Partaw-i Shah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hubb-i 'Ali Hunzai (17 May 1917 – 15 January 2017), known also as '' 'Allamah'' (lit. learned) ''Hunzai', 'Allamah Sahib'', or by his epithets, ''Baba-yi Burushaski'' (lit. The Father of

Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people in ...

), ''Lisan al-Qawm'' (lit. The Nation's Spokesman) and ''Hakim al-Qalam'' (lit. The Sage of the Pen), was a 20th and 21st century theologian, philosopher,

Isma'ili Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...

scholar, poet and linguist known for his work on

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...

, poetry and the

language. His one-hundred-and-twenty-five works of theological and philosophical prose thoroughly repurpose and build extensively upon classical Isma'ili thought,Andani, K. ''Revelation in Islam: Qur'anic, Sunni and Shi'i Isma'ili Perspectives'' npublished PhD Thesis Harvard University. p. 742. setting forth original

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

and

teleological Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

expositions, based on the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam, Sultan Muhammad Shah.See Noormohamed, R. (2019). A Bridge Between Two Epochs. London, England: ISW These works also constitute a vast corpus of original Isma'ili esoteric

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

, which reflects a deeper engagement with the process of

ta'wil Esoteric interpretation of the Quran ( ar, تأويل, taʾwīl) is the allegorical interpretation of the Quran or the quest for its hidden, inner meanings. The Arabic word ''taʾwīl'' was synonymous with Tafsir, conventional interpretation in i ...

(lit. to bring a thing back to its origin) than can be found in previous Isma'ili hermeneutical works. He was also an engaged socio-political

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, advocating for

female education Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girls ...

and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

cultural pluralism Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, whereby their values and practices are accepted by the dominant culture, provided such are consistent with the laws and value ...

and

language preservation Language preservation is the preservation of endangered or dead languages. With language death, studies in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology lose diversity. As history is remembered with the help of historic preservation, languag ...

Early life

Though the rural context to which he was born offered him little in the way of formal education, 'Allamah Hunzai's zeal for self-study earnt him proficiency in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Classical Persian Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and u ...

, which allowed him to study manuscripts collected by his father and other local scholars, including, among others, Khusraw's ''Wajh-i Din'' (which he later translated into Urdu), ''Jami' al-Hikmatayn'' and ''Zad al-Musafirin'', and Ja'far b. Mansur's ''Sara'ir wa-Asrar al-Nutaqa'' - some of the most complex in their genre. As a result, he became well-versed in classical Isma'ili

Neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...

philosophy and hermeneutics before having even reached the end of puberty. This early phase of inquisition also saw him take to poetry, with Sa'di's ''Bustan'', ''Gulistan'' and ''Karima'', as well as Hafiz-i Shirazi's ''Divan'' and Rumi's ''Kulliyat-i Shams'' included in his father's collection of manuscripts. During this early phase, 'Allamah Hunzai was forced to take-up

shepherd A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...

ing in order to sustain his family. He would later recall how he used to carry his herding-stick in one hand, and the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

in the other, which he studied with great avidity, and began to develop original

and

hermeneutical Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...

positions over its injunctions.

Military life

'Allamah Hunzai was recruited into the

Gilgit Scouts The Gilgit Scouts constituted a paramilitary force of the Gilgit Agency in northern Jammu and Kashmir. They were raised by the government of British India in 1913, on behalf of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, to police the northern front ...

on the 8th of April, 1939, aged 21.Hunzai. F. M. & Noormohamed R. (transl.) Jang: Special Interview (p. 12). London, England: ISW He recalls having become "habituated" to seeking knowledge as a result of nurturing the zeal he possessed therefor during his days as a shepherd, and he thus continued to study books on classical philosophy and poetry during his leisure time.Lakhani, A. (2022). (transl.) ''A Short Biography of 'Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai'' (p. 10). London, England: ISW It was during his service in the Gilgit Scouts that 'Allamah Hunzai began to compose poetry, beginning with his mother-tongue, Burushaski (for more on 'Allamah Hunzai's poetry, see the section entitled 'Poetry'). Prior to him, however, Burushaski had been a broken, oral tongue, and there did not exist a script with which to write in the language.Salim, S. (2021). ''An Open Letter to the LIF'' (p. 1). Karachi: Burushaski Research Academy. As one of the world's 129 language isolates, Burushaski possesses unique sounds, grammar and syntax, and to account for these, 'Allamah Hunzai - whilst in his first year of service in the Gilgit Scouts - developed his own Burushaski script, using an Arabic base to which he added eight special letters and ten vowel symbols (for more on 'Allamah Hunzai's contribution to the Burushaski language, see the section on Burushaski'). Using this script, 'Allamah Hunzai wrote the first known Burushaski poem the following year in 1940, which is still widely recited today. 'Allamah Hunzai jests at his misfortune in the absence of a photocopier in 1940, because the popularity of his poem within the

meant having to hand-write hundreds of copies of the poem upon request from his peers, who wished to take it home to their families. Among these peers were sergeants Tahwil Shah and Hasan 'Ali, who recited the poem with rhythm and melody. Thus began the tradition of Burushaski poetry and its recitation, which is today part of everyday life in Hunza. 'Allamah Hunzai resigned from the Gilgit Scouts on the 1st of September, 1943, and joined the Indian army in Srinagar on the 5th of October in the same year. He was released on his own request therefrom on the 7th of February, 1946, and set off for Bombay, where the Diamond Jubilee of the 48th Isma'ili Imam, Sultan Muhammad Shah, was to take place.

