Editing Pashto (section)

==History==
Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from [[Avestan]] or a variety very similar to it, while others have attempted to place it closer to [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]].<ref name="Darmesteter 1890">{{cite book |last=Darmesteter |first=James |title=Chants populaires des Afghans |year=1890 |location=Paris}}</ref><ref>Henning (1960), p. 47. "Bactrian thus 'occupies an intermediary position between Pashto and Yidgha-Munji on the one hand, Sogdian, Choresmian, and Parthian on the other: it is thus in its natural and rightful place in Bactria'."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hotak |first1=Muhammad |last2=Habibi |first2=Abd al-Hayy |title=The Hidden Treasure: A Biography of Pas̲htoon Poets |year=1997 |page=21 |quote=With regard to Morgenstierne's statement that the language is affiliated with eastern Iranian languages there is ample evidence to consider it a Bactrian language.}}</ref> However, neither position is universally agreed upon. What scholars do agree on is the fact that Pashto is an [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian language]] sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, [[Khwarezmian language|Khwarezmian]] and [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Comrie |first1=Bernard |title=The world's major languages |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref name="Iranica-Pashto">{{cite web|title=AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧto|url=http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|access-date=10 October 2010|work=[[Georg Morgenstierne|G. Morgenstierne]]|publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica|quote=Paṧtō undoubtedly belongs to the Northeastern Iranic branch.|archive-date=22 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122024645/http://www.iranica.com/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

Compare with other [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian Languages]] and [[Avestan|Old Avestan]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|
!''"I am seeing you"''
|-
!Pashto
!'''{{lang|ps|زۀ تا وينم}}'''<br/>'''Zə tā winə́m'''
|-
![[Old Avestan]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beekes|first=Robert Stephen Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=10Yhw7zQGjYC|title=A Grammar of Gatha-Avestan|date=1988|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-08332-5|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Avestan grammar help: Azə̄m θβąm vaēnami?|url=https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/40438/avestan-grammar-help-az%c9%99%cc%84m-%ce%b8%ce%b2%c4%85m-va%c4%93nami|access-date=2021-10-16|website=Linguistics Stack Exchange}}</ref>
|{{lang|ae|Azə̄m θβā vaēnamī}}
|-
![[Ossetian language|Ossetian]]
|{{lang|os|ӕз дӕ уынын}}<br/>/ɐz dɐ wənən/
|-
![[Ormuri]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Efimov|first=V. A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yt9mMwEACAAJ|title=The Ormuri Language in Past and Present|date=2011|publisher=Forum for Language Initiatives|isbn=978-969-9437-02-1|language=en}}</ref>
|{{lang|oru|از بو تو ځُنِم}} <br/>Az bū tū dzunim
|-
![[Yidgha language|Yidgha]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morgenstierne|first=Georg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgByQwAACAAJ|title=Indo-iranian Frontier Languages, by Georg Morgenstiern. Vol. II. Iranian Pamir Languages (yidgha-munji, Sanglechi-ishkashmi and Wakhi).|date=1938|publisher=W. Nygaard|language=en}}</ref>
|{{lang|ydg|Zo vtō vīnəm əstə (tə)}}
|-
![[Munji language|Munji]]<ref>{{Citation|title=In this video, the Pashtun... - Pashtun Studies Network|url=https://www.facebook.com/ConnectingScholarship/videos/2803427993291397/|language=en|access-date=2021-10-16}}</ref>
|{{lang|mnj|Zə ftō wīnəm}}
|-
![[Shughni language|Shughni]]<ref name="youtube.com">{{Citation|title=Can Eastern Iranics Understand Each Other?| date=2 May 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9hNKd8JOqc|language=en|access-date=2021-10-16}}</ref>
|{{lang|sgh|Uz tu winum}}
|-
![[Wakhi language|Wakhi]]<ref name="youtube.com"/>
|{{lang|wbl|Wuz tau winəm}}
|}
[[Strabo]], who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the [[Indus River]] were part of [[Ariana]]. This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]]. From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name ''Afghan'' (''Abgan'').<ref name="Habibi">{{Cite web |url=http://www.alamahabibi.com/English%20Articles/Afghan_and_Afghanistan.htm |title=Afghan and Afghanistan |work=[[Abdul Hai Habibi]] |publisher=alamahabibi.com|year=1969|access-date=24 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="Britannica-Abgan">{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/129450/History?anchor=ref261360|title=History of Afghanistan|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=22 November 2010}}</ref><ref name="Abgan">{{Cite book|title=Afghanistan – a country without a state?|last1=Noelle-Karimi|first1=Christine|author2=Conrad J. Schetter |author3=Reinhard Schlagintweit |year=2002|publisher=IKO|location=[[University of Michigan]], United States|isbn=3-88939-628-3|page=18|quote=The earliest mention of the name 'Afghan' (Abgan) is to be found in a Sasanid inscription from the third century AD and their language as ''"Afghani"''.}}</ref><ref name="Leyden">{{cite web |url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian//pf?file=03501051&ct=92 |title=Events Of The Year 910 (1525) |page=5 |editor=John Leyden, Esq. M.D. |editor2=William Erskine, Esq. |work=[[Baburnama|Memoirs of Babur]] |publisher=[[Packard Humanities Institute]] |year=1921 |access-date=10 January 2012 |quote=To the south is Afghanistān. There are ten or eleven different languages spoken in Kābul: Arabic, Persian, Tūrki, Moghuli, '''Afghani''', Pashāi, Parāchi, Geberi, Bereki, Dari and Lamghāni. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114042010/http://persian.packhum.org/persian//pf?file=03501051&ct=92 |archive-date=14 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Abdul Hai Habibi]] believed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to [[Amir Kror Suri]] of the early [[Ghurid]] period in the 8th century, and they use the writings found in [[Pata Khazana]].  [[Pə́ṭa Xazāná]] ({{lang|ps|پټه خزانه}}) is a Pashto [[manuscript]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Pata Khazana|url=http://patakhazana.home.comcast.net/~patakhazana/Khazana.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723045855/http://patakhazana.home.comcast.net/~patakhazana/Khazana.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2011|access-date=27 September 2010}}</ref> claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor [[Hussain Hotak]] in [[Kandahar]]; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as [[David Neil MacKenzie]] and Lucia Serena Loi.<ref>David Neil MacKenzie: David N. Mackenzie: ''The Development of the Pashto Script''. In: Shirin Akiner (Editor): ''Languages and Scripts of Central Asia''. School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ. of London, London 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-7286-0272-4}}.p.&nbsp;142</ref><ref name="Lucia Serena Loi 1987, p. 33">Lucia Serena Loi: ''Il tesoro nascosto degli Afghani''. Il Cavaliere azzurro, Bologna 1987, p.&nbsp;33</ref> [[Nile Green]] comments in this regard:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.001.0001/acprof-9780190247782|title=Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-049223-6|pages=37–38|language=en-US|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.001.0001|editor1-last=Green|editor1-first=Nile}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text="In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as the eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as a promoter of the wealth and
antiquity of  Afghanistan's Pashto culture."|title=Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes}}

