P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Nuri, Said Abdullo

Tajik religious figure and politician Mullo Said Abdullo Nuri, also

referred to as Saidov, was born on March 15, 1947, into a religious and

intellectual family of the village of Sangvor in Tavildara. He received

his early education first from his father, Makhdumi Siyomuddin, and

later, clandestinely, from Hazrat Mavlavi Muhammadjon (also referred

to as Qorii Hindustoni). In the 1960s, Nuri's family moved to the

Turkmenistan Sovkhoz in the Vakhsh region of southern Tajikistan. In

1975, Nuri organized the illegal Islamic Education Organization for

youth.

Nuri's career began as a guard for the kolkhoz institutions. Later on,

he worked as a technician in Qurghonteppa. In 1986, along with forty

others, he was arrested by the KGB and imprisoned on charges of anti-

governmental activities. From 1988, the year he was released from

prison, until the early 1990s, he lived in the "Turkmenistan" kolkhoz as

a sharecropper. In 1990, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and visited the

Islamic Republic of Iran. In the early 1990's Nuri played a major role in

the formation of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and

became the Chairman of the Movement for Islamic Revival in

Tajikistan.

A recognized figure in the world of Islam, in 1992, Nuri became the

Editor of the religious journal Minbari Islam (The Pulpit for Islam).

In 1992, after the defeat of the Opposition, he fled Tajikistan. While

abroad, he was elected the Head of the United Tajik Opposition forces.

In 1997, Nuri returned to Tajikistan and became the Chair of the

Commission for National Reconciliation. In September 1999, he

replaced Muhammad Sharif Himmatzoda as the Head of the Islamic

Resurgence Party of Tajikistan.