An Assessment of Khushal Khan Khatak’s and Islamic concept of Sovereignty

Abstract

This is an evaluative study to see what Khushal Khan Khatak perception was, regarding sovereign and sovereignty. Actually his ideal sovereign is a bearer of some qualities and a man of some skills which he mentioned in his famous book Dastar Nama. Khushal Khan Khatak called his ideal sovereign a Man of Turban. According to him a characterless and a skill-less person cannot be selected for this position and he may not be called a sovereign. The key objectives of this study were to assess khushal Khan Khatak teachings to find out his concept of sovereign and sovereignty and to explore what qualities and what skills are required for his ideal sovereign? Intensive review of literature was made for the very purpose and findings were extracted from the cited literature. Findings like 20 qualities of sovereign and 20 skills as requirement for the sovereign have been listed in the paper, while some additional characteristics found in his collection have been mentioned separately. At the end some recommendations have given.