Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi

Sardar Ghulam Muhammad Khan Tarzi was an Afghan chief of the Mohammadzai house of Kandahar and a poet, born at Kandahar on 30 April 1830 and deceased at Damascus in 1900. His father was Sardar Rahim Dil Khan and his grandfather Sardar Payinda Khan. A soldier in his youth and then a court poet, he fought in the Second Anglo-Afghan War; Emir Abdur Rahman Khan expelled him in 1881, and he spent the rest of his life moving between India, Iraq, the Ottoman Empire and Syria, writing poetry under the pen name Tarzi. He was the father of Mahmud Tarzi and the grandfather of Queen Soraya. ¹

Tarzi's family belonged to the Mohammadzai, the most powerful and prominent branch of the Barakzai dynasty. A soldier in his youth, he later took up poetry, and Amir Dost Muhammad Khan drew him into the circle of state princes and learned scholars; he was related to both Dost Muhammad and his successor Sher Ali Khan. The evidence shows him as a chief in southern Afghanistan, holding most of the region his father had held. The article quotes a contemporary British report describing him as once a prominent chief, while finding no actual evidence that he held an important post at that time. ¹

Tarzi took part in the Second Anglo-Afghan War and led his men into battle in it. After the war he became one of the sardars whom Emir Abdur Rahman Khan accused of rebellion, and he was expelled from Afghanistan in 1881. ¹

He moved to Karachi and then to India. There he returned to writing poetry and toured many major cities, where he was welcomed by the anti-monarchists. He took the pen name "Tarzi" (the stylist, the intellectual) and wrote religious, mystic and secular poetry in a personal style that became known from Syria to Turkmenistan to India. He tired of India and moved his family to Baghdad, as invited guests of Sheikh Abdul-adar Ghilani; thereafter the family moved to Istanbul, where the Sultan bestowed royal favours and had them stay at a government house with a large monthly allowance. After a long tenure they moved to Damascus. Tarzi was known for intimate gatherings with city leaders to talk philosophy and ethics. ¹

Later in life Tarzi re-established contact with Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. His name and works are still well known in countries from Iran to China, and he and his son Mahmud Tarzi became valuable academic sources in Western countries. ¹

He died at Damascus; the article gives his death as 8 December 1900 and, in the same passage, the alternative of 5 February 1901, without settling between them. Formal funeral arrangements were made by the Syrian authorities, and he was buried in the Hazrat Dahdah cemetery in Damascus, with leaders paying respects from over ten nations and empires. ¹

Tarzi is the father of the Afghan leader Mahmud Tarzi, who served as ambassador and foreign minister of Afghanistan and was also a poet. He married five times, leaving eleven sons and six daughters, and his granddaughter Soraya Tarzi became the first queen consort of Afghanistan and an international women's leader. ¹

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