Yusuf Khan and Sherbano

The story of Yusuf Khan and Sherbano was put to verse by poet Ali Haidar Joshi (Joshi was a pen name) in the 1960s and was turned into a film, Yousuf Khan Sher Bano, released in 1970. The poem was translated into French by Benedict Johnson (in 1982) and into English by Heston and Nasir (in 1988). The story is transmitted by qissa-khwans, a term usually translated as "storytellers" who "say" or "sing" (Wayel) the verses. Joshi's account of the origin of the material is that he found a manuscript containing the story written in Persian at a local fair, when some medicine he bought was given to him wrapped in a page of the manuscript. He returned to the seller and obtained more of the manuscript. Joshi's account is given in a Lok Virsa tape recorded by Mumtaz Nasir in 1982. == Content ==

The story has supernatural elements, such as five holy men (pirs) who give the heroine the ability to travel large distance in thirty steps, jinns who bring a woman and a bed to a mosque at night for the pleasure of a yogi. These elements suggest an influence to the story from outside the Pashtun culture. However, the social structures in the story, particularly the use as villains of paternal male cousins is typical to Pashtun stories, and many Pashtuns of various social classes identify the story as one of their own, according to ethnologist Wilma L. Heston. ==Film adaptation==

The tale was adapted into a 1970 Pashto film, Yousuf Khan Sher Bano, produced by Nazir Hussain and directed by Aziz Tabassum. It is considered to be the first Pakistani Pashto film, and marked the start of the Pashto film industry. == Translations ==

• Benedicte Johnson, Les contes legendaires pashtun: Analyse et traduction de cassettes commercialisees [Legendary tales in Pashto: Analysis and translation of commercial cassettes]. (1982) Memoire presente pour une maitrise d'etudes iraniennes [MA thesis], University of Paris ==References==