[1] A Pashtun nationalist from Kakar tribe of Kandahar, Afghanistan, he began as a young teacher who made his way up to become a writer, scholar, politician and Dean of Faculty of Literature at Kabul University.
[2][3] He is the author of over 100 books but is best known for editing Pata Khazana, an old Pashto language manuscript that he claimed to have discovered in 1944; but the academic community does not unanimously agree upon its genuineness.
Habibi's father died at an early age and he grew up studying in the mosques of Kandahar, and in 1920 he was admitted to the primary school of Shalimar.
He made use of this knowledge to write his bibliographical Rahnuma-yi Tarikh-i Afghanistan (‘Guide to Afghan History’), which he published in two volumes in 1970.
British Iranologist, David Neil MacKenzie, concludes from the anachronisms that the document was fabricated[citation needed] only shortly before its claimed discovery in 1944.
MacKenzie's central argument refers to the use of the modern Pashto letters Dze (ځ [dz]) and Nur (ڼ [ɳ]) throughout the script.
Habibi responded to his critics in 1977 by stating:"I obtained the hand-written manuscript with the help of the late Abdul Ali Khanozay, a Kakkar at Psheen in 1943.
No scholastic or positive criticism from the viewpoint of linguistics or etymology has been provided so that the authenticity or forgery of words may be evaluated and the facts clarified.