Kari Abdullah

Born in 1871, in Kabul; died there Apr. 29, 1943. Afghan educator, philologist, and poet. Received a religious education.

Kari Abdullah was the author of textbooks and books of literary research in which modern methods of literary analysis were used for the first time in Afghanistan. He became famous as a master of the qasida and ghazal, updating the traditional styles with modern social subject matter. He composed a qasida on A. S. Pushkin in 1937. A number of Kari Abdullah’s works are devoted to the history of Islam and to Sufism, rhetoric, stylistics, and the theory of poetry. The honorary title of Malek al-Shoara (King of Poets) was conferred on him.