Roshani movement

The Rōshānī movement (Pashto: روښاني غورځنګ, lit. 'The enlightened movement') was a populist, nonsectarian Sufi movement that was founded in the mid-16th century, in the Pashtunistan region of present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, and arose among the Pashtun tribes. The movement was founded by Pir Roshan, an Ormur warrior, Sufi poet and revolutionary.^[1] Roshan challenged the inequality and social injustice that he saw being practiced by the ruling powers of the Mughal Empire. He advocated for a system of egalitarian codes and tenets that his followers, the Roshaniyya, promulgated within Islam.^[2] Pir Roshan educated and instructed followers of the movement through new and radical teachings that questioned basic Islamic canons during that time, and propagated egalitarian principles.^[3] His teachings resonated among the Afridi, Orakzai, Khalil, Mohmand, and Bangash tribes.^[3]

The Roshaniyya were a millenarian Sufi group popular with the Pashtun populations in the northwestern regions of the Mughal Empire.^[4] The group achieved strong influence and authority among the eastern Pashtun tribes and played a significant role in Pashtun history and in the policy of the Mughal Empire on its western frontiers.^[5] The movement itself was a challenge to Pashtun tribal society, and its purpose was to raise issues of leadership, authority, and social ethics.^[4] Its leaders were the followers and disciples of Pir Roshan, and membership within the movement threatened to undermine traditional tribal leadership. The Roshaniyya movement went through three phases: the first phase lasted from 1565 to 1585, the second phase from 1585 to 1605, and the third phase from 1605 to 1632.^[4]