Faiz Muhammad Kāteb () also known as Kāteb () was a contemporary writer and historian. He was Afghan court chronicler, a skilled calligrapher and secretary to Habibullah Khan from 1901 to 1919. Early life Faiz Muhammad Kateb son of Saeed Muhammad () was born in 1860, in Zard Sang village of Nawur District of Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, he spent a part of his life in Nawur District another district of Ghazni, and died in Kabul on March 3, 1931. He was an ethnic Hazara and was of Muhammad Khwaja Hazara clan. 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 Khan. 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. There is a manuscript attributed to him, dated 29 Rajab 1311/5 February 1894, which places him in Jalalabad at this time. In 1314/1896, when Habib Ullah's younger brother Nasr Ullah Khan toured England on a state visit, Habib Ullah assigned Kateb to copy and post in the Charsuq, Kabul's main marketplace, the detailed letters sent back by Nasr Ullah recounting his activities, so that “noble and commoner alike would be apprised of the honor and respect that the English were according him”. During Habib Ullah's reign, Kateb was involved, if only peripherally, with the Young Afghan movement led by Mahmud Tarzi. He is said to have been associated with the publication of Tarzi's reformist journal, Siraj al-Akbar, and three other journals, Anis, Ḥayy alal-falah, and Aina-ye Irfan. After the assassination of his patron in 1337/1919, Kateb worked for a time at the Ministry of Education on textbook revision. Sometime later, he was appointed to a teaching position at the Habibiya Laycee (Habibiya High School) in Kabul. During the reign of Aman Ullah Khan (1919–29), the Iranian minister in Kabul Sayyed Mahdi Farrokh compiled a “who’s who” of contemporary