WRITERS from Afghanistan

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Afghan Writers of all time. This list of famous Afghan Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Afghan Writers.

1. Rumi (1207 - 1273)

With an HPI of 83.10, Rumi is the most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 101 different languages on wikipedia.

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمّد رومی), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. Rumi's works were written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic and Greek in his verse. His Masnavi (Mathnawi), composed in Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language. Rumi's influence has transcended national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Afghans, Tajiks, Turks, Kurds, Greeks, Central Asian Muslims, as well as Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poetry influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Pashto, Kurdish, Urdu, and Bengali languages. Rumi's works are widely read today in their original language across Greater Iran and the Persian-speaking world. His poems have subsequently been translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet", is very popular in Turkey, Azerbaijan and South Asia, and has become the "best selling poet" in the United States.

2. Ali-Shir Nava'i (1441 - 1501)

With an HPI of 69.15, Ali-Shir Nava'i is the 2nd most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī (Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, Persian: نظام‌الدین علی‌شیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet, writer, statesman, linguist, Hanafi Maturidi mystic and painter who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature. Nava'i believed that his native Chagatai Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, an uncommon view at the time and defended this belief in his work titled Muhakamat al-Lughatayn (The Comparison of the Two Languages). He emphasized his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian. Because of his distinguished Chagatai language poetry, Nava'i is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature. Many places and institutions in Central Asia are named after him, including the province and city of Navoiy in Uzbekistan.

3. Khaled Hosseini (1965 - )

With an HPI of 61.34, Khaled Hosseini is the 3rd most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 63 different languages.

Khaled Hosseini (;Persian/Pashto خالد حسینی [ˈxɒled hoˈsejni]; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel The Kite Runner (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book and his subsequent novels have all been at least partially set in Afghanistan and have featured an Afghan as the protagonist. Hosseini's novels have enlightened the global audience about Afghanistan's people and culture. Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat father, Hosseini spent some time living in Iran and France. When Hosseini was 15, his family applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a naturalized citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2003 when he was 38, an experience similar to that of the protagonist in The Kite Runner. In later interviews, Hosseini admitted to feeling survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country prior to the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars. After graduating from college, Hosseini worked as a physician in California, a situation he likened to "an arranged marriage". The success of The Kite Runner meant he was able to retire from medicine in order to write full-time. His three novels have all reached various levels of critical and commercial success. The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including three weeks at number one. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), spent 103 weeks on the chart, including 15 at number one while his third novel, And the Mountains Echoed (2013), remained on the chart for 33 weeks. In addition to writing, Hosseini has advocated for the support of refugees, including establishing with the UNHCR the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to support Afghan refugees returning to Afghanistan.

4. Sanai (1080 - 1131)

With an HPI of 55.52, Sanai is the 4th most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi (Persian: حکیم ابوالمجد مجدود ‌بن آدم سنایی غزنوی), more commonly known as Sanai, was a Persian poet from Ghazni. He lived his life in the Ghaznavid Empire which is now located in Afghanistan. He was born in 1080 and died between 1131 and 1141.

5. Rabia Balkhi (1000 - )

With an HPI of 51.65, Rabia Balkhi is the 5th most famous Afghan Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Rabia Balkhi, also known as Rabia al-Quzdari (or Khuzdari) was a 10th-century writer who composed poetry in Persian and Arabic. She is the first known female poet to write in Persian. A non-mystic poet, her imagery was later transformed into that of a mystic poet by authors such as Attar of Nishapur (died 1221) and Jami (died 1492). She became a semi-legendary figure, famous for her love story with the slave Bektash. Her shrine is located in the mausoleum of the 15th-century Naqshbandi Sufi Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa (died 1460) in the city of Balkh, now present-day Afghanistan. She is celebrated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran through various schools, hospitals, and roads being named after her.

6. Gulbadan Begum (1523 - 1603)

With an HPI of 50.80, Gulbadan Begum is the 6th most famous Afghan Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Gulbadan Begum (c. 1523 – 7 February 1603) was a Mughal princess and the daughter of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She is best known as the author of Humayun-Nama, the account of the life of her half-brother, Emperor Humayun, which she wrote on the request of her nephew, Emperor Akbar. Gulbadan's recollection of Babur is brief, but she gives a refreshing account of Humayun's household and provides a rare material regarding his confrontation with her half-brother, Kamran Mirza. She records the fratricidal conflict among her brothers with a sense of grief. Gulbadan Begum was about eight years old at the time of her father's death in 1530 and was brought up by her older half-brother, Humayun. She was married to a Chagatai noble, her cousin, Khizr Khwaja Khan, the son of Aiman Khwajah Sultan, son of Khan Ahmad Alaq of the Turpan Khanate in Moghulistan at the age of seventeen. She spent most of her life in Kabul. In 1557, she was invited by her nephew, Akbar, to join the imperial household at Agra. She wielded great influence and respect in the imperial household and was much loved both by Akbar and his mother, Hamida Banu Begum. Gulbadan Begum is mentioned throughout the Akbarnama (lit. 'Book of Akbar') of Abu'l Fazl and much of her biographical details are accessible through the work. Along with several other royal women, Gulbadan Begum undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned home seven years later in 1582. She died in 1603.

7. Unsuri (980 - 1039)

With an HPI of 49.75, Unsuri is the 7th most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi (Persian: ابوالقاسم حسن عنصری بلخی; died 1039/1040) was a 10–11th century Persian poet. ‘Unṣurī is said to have been born in Balkh, today located in Afghanistan, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court of Mahmud of Ghazni, and was given the title Malik-us Shu'ara (King of Poets) under Sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazna. His Divan is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only 2500 remain today. It includes the romance epic Vāmiq u ‘Adhrā. The following dialog between an eagle and a crow, translated by Iraj Bashiri, is an example. In it the King of Poets, Unsuri, compares his own status vis-a-vis that of a young poet who has joined the court recently.

8. Farrukhi Sistani (980 - 1037)

With an HPI of 49.66, Farrukhi Sistani is the 8th most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Julugh Farrukhi Sistani (Persian: ابوالحسن علی بن جولوغ فرخی سیستانی), better known as Farrukhi Sistani (فرخی سیستانی; c. 1000 – 1040) was one of the most prominent Persian court poets in the history of Persian literature. Initially serving a dehqan in Sistan and the Muhtajids in Chaghaniyan, Farrukhi entered the service of the Ghaznavids in 1017, where he became the panegyrist of its rulers, Mahmud (r. 999–1030) and Mas'ud I (r. 1030–1040), as well as numerous viziers and princes.

9. Atiq Rahimi (1962 - )

With an HPI of 47.49, Atiq Rahimi is the 9th most famous Afghan Writer.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Atiq Rahimi (Persian: عتیق رحیمی) (born 26 February 1962 in Kabul) is a French-Afghan writer and filmmaker.

10. Nadia Anjuman (1981 - 2005)

With an HPI of 34.31, Nadia Anjuman is the 10th most famous Afghan Writer.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Nadia Anjuman (Persian: نادیا انجمن; December 27, 1980 – November 4, 2005) was a poet from Afghanistan.