Ravan Farhadi, a Versatile scholar

Honourable readers have asked for English translation of Persian/Dari Memoirs I had written during last years. Here I begin with a short memoir about my dearest teacher and friend, His Excellency Professor Doctor Ravan Farhadi.
It was 1975 ( 1353 HS) when I was on a trip to Iran during the annual vacation, when late Professor Daneshpezhooh entered the office of Prof. Iraj Afshar and asked me with worries about Ravan Farhadi, and praised him for his profound knowledge particularly in French language. He recalled a conference he had attended in Paris, where ‘a Meddle Eastern scholar delivered a lecture in French with such a profound mastery as if he was speaking in his first language’ while Prof, Afshar who accompanied Daneshpeshooh would say that he was Dr. Ravan Farhadi, the Afghan ambassador. Late Daneshpezhooh who had heard that Ravan had been relieved from the embassy and had been summoned to Kabul was concerned about his conditions. I told him that Dr. Ravan was my teacher and he was doing quite well. I told him that he was relaxing at home and was busy with his studies and researches.
Here, I am writing a few lines on what I may remember about Dr. Ravan Farhadi in that year, hitherto and afterward. But first, I will write an account of our initial visit with this great diplomat, politician, mystic, author, linguist, philologist, and translator.First visit with Khodayar Kabuli
It was around 1968 when I was a freshman in Kabul University and at the meantime I was working as a producer of artistic and literary programs in Kabul Radio, including a program called Honar wa Zendagi (art and life). Following the instructions of my teacher and boss, late Prof. Sabahoddin Kushkaki, I had opened, in that program, a chapter for book reviews. For this chapter I interviewed famous scholars among whom were high-ranking government officials. To have a review on a juridical book by Dr. Walid Hoqooqi, I was told that an appointment had been made with Dr. Ravan Farhadi, the Politics Department Director in the Foreign Affairs ministry. I was told that Dr. Ravan would say something about the book and I had to write his words down instead of of recording his voice.
Next day, I went to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. It was very exciting, because for a freshman student, on those days, going to that ministry, then visiting a personality like Ravan Farhadi, was not an easy job. But it had become possible for me. I tried to look perfect for visiting such a luminary official. I was so impressed by the glory of the environment that I forgot to wonder how young Dr. Farhadi was, and he looked as old as looked the foreign ministry itself. He asked some questions and said a few words before going to main subject, the book review. I did not know shorthand and he was dictating so rapidly that, at first, I though it was impossible for me to go along with him. But I heard, as if somebody shouted inside me, that do not give up this opportunity, or you should give all ambitions up. It was when felt as if I had become with all my existence a pen, running in the white sheet, writing what I could not even follow hearing. Fortunately it was finished and I asked how should I write his name. He said smiling that it was a good question and added’ Write, Khodayar Kabuli’.
Marvelous! So he was the author of the morning liturgy program that I liked so much and heard every day. That litany under the signal of “The Right Way” everyday was ending with the name of the author recited by the announcer: written by Khodayar Kabuli. Anyway such was my acquaintance with Ravan Farhadi. During my studies in university and simultaneously working in Radio Kabul, I always sought an opportunity to go and see Dr. Ravan Farhadi, and I always succeeded in my efforts and always learned vital lessons. Thus Dr. Ravan Farhadi became my teacher, not only in knowledge but also in culture. He never spared what he should have taught me. His teaching and guidance were not only with amenity and leniency, but sometimes with warning and anger. For example, first I did not care about punctuality. He told me once: do you know what may happen in this world in ten minutes when we are late? Gradually, I became as punctual as I always, even now, try to arrive a few minutes earlier for any appointment and wait outside for the exact time.The Honorable Specialist =Janaab-e Motakhasses
After graduating from the university, for some reason, I had to work for one year in my hometown, Herat, as a high school teacher. After one year, my friends and colleagues called me to return to the Press, but it was not easy then, for teachers, to leave teaching for another job. I should have earned the agreement from the Ministry of Education. When Dr. Ravan knew the problem told me that the Honorable Specialist will help to get the agreement from the Education Ministry. But who was the Honorable Specialist, and one may ask, why am I writing about him, here? I am writing about him because he was a relative of Ravan and a paragon of the high culture of Kabul. He had attracted the me and without doubt so many others by his etiquettes and manners. He was late Professor Mohammad Yonus known as the “Motakhasses”, which means The Specialist, because he was specialist in chemistry. In those days he was a senior man, in his seventies, and he was an adviser in the Ministry of Education. He was very tactful and polite and very orderly with everything in his daily life. Although he was a specialist in chemistry, his reputation was mostly for his endeavors in adults education, particularly adult literacy. He was a founder of the adult literacy courses in Afghanistan, and in addition to a book that he had compiled which was named The Rules of Yonus (Osool e Yonus), he arranged publishing a monthly magazine by the name of Read and Know ( Bekhwan wa Bedaan ). He was Ravan’s father in law.
