Pir Roshan

Who is Pir Roshan?

Bāyazīd Ansārī, also known as Pīr Roshān or Pīr Rokhān, was a Pashtun warrior, poet, Sufi master and intellectual from the Ormur tribe. Pir Roshan wrote mostly in Pashto, but also in Persian and Arabic, while his first language was Ormuri. Pir Roshan is known for founding the 16th-century Roshaniyya movement which gained many followers in the Pashtun region. Pir Roshan wrote the Pashto book Khayr al-Bayān to present his philosophical ideas.

Pir Roshan assembled Pashtun armies to fight against the Mughal emperor Akbar in response to Akbar's continuous military agitations, and to counter Akbar's Din-e Ilahi. Seeing the spiritual and religious hold of Pir Roshan over a large portion of Pashtuns, Akbar brought in a number of religious figures against the struggle, most notably Akhund Darweza, who also wrote a Pashto book in an attempt to refute Pir Roshan's ideas. Akhund Darweza called Pir Roshan as Pīr-e Tārīk, "the dark Pir". Mughals eventually killed Pir Roshan, and a Yusufzai militia allied with Mughal forces killed four of his five sons leaving only his youngest son Pir Jalala, who later took up arms against the Mughals himself and was largely successful in his battles. The modern Afghan city of Jalalabad is named in Pir Jalala's honor. Akbar forced Pir Jalala to escape to Chitral where he died in 1601. Roshaniyya followers in Tirah, Waziristan, Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar continued their struggle against the Mughals for nearly a hundred years.