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Salam, Tor Khan. Thank you for the reply to the question about the difference between Pashtun and Pakhtun -- merely a matter of pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask you if you can explain clearly why the name of well-known tribe living in the center of South Waziristan, around Ladha and Kaniguram, should be spelled Mahsud rather than Mehsud? I think it has something to do with the fact that the second vowel is not actually written down in the Arabic script, so that the correct sound must be supplied by the reader on the basis of context, in this case, the knowledge of what the word actually sounds like. With many thanks and good wishes,
Carlo Cristofori
Italy
cristcaster at gmail.com
Carlo, the Mahsuds/Mehsuds refer to themselves as "Maseed".
ReplyDeleteSee: http://waziristanhills.com/SouthWaziristanAgency/MainTribes/MahsudMaseed/tabid/106/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
Yes, I know; sometimes in English it's spelled "Mahsit" (I think this is the spelling used by Sir Olaf Caroe). I wonder where the Mahsud from comes from. Certainly Mehsud is a mistake.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the very interesting link. I will try to contact M. Maqbool Wazir.
P.S. What part of Afghanistan are you from?