A popular folk song is believed to be from Chitral, but its origin lies in the valley of Ishkoman, which is in Gilgit-Baltistan. Ibtidah for Education's founder, Zeeba T. Hashmi, who was in the region for her research on mountain nomads, discovered the song and the legend of the famous gun, known as "Khayal" in Urdu and "Choni Charkhi" in the local Khoar language. Chaq Mitar is the label attributed to Raja Mohiuddin Khushwaqt, who was the youngest brother of the then ruler of the Ishkoman and Yasin valleys. He wrote this song while grieving the loss of his wife, Bibi Tahira of Aliabad, Hunza. He loved his wife tremendously.

The history behind the song, and where it came from, is narrated directly in Dayin by his descendant and great-grandson, Raja Muhammad Ayub Khan, in this video.

Chaq Mitar, whose real name was Raja Mohiuddin Khushwaqt, was the son of Raja Pahlwan Bahadur and the grandson of Raja Ghazi Gohar Aman. He was not the ruler; he was the ruler's elder brother.

His gun is named Khayal: whatever is imagined, it strikes with perfect accuracy. In the local Shina language it is called Choni Charkhi, the name by which it is known in Darrel and Tangir. With this gun, the Raja shot a bird with great precision for his wife. In 1919, in Tangir, he used the same gun to defend himself against assassins who believed he had left his village, Dayin, to claim a seat in Tangir. It was later learned that he had left Dayin because he could not bear the loss of his wife.

The video closes with the Raja's song, sung by Shakeel Sameen, with Urdu and English subtitles.

We hope you will enjoy this.

Chapters
0:00 Title
0:06 Introduction by Zeeba T. Hashmi
1:00 The Raja, his wife and his gun
1:55 Muhammad Ayub Khan tells the story of the gun
4:24 The song, sung by Shakeel Sameen, in Khowar with Urdu and English subtitles

Research: Zeeba T. Hashmi, Ibtidah for Education
Narrator: Muhammad Ayub Khan
Singer: Shakeel Sameen

Urdu and English subtitles are translated from a handwritten Urdu rendering of the Khowar lyrics. Video editing and subtitling were done with the help of an AI tool.

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