So on the appointed day, for my agreement from the ministry of education, I went to see the honorable Specialist, Prof. Yonus, at early morning, and we went together to the ministry. He took the paper that was given to me by the information and culture ministry, and went room by room to fulfill the procedure. I remember that in every office, where he entered, high-rank officer would stand for his respect and asked for the paper to complete in his behalf, but he would denied and said that he himself had been asked for the job, and it was his own duty to complete it. As they knew his manner they would not insist, but bowed to him. I kept on following him till afternoon until the work was done and the agreement was ready. I remember that late Professor smiled and asked: Did I complete my job? Am I dismissed?
I believe, his manners and ethics were, ad are, a good paragon for young generation. It’s worth saying that the Professor had a special interest to my hometown, Herat, where he had served as the director for the department of education. Even though he was chemistry professor, had a broad knowledge in different branches of human sciences. Most people who had met him, always recall his useful academic advices. Late Rona Ravan Farhadi, Professor’s daughter was a pattern of high-culture Kabuli ladies.
Again, let us resume writing of my teacher and very dear friend Professor Doctor Ravan.
One of his characteristic habits was to encourage his students and friends for academic works.Balkh and Yaghma magazineI was working in the Balkh province, in the department of information and culture in 1970. In Balkh, the anniversary of Nawrooz was celebrated nationally, or even internationally. It was a national festival as well as a pilgrimage because in Balkh, there is the shrine of Hazart-e Ali the fourth caliph of Islam. On the first day, VIPs came from the capital, Kabul, and in that year Ravan also came as the first person in the Foreign Affair Ministry. I was among the host officers welcoming the guests and pilgrims. He was there for a few hours and had to return because he could not keep out from the office for a long time. I did not know he was coming and surprisingly I met him and after inquiry he said that he had brought Yaghma, Persian literary journal and handed it to me. He had brought that journal because there had been published an itinerary of Dr. Islami Nodoshan and there was a chapter about his visit to Balkh, where we, Nadoshan and I, had met together. It was the habit of my teacher, Dr. Ravan who did not ignore any opportunity to encourage his students and friends. Later I was transferred to Kabul and Dr. Ravan was the political deputy in the Foreign Ministry and I went to see him every now and then, and was always welcomed generously. Later he was appointed as Afghan ambassador to Paris and went there, and we were in contact by letters.Five years at homeThere is proverb in Farsi: Attachment to the king is a burning fire. So was the case for my teacher. I prefer ignoring the story in detail and passing by with that ironic proverb. So, around 1975 he was summoned to Kabul without being appointed to a new job for five years. In press as well as Internet nobody has written, in detail, on Dr. Ravan’s literary and cultural activities during this period. I daresay, without doubt, that this was most productive period for Dr. Ravan Farhadi.
Jahanbeen, a journalist and political commentatorDuring this period, I learned how talented Ravan was in journalism particularly in writing political commentaries and world review. And this is a fact from which his admirers, even most of his close friends have not been aware. When I served as a member of the editing board in Jamhooriat (Republic) newspaper run by late Dr. Asef Sohail, there was published a weekly world review under the name of Jahanbeen. Sohail tried to have participation of elites in the paper. So Ravan was invited to write for the newspaper, and he wrote that weekly review but under the penname or Jahanbeen. Majority of readers were interested in that review, while none of them knew the author was Ravan Farhadi. It was a long review, written very precise and full of facts and new points. It is worth mentioning that the compilation of the punch book, Mahmood Tarzi’s Article in Sarajul-akhbar was also a pattern of his interest in journalism.A productive cultural movementIn 1974, the Afghan government approved a series of seminars, on life and works of elite personalities, to be held in Kabul. To plan and make a better arrangement a series of regular academic sessions were held at the Ministry of Information and Culture. In the ministry, there were personalities who acknowledged the superiority of academic and diplomatic character of Ravan Farhadi. Some of those people, are alive now, and may God bliss those who are not in this world anymore. One of these scholarly officers was Dr. Akram Osman, who was the director of publicity in that ministry. He was, and he is, a letter man and a skilled novel writer and he has always has reverence to cultural and literary personalities, particularly a person like Ravan Farhadi. Dr. Osman was the chief executive of these proposed programs. Akram Osman had also gathered many intellectuals and cultural employees. So there had been arranged a list of historical personalities, lettermen, academics and scientists, worth celebration. Among the names in the list were classic scholars like Daqiqi, Senayi, Naser Khosraw, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Farabi and many others.