Philosophy, Theology and Hermeneutics

Across 125 works of prose, 'Allamah Hunzai thoroughly repurposes and builds extensively upon classical Isma'ili thought, with original

and

expositions that draw on the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam, Sultan Muhammad Shah. In addition, his works constitute a vast corpus of original Isma'ili esoteric exegesis, which reflects a deeper engagement with the process of

(lit. to return a thing to its origin) than can be found in previous Isma'ili

works. These aspects of his works are very briefly elaborated upon below:

Metaphysics

Among the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam is his declaration that " Islam's basic principle can only be defined as monorealism and not as monotheism". Drawing on this injunction and others, 'Allamah Hunzai develops a

monistic Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

frameworkSee for example Hunzai. N. N. (n.d.). ''Haqa'iq-i 'Aliyyah'' (chap. 4). Karachi: Daru'l-Hikmat al-Isma'iliyyah wherein the absence of an

ontological In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

barrier between mind and matter offers a solution to the problem of causal interaction that plagues much of substance dualist philosophy, whilst still accounting for their difference with respect to

properties Property is the ownership of land, resources, improvements or other tangible objects, or intellectual property. Property may also refer to: Mathematics * Property (mathematics) Philosophy and science * Property (philosophy), in philosophy and ...

, inasmuch as his framework posits one.

Teleology

'Allamah Hunzai's

framework lays the foundation for his

expositions, which build extensively upon the notion of the

Second's return to perfection, demonstrating its eventual superiority over the First to be part of its ''

telos Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of a work of human art. Intentional actualization of potential or inherent purpose,"Telos.''Philosophy Terms'' Retrieved 3 May 2020. ...

'', and positing an individualistic context to which the scale of the

regression applies.

Theology

'Allamah Hunzai affirms and extensively develops the notion of the carnal soul's annihilation - which also features heavily in his hermeneutics - but also posits an original exposition of the rational soul's annihilation, drawing on the recurring notion of a two-fold process of

return throughout the sayings of the

Prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

. For 'Allamah Hunzai, it is this second annihilation that marks one's ''fana''' in and ''baqa with God.

Hermeneutics

Past Isma'ili hermeneutical works deal primarily with interpreting scriptural symbolism by appeal to the phenomena of the hierarchy in which the Isma'ili summons was ordered, known as the ''hudud al-din''. Doubt was thus cast on the relevancy of this past corpus of exegesis following the 48th Isma'ili Imam's abolishment of this physical hierarchy. 'Allamah Hunzai's corpus of esoteric exegesis both extensively expands and saves the Isma'ili hermeneutical tradition from the charge of redundancy, by elucidating scriptural parables with respect to the phenomena in and between an individual's quadripartite soul, offering a deeper return (

) of scriptural symbolism in doing so.

Poetry

'Allamah Hunzai wrote the first known

poem in 1940 during his service in the

, and thereafter continued to compose scores of poems in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, which spanned a range of devotional and philosophical genres. In 1951, he began to compose poetry in Uighur,See Van-Skyhawk, H. (2005). ''The Devotional Poems of ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Hunzai as Inter-Cultural Translations''. In ''Mitteilungen fuer Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte 17''(1), 305-316. Münster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag having mastered the language during his missionary work in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

. In 1961, 'Allamah Hunzai published his first poetry collection, entitled ''Nagmah-yi Israfil'', which featured a selection of his

poems.Lakhani, A. (2022). ''A Short Biography of 'Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai'' (p. 28). London, England: Daru'l-Hikmat al-Isma'iliyyah. The collection was telegrammed in the same year to the 49th Isma'ili Imam, Shah Karim al-Husayni, who, in his response, ascribed to 'Allamah Hunzai's collection the status of a " ginan book in the

language'. As the late van-Skyhawk notes, this had the effect of sacralising 'Allamah Hunzai's poetry for the Isma'ilis, and thus his poems were and continue to be widely recited in Isma'ili jama'at-khanas following this exchange. 'Allamah Hunzai went on to publish numerous further poetry collections, including his ''Manzumat-i Nasiri'', ''Jawahir-i Ma'arif'' and ''Bihishte Asqurin'', which amalgamated his

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and Uighur poetry, as well as his ''Diwan-i Nasiri'' - the first Diwan of poetry in

.Salim, S. (2021). ''An Open Letter to the LIF'' (Appendix A, p. 1). Karachi: Burushaski Research Academy. In 1980, a Latin-script transliteration of this Diwan was published, having been rendered by Professors Ettiene Tiffou and Yves Charles Morin of the University of Montréal, who had prior to this approached 'Allamah Hunzai for assistance with their research on the

language. In addition to his

Diwan, 'Allamah Hunzai also published a twelve-volume

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Diwan, comprising thousands of poems. In 1996, a selection of 'Allamah Hunzai's Uighur,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and

poems was chosen to feature in an anthology of Isma'ili poetry entitled ''Shimmering Light'', published by

I.B. Tauris I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It specialises in non ...

in association with the Institute of Isma'ili Studies.

Renditions

Musical of renditions of 'Allamah Hunzai's poetry have amassed millions of views across the several streaming platforms to which they have been shared. Bayan's 2016 hit, Raz-i Fitna, is a rendition of an Urdu poem published in 'Allamah Hunzai's ''Guldastah-yi Irfan''.Hunzai, N. N. (n.d.). ''Guldastah-yi Irfan'' (c. 25). Karachi: Daru'l-Hikmat al-Isma'iliyyah.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasir Al-Din Nasir Hunzai 1917 births 2017 deaths Burusho people Pakistani lexicographers Pakistani poets Pakistani scholars Pakistani spiritual writers Pakistani Ismailis People from Hunza Recipients of Sitara-i-Imtiaz Linguists of Burushaski