Prologue: sketches on space “About four or five miles farther up the valley, beyond the Yúsufzí boundary, there are few hamlets, the two principal of which are called Chúr-ra'i, on the east bank, and Tírátaey, on the opposite side. These…
The collective cultural and historical memory and epigraphic evidence testify to the existence of Silk Route in the region.
Kalash or Kalasha are a small ethnic and religious community living near the western borders of the Chitral district, close to the neighbouring Afghan province of Nuristan (Nooristan). Shrouded in mystery, there are many different claims…
By Artem Zurabovich & Sviatoslav Kaverin (The writers are young Russian researchers who take keen interest in the history, languages, music and handicrafts of highlanders in the Pamir-Hindukush area.) Dards are a group of peoples who…
"Our class was full of human knowledge. We had a teacher who believed in us; he didn't hide our power, he advertised it". ̶ Jasso & Jasso, 1995, p. 255 I have one question for you: if you were to build a house, would you start from the…
“Language is a political institution; those who are wise in its ways, capable of using it to shape and serve important personal and social goals, will be the ones who are ‘empowered’; able, that is, not merely to participate effectively in…
Abstract In 1921, George Grierson, the editor of the Linguistic Survey of India, wrote the following words about what we now call the “Kohistani” languages of northern Pakistan: “These languages are being gradually superseded by Pashto, and…
The medieval Mumlikat-e-Gibar of northeastern Afghanistan and the northern areas of Pakistan was established as a Muslim Tajik sultanate in about 1190 AD. Being ruled in tandem by two brothers, Sultan Bahram and Sultan Pakhal (or Fahkal)…
Language plays a vital role in the presentation of a particular culture as it helps to pass on this from one generation to another. Languages keep changing a little bit with the passage of time and this leads to the origin of new languages.…
When I still used to lend a hand in the fields to my father, now 78, he would refer to a certain guy, Bahadar |bahadər|, for his oral traditions about the right weather for sowing and harvesting. At that time, I was in college and was…
