1 198
2 LEARIOMO OF THE AFOHAUN&
3 Among the Pushtoo poct3 we inust not omit the name of Ahmed
4 Shauh, who composed a book of odes in that InTi^^uap^e, ot> which
5 there is . a laborious and voluminous commentary b^^the Khauni
6 Ooloom.
7 Besides their original poetry, the A^{)iauu8 .have translations of
8 manv of the best Persian poets.
9 Their prose authors are chiefly writers on theiilogy aud law ; but
10 they have also several histories of particular periods in tlieir own
11 transactions. The books writteu in I'usIucm), are not to be relied on
12 as giving any standard of the h^arning of the nation; for Persian still
13 continues to bo the language of composition, apd in it almost all
14 books of science are written. It is not easy to fix the number of
15 their writers in this language : if we count all - tlMise who have writ-
16 ten in A^hatimrtMiii, we shall include totae of the' gretitest Persian
17 authors! but if we confine ourselves to those who belonged to the
18 A^^unm tribest the list wSl be bioii^ within very nanow bounds.
19 This much is oeitain, that aU the Penian anthon aie liuniliarly
20 in A^hannistaun, but the leamtog tod aocomplishm'ente the pep-
21 ple are inferior to those of the Persians.. Hie sdenoes are the saae
22 as those to which the Persians apply themselves. The wny of study-
23 ing them is as methodical as in odier Asiatic oounlTws.' . A learned
24 man of those countries^ meedng another with whom he is not ac-
25 quainted, will ask him what sdoioes he has studied (m question whidi
26 would pnnle vo/oat wdH informed Englishmen)^ md then ask* what
27 books he has read : to which the other wiQ answer* ** iqp to so and
28 ** so»** which will be at once understood, as iSkey read all books in a
29 fixed order like school-boys. Hiis practice pi^vents- their haviqg
30 much of the miscellaneous knovriedge of European gentlemen»
31 though, on the other hand, they generally know what they have
32 lesmedy well. It seems likely to damp curiosity, and to check fJi
33 excursions of the mind ; and, accordingly, there is generally a w^
34 of ardour in pursuit of knowledge among the Asiatics, which is par-
35 taken by the Afghauns, excepting, howe\*er, in the sciences of dia-
36 lectics and meta{»hy8ic89 in which they take much interest* and here
37 Digitizeo by LiOOglc