Dawar Khan


Dawar Khan Daud was a Pakistani folklorist, writer, poet, researcher, lecturer, member of Pashto Adabi Board and president of Rahman Baba Adabi Jirga, a literary organisation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 2004, the president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf awarded him Pride of Performance award in the field of art and literature.
He was born in Landi Arbab village of Peshawar. He graduated from a collage at his hometown, and later did master's degree in Pashto, Urdu and English literature from the University of Peshawar.

Literary career

As a lecturer, Dawar was associated with the teaching profession at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan where he used to taught Pashto. He wrote about seventeen research books on Pashto folklore, besides working on Pashto literature, idioms, dictionary, riddles, proverbs, riddles, grammar and poetry. He was also actively engaged in writing articles on Urdu and Pashto literature published in Pashto and Urdu newspapers and literary magazines, including Tatara, a monthly Pashto language newspaper of that time. After he retired from the educational service, he then joined literary organizations such as Pashto Adabi Board and Rahman Baba Adabi Jirga.
His prominent work included Pashto Tapa’, Taleem Auo Shairy, Rahman Baba Juand, Hamza Baba Aik Mutala, and Pashto Folklore Ke Arr. Some of his work, including a volume of his poetry and research thesis remained unpublished. One of his books A brief history of Pashto literature written in English language remained also unpublished. One of his publications Pashto Tapa, comprising different genres of folk poetry were introduced to curriculum of various universities in the country. He also wrote a 162 pages dictionary titled Sailab which comprises Pashto phrases and idioms.

Death

Dawar Khan was suffering from hypertensive heart disease and was subsequently admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital for medical treatment. He died of heart complications on 3 June 2018 in Peshawar, Pakistan. He is buried in Landi Arbab village of Peshawar.