In the ministry, to carry on this task, there was arranged a council of scholars who were invited from all over the Capital. Among famous scholars were Prof. Abdulhai Habibi and Prof. Ravan Farhadi. Habibi chaired the council and Ravan was the main speaker there. Ravan not only gave the advices but he also would show the easy and effective way for the achievements. One would relish seeing the reciprocal reverence and respects of those two scholars. A clear evidence of Ravan’s deep respect to Habibi is his book, A history of Pashto etymology. Dr. Ravan, in the second volume of the book has written a comprehensive academic biography of Dr. Habibi.
Although there many seminars were held before for celebrities like Ansari, Jami and others, but now there was a notion to introduce the culture of the society in a more worldwide scale. It was Ravan who, at this period of time- free from political involvements and fond of doing something effective for the culture, helped the executors to do their job as best as it was possible. He helped the cultural offices of the country to introduce country’s culture and literature to world in an unprecedented manner. This movement also made it possible for intellectuals to compile, research and publish hundreds of new literary, cultural and scientific books, save thousand of articles written, in this period of time by the scholars of the country and world. Ravan knew the world’s scholars better than the others did as he knew the world better than the others did. In each seminar Ravan put a finger on certain scholars names whom he thought more useful and whose participation was more practical. He also helped the executors to establish new international standard which made the seminars superior in the region.
Of course it could be, academically, beneficial for Ravan himself. He searched, wrote and edited a series of books some of those had many prints inside and outside the country. Were Ravan in his official governmental post could have done such marvelous academic works, is not easy to judge. During this period of time, if he were working as a politician or diplomat, as he was before, one me ask: could he do such a great number of academic works?Didn’t he need really?In Canada, I heard from some friends, followed by newspapers, that Iranian cultural institutions has appreciated Dr. Ravan’s endeavors in Literature and culture appointing a sum as reward or donation. They said that Ravan being gratitude of this appreciation, asked that the amount be give to one of Kabul’s charity centers, Lunatic Asylum. Those who delivered the news, were wondering how and why he did this while he himself did need it. I not only did not wonder, but the news reminded me another occasion I had seen many years ago while Dr. Ravan needed. It was about forty years ago when his translation of Mansoor-Hallaj’s Biography, by Luis Macignon was published by the Bonyad-Farhang_e_Iran (Iran Cultural Foundation ) . When the foundation sent him a check for his work, he returned the check, attaching a thanking letter, asking that the amount of the check be divided among the typesetters who had worked on that book in the printing house.ImprisonmentAnyway, this period also passed and a very sad time was waiting for Dr. Ravan as well as for his friends. It was when he was imprisoned, as were thousand other Afghan scholars, intellectuals and elites(c. 1978-1980). Here, I do not want to recall those bitter tormenting memories of which most readers are aware. I just like to mention his answer to a question I frequently heard in various sessions from him. When he was asked of the most difficult moments in the prison, he would say: It was when they called one or many of our friends and took them some where we knew why the took them and we did not know where they were left (soulless). Perhaps for Ravan there had had been more difficult times from which he did not say anything but could see some traces of those days: He showed me a small hard stone retracted to a string like a locket then hung from his son, Hamed’s neck. In that stone was engraved by Ravan, the name: Hamed. It may have been engraved for tens of days, by a means one does not know.I n the USSRThe political atmosphere became milder and Ravan, and many others, who survived, returned home. Thousands of friends and students went to see Dr. Ravan, it the first days of his coming back home. The number of the visitors was exciting.
In 1980 the government of Soviet Union wanted to show the Soviet life and communities to the Afghan elites. For the purpose a great number, around two hundred neutral, nonpartisan, intellectuals were invited to visit some Soviet Republics. Among the invitees were Dr. Ravan and I. Of course all of us were fond of visiting Central Asia where we were supposed to go. The delegation was comprised from different categories of intellectuals like university professors, teachers, poets, authors, translators, traders, clergies, craftsmen and others. I had many short trips before in companion of my teacher, Dr. Ravan, but this was our first long trip together. All along the trip, we were together. Of course this was an excellent opportunity for me to learn whatever I could from him. One may know how valuable is being in ancient cities of central
Asia accompanied with a scholar who knew scholarly and scientifically every inches of those places like Tashkent. Osh, Kokand, Dushanbe, and many other historical places of which we had only known through the classic texts.
