Abdul Shakoor Rashad

Abdul Shakoor Rashad (; 14 November 1921 – 1 December 2004) was an Afghan professor, researcher, linguist, and writer. He is known for his work in Pashto language and literature, for which he has written several books. Prior to his academic career, Rashad served as a local politician in Kandahar.

Early life Rashad was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In 1933 he graduated from school at the age of 12. In 1934, the 13-year-old Rashad became a teacher and began his official career.

In 1948, Abdul Shakoor went to India to further his education and to continue his research in Pashto. While there, he wrote a 351-page book titled Lodi Pashtoons and learned Hindi.

Academic life In 1957, Rashad became a member of the Pashto Academy and a professor of the Pashto language at the Faculty of Language and Literature at Kabul University. He was later appointed as Assistant Director of the Pashto Academy.

In 1961, he was appointed as a Pashto-language teacher in the Institute of Eastern Research in Leningrad, where he served for two and a half years. He moved back to Kabul where he continued to serve as a professor at Kabul University in the Faculty of Language and Literature as Professor and as the Chief of the Pashto Department.

Besides his native language Pashto, he was fluent in Persian, Tajik, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Russian, and English. He was also knowledgeable in Sanskrit, Hebrew, Bengali, Brahui, Balochi, Hazaragi, Ossetian, Kurdish, Pashayi, Nuristani, the Pamir languages, Latin, Greek, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Turkish. He wrote poems in Persian and Urdu, and has devoted his life in Pashto literature. He has written around 105 books (of which 36 were published) and hundreds of articles.

Books

Some of his notable publications include: – on the life and eminence of first Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr – a collective biography of Pushto poets from ancient times to 20th century from Afghanistan and Pakistan; includes samples from their works –historical and cultural study of Kandahar from ancient times to 20th century – a Pashto poem , political history of Lodi dynasty of Afghanistan; includes biographical sketches of noted personalities of the tribe – on the life of Wazir Akbar Khan, a national hero of Afghanistan – history of the Pashto alphabet – analysis of Pashto lexicon – annotation and commentary on a work of Arabic phonology by Avicenna