PESHAWAR: The Gandhara Hindko Academy, Peshawar, has set up a Persian Section for comparative research and analysis.

A communication here on Sunday said the section has been established at the Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan Library of the academy, which is named after a known research scholar of the Hindko language from Peshawar.

Late Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan had carried out extensive research on the Hindko language while pursuing doctoral studies in linguistics at the University of London, England, from 1968 to 74.

He had to his credit a number of search-based publications, including a voluminous Hindko dictionary.

The Persian Section set up at the Hindko Academy has the translation of the Holy Quran in Persian, two bulky Persian-English and Persian-Urdu dictionaries, books of poetry of the 14th century great Persian poet Hafiz Shirazi (1325 AD–1390 AD) translated into in English and Urdu, a series of Persian learning publications and books on varied topics along with audio and video resource material.

A function was arranged at the Hindko Academy to launch the Persian Section. Prof Dr Adnan Gul was the chief guest.

“We have taken the step keeping in view the importance of Persian.

It has remained a dominant language of the region for over 700 years and even the court language for a long time, leaving deep impacts on the native languages,” said Muhammad Ziauddin, a research scholar of the Hindko language and chief of the executive committee that runs the Hindko Academy under the public-private partnership, while speaking on the occasion.

Ziauddin said that Persian poetry of Hafiz Shirazi and other mystics had a universal message which needed to be understood by the speakers of other languages, including Hindko.

He pointed out that a major part of the poetry of our national poet, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, is in Persian.

“This adds to the significance of the Persian language,” he added.

The literatus said Persian is spoken in brotherly countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan and other Central Asian Republics with different proportions.

“A Persian Section at the Hindko Academy will help us improve our work by making a comparative analysis of the literatures of both languages,” he elaborated.

Hindko Academy Director Dr Muhammad Aadil said the great Hindko mystic poet of the 18th century from Peshawar, Saeen Ahmad Ali, had composed poetry in Persian as well as his forefathers belonged to the Faris region.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023