Khushal Khattak

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Khushal Khan Khattak خوشال خان خټک خوشحال خان خٹک
Portrait of Khattak
Born	May or June 1613 (1613) Akora Khattak, Mughal Empire (present-day Nowshera District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan)
Died	19 February 1689 (1689-02-20) (aged 75) Dambara, Tirah, Mughal Empire (present-day Khyber District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan)
Resting place	Akora Khattak, Nowshera District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan
Known for	Pashto poetry, Pashtun nationalism
Notable work	Bāznāma, Swātnāma, Fazlnāma, Tibbnāma, Firāqnāma
Title	National poet of Afghanistan[1]
Parent	Shahbaz Khan Khattak

Khošāl Khān Khaṭak (Pashto: خوشال خان خټک; Urdu, Persian: خوشحال خان خٹک; 1613 – 20 February 1689), also known as Khushal Baba (Pashto: خوشال بابا), was a 17th-century Pashtun poet, chief, and warrior.^[2] Khushal Khan served the Mughal Empire protecting them from Pashtun warriors over most of his lifespan. After being expelled from his tribal chiefdom and replaced with his son by his Mughal superiors, Khushal Khan turned against the Mughals. Afterwards, Khushal preached the union of all Pashtuns, and encouraged revolt against the Mughal Empire, promoting Pashtun nationalism in the last years of his life through poetry. Khushal wrote many works in Pashto but also a few in Persian. Khushal is considered the "father of Pashto literature" and the national poet of Afghanistan.^[1][3]

Khushal's life was spent in serving the Mughal emperor and in his last years he struggled against the Mughal Empire who had fluctuating relations with the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (present-day Pakistan) and Zabulistan (present-day Afghanistan). In order to restore his position as chief, Khushal challenged the powers of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and defeated the Mughal troops in many engagements. He was a renowned military fighter who became known as a "Pashtun warrior-poet". The stand and fight attitude of Khushal was an important stance in Pashtun history, and his opinions and ideas form a new stage in the ideological and intellectual development of the Pashtuns. Besides poetry and prose works, Khushal also wrote various translations from Persian and Arabic into Pashto. He later died in Tirah area (Now Khyber District).^[4]