From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are [[Pir Roshan|Bayazid Pir Roshan]] (a major inventor of the [[Pashto alphabet]]), [[Khushal Khan Khattak]], [[Rahman Baba]], [[Nazo Tokhi]], and [[Ahmad Shah Durrani]], founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the [[Durrani Empire]]. The Pashtun literary tradition grew in the backdrop to weakening Pashtun power following Mughal rule: [[Khushal Khattak|Khushal Khan Khattak]] used Pashto poetry to rally for Pashtun unity and [[Pir Roshan|Pir Bayazid]] as an expedient means to spread his message to the Pashtun masses.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Nile|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbtugAACAAJ|title=Afghanistan in Ink: Literature Between Diaspora and Nation|last2=Arbabzadah|first2=Nushin|date=2013|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-204-8|pages=93|language=en}}</ref>

For instance [[Khushal Khattak]] laments in :<ref>{{Cite book|last=Raverty|first=Henry G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAXCtwEACAAJ|title=Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, Literally Translated from the Original Pushto, with Notices of the Different Authors, and Remarks on the Mystic Doctrine and Poetry of the Sūfis|date=2015|publisher=Cosmo Publications|isbn=978-81-307-1858-3|pages=127|language=en}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text="The Afghans (Pashtuns) are far superior to the Mughals at the sword,
Were but the Afghans, in intellect, a little discreet.
If the different tribes would but support each other,
Kings would have to bow down in prostration before them"|title=Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans|author=Khushal Khan Khattak|source=}}