Faiz Mohammad Katib Hazara - History

History

He was soon attached to the entourage of the amir’s eldest son, Habib Ullah Khan, at the recommendation of one of his teachers, Mullah Sarwar Ishaq'zai. Faiz Mohammad accompanied the prince from Kabul to Jalalabad in 1311/1893-94. There is a manuscript attributed to him, dated 29 Rajab 1311/5 February 1894, which places him in Jalalabad at this time. In 1314/1896, when Habib Ullah’s younger brother Nasr Ullah Khan toured England on a state visit, Habib Ullah assigned Faiz Mohammad to copy and post in the Charsuq, Kabul’s main market-place, the detailed letters sent back by Nasr Ullah recounting his activities, so that “noble and commoner alike would be apprised of the honor and respect that the English were according him”.

During Habib Ullah’s reign, Faiz Mohammad was involved, if only peripherally, with the Young Afghan movement led by Mahmud Baig Tarzi. He is said to have been associated with the publication of Tarzi’s reformist journal, Siraj al-Akbar, and three other journals, Anis, Ḥayy alal-falah, and Aina-ye Irfan. After the assassination of his patron in 1337/1919, Faiz Mohammad worked for a time at the Ministry of Education on textbook revision. Sometime later, he was appointed to a teaching position at the Habibiya Laycee (Habibiya High School) in Kabul.

During the reign of Aman Ullah Khan (1919–29), the Iranian minister in Kabul Sayyed Mahdi Farrokh compiled a “who’s who” of contemporary Afghan leaders. His sketch of Faiz Mohammad characterizes him as a devout Shiʿite, highly regarded by the Qizilbash community of Kabul, as well as a leader among his own people, the Hazaras, and an important source of information for the Persian mission about what was going on in the capital.

In 1929, the Tajik outlaw Habib Ullah Kalakani, known to history as Bacha ye Saqqao (son of the water-carrier), ousted Aman Ullah Khan and took control of Kabul for nine months (January to October 1929). During this uprising Faiz Mohammad, who spent almost the entire period inside the city, kept a journal which was the basis for an unfinished monograph entitled Kitab-e Tadakoor-e Enqilab which he began shortly after the fall of Bacha ye Saqqao.

During the occupation, Faiz Mohammad was forced to take part in a delegation sent by Kalakani to negotiate with Hazara groups opposing the Tajik leader. According to his account, he managed to subvert Kalakani’s plans and caused the mission to fail. However, he and the mission’s leader, Noor al-Din Agha, a Qizilbash Shiʿite from Kabul, paid a heavy price for this: both were sentenced to death by beating. Faiz Mohammad alone survived the ordeal and was saved by a colleague. The Persian mission in Kabul, under a directive from Reza Shah to do what it could to aid the Shiʿites of Kabul, sent medicines to his house. He eventually recovered enough to travel the following year to Tehran for more medical care. After less than a year there, he returned to Kabul, where he died on 6 Shawal 1349/3 March 1931, at the age of sixty-eight or sixty-nine.