Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai

Though the rural context to which he was born offered him little in the way of formal education,[6] 'Allamah Hunzai's zeal for self-study earnt him proficiency in Burushaski, Urdu, Arabic and Classical Persian, 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 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 shepherding in order to sustain his family.[7] He would later recall how he used to carry his herding-stick in one hand, and the Qur'an in the other, which he studied with great avidity, and began to develop original theological and hermeneutical positions over its injunctions.

'Allamah Hunzai was recruited into the Gilgit Scouts on the 8th of April, 1939, aged 21.[8] He recalls having become "habituated" to seeking knowledge as a result of nurturing the zeal he possessed therefor during his days as a shepherd,[8] and he thus continued to study books on classical philosophy and poetry during his leisure time.[9]

It was during his service in the Gilgit Scouts that 'Allamah Hunzai began to compose poetry,[9] 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.[10] 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[10] (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,[10] which is still widely recited today.[11] 'Allamah Hunzai jests at his misfortune in the absence of a photocopier in 1940, because the popularity of his poem within the Gilgit Scouts 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.[9] Among these peers were sergeants Tahwil Shah and Hasan 'Ali, who recited the poem with rhythm and melody.[9] Thus began the tradition of Burushaski poetry and its recitation, which is today part of everyday life in Hunza.[12]

'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.[8] 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.[8]

Across 125 works of prose, 'Allamah Hunzai thoroughly repurposes and builds extensively upon classical Isma'ili thought,[4] with original theological, metaphysical and teleological expositions that draw on the historically unprecedented philosophical injunctions of the 48th Isma'ili Imam, Sultan Muhammad Shah.[5] In addition, his works constitute a vast corpus of original Isma'ili esoteric exegesis,[4] which reflects a deeper engagement with the process of ta'wil (lit. to return a thing to its origin) than can be found in previous Isma'ili hermeneutical works. These aspects of his works are very briefly elaborated upon below:

'Allamah Hunzai wrote the first known Burushaski poem in 1940 during his service in the Gilgit Scouts,[10] and thereafter continued to compose scores of poems in Burushaski, Urdu and Persian,[23] which spanned a range of devotional and philosophical genres. In 1951, he began to compose poetry in Uighur,[24] having mastered the language during his missionary work in Xinjiang.[25] In 1961, 'Allamah Hunzai published his first poetry collection, entitled Nagmah-yi Israfil, which featured a selection of his Burushaski poems.[26] 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 Burushaski language'.[26] As the late van-Skyhawk notes, this had the effect of sacralising 'Allamah Hunzai's poetry for the Isma'ilis,[24] and thus his poems were and continue to be widely recited in Isma'ili jama'at-khanas following this exchange.[24] '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 Burushaski, Urdu, Persian and Uighur poetry, as well as his Diwan-i Nasiri - the first Diwan of poetry in Burushaski.[27] 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 Burushaski language.[27] In addition to his Burushaski Diwan, 'Allamah Hunzai also published a twelve-volume Urdu Diwan, comprising thousands of poems. In 1996, a selection of 'Allamah Hunzai's Uighur, Urdu, Persian and Burushaski poems was chosen to feature in an anthology of Isma'ili poetry entitled Shimmering Light, published by I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Isma'ili Studies.[28]