I have many good memories from that trip all worth mentioning from which I will mention only a few:At the time of that great manWe were in Frunze, the capital of Kirgizstan there was a literary session. There, a local poet recited a poem, an eulogy praising the deceased president. At the end, he asked the guests to cite their alike eulogies for that great man. Among the guests, Dr. Ravan rose his hand that made all the guest wonder what he would cite. He said ‘I just want to tell your honorable Professor, that at the time of that great man almost all writers and poets were in prison.’ This caused murmur among the guests and hosts and later we knew that the man was blamed for such a request.Prediction of a long warOne night there was an invitation in a beautiful place named Charmaghzdare ( the Walnut valley). For the toast, the governmental speaker delivered a long speech, explaining the quality and quantity of walnut of that place and its export to foreign countries and so and so. On the tables there they had put trays of walnuts with nut-breakers. After the host speech, Dr. Ravan stood up , as a guest speaker and delivered a long speech on Panjsheer and its main product, walnut, from which Afghans make a sweet-like food, by adding mulberry(toot). He added that in difficult circumstances Afghans may live on only a small peace of tarkhan (walnut and mulberry) for months, even for years. He said that if there is famine, or if the an enemy power invades their territory, they will resist and fight for a long time with the help of walnut and mulberry.
There in the session a senior Afghan, sitting beside me, whispered and asked me if did I know what my teacher meant, and what he was predicting? I said, no, what did he mean? The man said, that Dr. Ravan was predicting a long war by Russia in Afghanistan, and he was right.
The grandparents’ songs of independence for soviet-invaded countries children
For us, it was not easy to imagine that Central Asian countries will get their independence and sovereignty in less than a decade. But Dr. Ravan, those days was telling me that parents were busy in Soviet-style life, and it were grandparents in whose bosoms their grandchildren were brought up. He would say that those grandparents would tell their grandchildren all the realities about their life and their culture, and those children who were future’s men and women would seek their lost Paradise. They would regain their culture and their sovereignty. And it was the truth. We saw it happened.
There, in every city we visited, both of us with the help of our nationalist Kirgiz guide would see cultural institutes where we were welcomed by people who were fond of seeing us whom they thought very near to themselves.A flight for goodWe were back home from the Soviet trip. Dr. Ravan was the Super Adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but all he was thinking about, was how to leave. In those days, there was felt the necessity of compiling an Afghan edition of the Hajj Guidance, and Ravan was the best editor for such a book. He began and ended it immediately with the help of Prof. Habibullah Rafi who edited the Pashto version of that book. When it was the time for a payment for there work, both of them asked for a Hajj Pilgrimage and the government accept. Thus Ravan left Kabul. And did not returned.A rude student?Ravan’s kindness and tolerance has always permitted me to feel free in asking him tough questions; such a questions that nobody else would dare ask him. He always had and still has very reasonable answers to my questions.
With saying that some people were criticizing, once I asked him why did he take the duty of execution the wedding ritual in wedding parties, while there were certain persons for the job. He said: this is a cultural and religious duty for everybody. I am doing it because I want people not to down-look those who take that responsibility. Once it happened that Dr, Ravan was invited to a wedding party in Ottawa. He cited the Khotba (wedding prayer) and wrote all the documents himself, and it was really interesting for me. I was sorry for transferring others’ critics through my own questions.Chastity of tongueRavan always has a clean tongue, and does not use ugly words. I remember when he was narrating a joke and the joke looked more serious than simple ludicrous joke. It happened that another person on the other occasion, narrated the same joke that one could not help laughing aloud. It was because Ravan had omitted an ugly word, in other word an F word.Multidimensional scholarshipRavan has a multilateral scholarship. His vast knowledge in politics, diplomacy, and linguistics is known all over the world. Half a century ago he wrote the book named Kabul Oral Language. He also wrote a book on Tajik Dialect. His books in mysticism have many prints, in Afghanistan and Iran. He also took participation in introducing modern literature in Afghanistan, and translated Topaz and Misunderstanding. He encouraged me to compile Herati Oral Language. He was my guide in my fist researches and writings, and thank to his encouragements, as one of his humble students could write and translate more than 30 topic of books an hundreds of articles.October 12, 2009
Asef FekratOttawa-Canada