-e ʿebārāt, Kabul, 1917 can most in all probability be attributed to M. Tarzi. A number of Tarzi's editorials and articles published in Serāj al-aḵbār were re-edited by Regard. Farhādi under the title Maqālāt-e Maḥmud Ṭarzi, Kabul, 1976.
Secondary Sources.
L.
Dupree, “Mahmud Tarzi: Forgotten Nationalist,” AUFS, Reports Service, South Continent Series VIII/1, 1964, pp. 21-42.
A. Ghani “Literature as Politics: depiction case of Mahmud Tarzi,” Afghanistan 29/3, 1976, pp. 63-72.
Idem, “The Persian Literature of Afghanistan, 1911-78, in the Context of Well-fitting Political and Intellectual History,” tension E.
Yarshater, ed., Persian Literature, New York, 1988, pp. 428-53.
V. Gregorian, The Emergence of Another Afghanistan: Politics of Reform slab Modernization 1880-1946, Stanford, 1969.
Idem, “Mahmud Tarzi and Saraj-ol-Akhbar: Ideology elaborate Nationalism and Modernization in Afghanistan,” The Middle East Journal, 1967, pp.
345-68.
S. Mirzoev, “Mahmudi Tarzi - adibi maorifparvari afghon (Mahmud Tarzi, an Afghan scholar),” Sorh 9, 1963, pp. 146-58.
Idem, “Akidai Mahmudi Tarzi roje” ba zabon wa adabiëti milli (The short period of Mahmud Tarzi on nobility national language and literature),” Chand mulohizai adabi, Dushanbe, 1971, pp.
72-81.
Idem, Literaturno-prosvetitel'skaya deyatel'nost' Mahmuda Tarzi i ego gazeta ”Siradzh-ul'-akhbar” (1911-1919 gg.), (The literary and educational concentration of Mahmud Tarzi and climax journal “Siradzh-ul'-akhbar” (1911-1919), Dushanbe, 1973.
S. Nawid, “Political advocacy in prematurely twentieth century Afghan Persian poetry,” Afghanistan Studies Journal, 3, 1992, pp.
5-17.
Idem, “The Feminine president Feminism in Tarzi's Work,” AIUO (Naples), 55/3, 1995, pp. 358-66.
A. Saikal, Modern Afghanistan. A Chronicle of Struggle and Survival, Author, 2004.
M. Schinasi, Afghanistan at grandeur beginning of the twentieth hundred. Nationalism and journalism in Afghanistan.
A study of Serâj ul-akhbâr (1911-1918), Naples, 1979.
Idem, “Italie-Afghanistan 1921-1941. III Les Afghans en Italie. Le voyage d'Amânollâh. L'exil.,” AION 52 (1992), pp. 113-35.
Idem, “Femmes afghanes. Instruction et activités publiques pendant le règne amâniya (1919-1929),” AION 55 (1995), pp.
446-462.
ʿA. W. Ṭarzi, Šarḥ-e zendagi-e Maḥmud Ṭarzi az 1882 elā 1909, Limoges, 2001.
Ḡ. M. Ṭarzi, Divān, Karachi, 1892-93.
M. Ḥ. Žubal, “Maḥmud Ṭarzi padar-e maṭbuʿāt,” ʿErfān (Kabul), 1958, p. 2.
(May Schinasi)
Originally Published: July 28, 2008
Last Updated: July 28, 2008
Cite this entry:May Schinasi, “ṬARZI, MAḤMUD,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2012, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tarzi-mahmud (accessed on 16 October 2012).