Hamza Shinwari

Hamza was born in Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency,[1] as the fourth of five sons in the house of Malik Bazmir Khan. The family was known for upholding Pakhtun tradition. Orphaned early in life, he was raised by an elder brother, Bawar Khan. His early experience of formal education set the pattern for the remainder of his schooling. His primary-school teacher set the six-year-old to writing out the alphabet; Hamza received rather severe punishment when he instead followed his artistic inclinations and drew human figures. The incident deterred him from attending school; from this young age he would roam the local area, returning home at the same time as his school fellows. When his long-term absence from school was noted, his brother enrolled him in the Islamia Collegiate School in Peshawar. To attend, Hamza had to board in a hostel in the city. He endured what was for him a miserable experience for as long as he could, leaving school permanently during the tenth grade.[2]

As early as the fifth grade Hamza began writing poetry in Urdu; at this time there was little verse published in Pashto. When his murshid (spiritual guide), Khawaja Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, advised him to write in his mother tongue Pashto, he followed that guidance.[3] One reviewer commented in 2011:[1]

Baba may not have been a first-rate Urdu poet, but once he started composing verses in Pashto, he perfected Pashto ghazal to the extent that Pashtun critics conferred on him the title, Baba-e-Pashto ghazal.

— From Dawn's Inpaper magazine (2011)

When Shinwari worked on the railways, he had very little money. He received a low-income certificate and quit. He travelled to Mumbai to work in the film industry but failed to establish himself.[2]

Hamza's literary influences included Mirza Khan Ansari and Khushal Khan Khattak.[3] In the early 1940s, his poetry focused on romanticism. He wrote about different aspects of romance.

Hamza was also a critic and a playwright, producing 200 plays for Radio Pakistan, features, critical essays, and research papers for different literary newspapers of Pakistan.[1]

He belonged to the Shinwari tribe of the ethnic Pashtuns. His work is considered a fusion between classic and modern poetry. He wrote classical poetry, blended it with recent innovations, and introduced new ideas in Pashtan ghazals. He is also known as the father of Pashto Ghazals.[1]

Hamza lived in Landi Kotal; his home was in Muhalla Sakhi Shah Mardan. He died in February 1994 and is buried in Khyber Agency.[4]

He lived for some thirty years in Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• "Death anniversary of Pashto poet Amir Hamza Shinwari observed". The Nation. 19 February 2021.
• Mohammad Taqi (27 July 2011). "Baheer: three currents of Hamza Shinwari's poetry". Daily Times. [Opinion-editorial].

• Hamza Shinwari poem ځم at Chakdara.com