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Faiz Muhammad Kateb

historian and writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ3064681
Source-derived summary

Faiz Muhammad Kāteb (Dari: فیض‌محمد کاتب) also known as Kāteb (کاتب) was a prominent writer. He was Afghan court's chronicler, a skilled calligrapher and secretary to the Afghan ruler Habibullah Khan from 1901 to 1919.

Early life

Faiz Muhammad Kateb son of Saeed Muhammad (سعید محمد) was born in 1860, in Zarsang village of Qarabagh District of Ghazni Province in Afghanistan. He spent a part of his life in Nawur District, another district of Ghazni Province, and died in Kabul on March 3, 1931. He was an ethnic Hazara. Kateb spent his youth in Qarabagh District, tutored in Arabic and the Quran by local mullahs, in 1880, he and his family moved first to Nawur and then, because of sectarian strife, to Qandahar in the same year. In 1887, he left Qandahar for a year's travel that took him to Lahore and Peshawar where he spent some time studying English and Urdu. He eventually landed in Jalalabad and was invited in 1888 to join the administration of the Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman.

History

He was soon attached to the entourage of the amir's eldest son, Habib Ullah Khan, at the recommendation of one of his teachers, Mullah Sarwar Ishaq'zai. Kateb accompanied the prince from Kabul to Jalalabad in 1311/1893-94.

Editorial summary

“Faiz Muhammad Kateb” enters the record as historian and writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Faiz, Muhammad and Kateb can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1901, 1919, 1860, 1931—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1881-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Faiz, Muhammad and Kateb.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Faiz Muhammad Kateb” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Faiz, Muhammad and Kateb provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3064681. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1919, 1860 and 1931.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Faiz Muhammad Kateb”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Faiz Muhammad Kateb primary sources, Faiz Muhammad Kateb archive and Faiz research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Faiz Muhammad Kateb”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Faiz Muhammad Kateb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.