Portrait of Rahman Baba
Portrait of Rahman Baba. Unknown manuscript artist · Public domain · Image source ↗ (opens in a new window)

Classical · Sufi

Rahman Baba

رحمان بابا

Pashto’s great Sufi poet, whose direct language carries themes of love, humility, and human unity.

Life and work

Introduction

Abdur Rahman Mohmand, widely known as Rahman Baba, was a seventeenth-century Sufi poet. He lived around Peshawar and kept his distance from courtly praise and political power.

The Divan of Rahman Baba is among the most widely read works in Pashto. His ghazals express deep mystical thought in a flowing language that has remained alive in popular memory.

The most beloved voice of the Pashto Sufi ghazal; his divan has circulated in numerous manuscripts since the eighteenth century.

Recorded works

Poems

Books and editions

Bibliography