Source: Mohammad Enam Wak
WAK Foundation
Email: abdaliwak[at]yahoo.com

Mohammad Enam Wak is the author of the "History of Pashto" section. Hence all credit goes to him and if you have any question he will be pleased to answer them through his email.
 

Language and Culture

According to attainable documents, the Pakhto language has been spoken for the last two thousand five hundred years. As the prominent Afghan researcher Abdul Hai Habibi stated, it is a proven fact that Pakhto was spoken some two thousand five hundred years ago. According to the Pata Khazana adopted from “Larghonai Tariekh” as well as the Tarikh-e Suris and their predecessors spoke Pakhto.

Before and since the rise of Islam, numerous volumes of political, social and ethical literatures were produced in Pakhto. The socio-political poem of Amir Kuror Jehan Pahlawan around 139 Hegira, indicates he maturity of the Pakhto poetry. The background of Pakhto poetry was then some five hundred years old. This shows that people were writing Pakhto poetry in the first century AD. There were many literary woks written in Pakhto before the 12th century. It is important to mention that the Islamic conquerors destroyed most of these literary works in the early years. The famous Pata Khazana encyclopedia shows the growth of Pakhto language and colure. The migration of Pakhtana in different directions and their acquaintance with other cultures and societies forced them to learn reading and writing and therefore literacy became part of their daily life.