Panjshir In the Mirror of Civilization!: Said Qasim Panjsheri “The most famous poet from Panjshir Province”

Panjshir in the Mirror of Civilization

(Part Seven)

Written by Salar Azizpour

Translated by: Abdul Ali Faiq

Without any exaggeration, I can say that Said Qasim Panjsheri, (Faqeri, Ghulami and Azizi) are the first poets that I have come to know from Panjshir province. There has never been a gathering of Panjshiri’s that I have not read or listen to Qasim poetry. For that Said Qasim Panjsheri is one of the very famous panjshiri poets, and has got into the heart and mind of his people. For his special personality and literary tribute, we will take Wasef Bakhtari's testimony "one of Afghanistan great poet and literati".

He (Wasef Bacteria) has written about Said Qasim book of poems," my recognition of his name and poetry connects with my childhood. May be, for the first time I have heard his name was from Ustaad Khasteh, about his satiric Ode about Balkh. Also Habibulrahman Jadeer had few of his poems written and memorized, and was reading them occasionally for me, my intellectual friends Haidari Wojodi and Nelaab Rahmi would also mentioned him and his work.

Said Qasim Panjsheri ,without a doubt was one of the far most knowledgeable poets of his time, with the intelligence of literary and history of Islamic culture and an open minded intellectual for the better being of his society which he has been known. Said Qasim poetic intuition was the way forward for, he had a vast knowledge of history and had came to honour relics of the past.

Said Qasim Panjsheri is one of the eloquent that has spoken from the time of his people and his poetic intuition has never put him away from his time and people, for that he has not been forgotten from the hearth and mind of his people. No other poets have this kind of standard which without any remains of his written works, his poetry still living in peoples hearts.

There could be tens ideas and written testimony about his autobiography and here there some of his poem could be in the hand of literary scholars that can be revealing of his beautiful work. From all, we only quote what Haidari Wojode has said for the selection of his poems (the book); " I can’t say anything of his poem by basis of poetic literati, because Wasef Bakhtry of the best scholar of our time has have done the work…But, for my own knowledge I have to say from the statement of the contemporaries of readers from Rome's Masnawee to Bedel in the province of Panjshir specially in Bazarak region which he has put in circulation".

Said Qasim Panjsheri was born in a spiritual family in Khenj Panjshir in 1878. His father Said Mohammad Hashem was one of the spiritual leaders of Khenj. His childhood was spent in his place of birth and studied in the Mosque and become a literary student. Said Qasim Panjsheri then moved to Bokhara (Bacteria) for further study and came back to Afghanistan .He had a good ties and friendship with the intellectuals of his time, for instance Mahmood Tarzee and later on with King Amanulaah Khan and for short time he worked for the government in Balkh province.