Roshani movement


The Rōshānī movement was a populist, nonsectarian Sufi reformation movement founded in the 16th century by the Afghan or Pashtun warrior-poet, Bayazid Pir Roshan, who is more commonly known as Pir Roshan or Pir Rokhan. Pir Roshan challenged the inequality and social injustice he imputed to the Mughal emperors of the day, instead advocating an egalitarian and even communistic social system. Its adherents were inducted into the order through a series of secret initiation rituals.

Contribution to Pashto language

The founder of the Roshani movement, Bayazid Pir Roshan, is credited with inventing a Pashto alphabet and writing one of the earliest known prose in Pashto. His alphabet paved the way for writing further literature and poetry in Pashto. The Roshani movement gave Pashto some famous poets in the 16th and 17th centuries.