P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Ma'sumi, Nosirjon

Tajik intellectual and poet Nosirjon Asadovish Ma'sumi was born

into a family of steel workers in Hissar on May 2, 1915. He joined the

CPSU in 1945.

Ma'sumi graduated from the two-year Language Instruction Institute

in 1928, and from the Samarqand Pedagogical Institute in 1936. In be-

tween, he taught at the Panjakent Technical Institute for six years. In

1940, he completed a degree at the Dushanbe Pedagogical College con-

centrating on the Persian and Tajiki languages and literatures. Between

1940 and 1948, he served at the same college as an Assistant Director.

From 1948 to 1953, he was the Director of the Literature Division of the

Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan.

Ma'sumi's early poems were published in Baroi Adabiyoti Soveti in

1935. In the 1940s, he contributed several anti-Fascist pieces, of which

his 1944 "Mulki Sa'odat" ("The Land of Prosperity") is an example.

Ma'sumi's own youth is the subject of a piece in verse entitled "Dar

Javonii Man" ("During My Youth").

Another area in which Ma'sumi made a worthy contribution is in

shedding light on the lives of his predecessors. Authors about whom

Ma'sumi has provided information include S. Aini, Lahuti, Mirzo

Tursunzoda, Yusefi, Pulodi, Ansori, and Rahimi. About the latter, he

provided a volume entitled Muhammadjon Rahimi (Muhammadjon

Rahimi, 1961).

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Iraj Bashiri

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

172

Ma'sumi's major contributions, however, are in the area of linguistics

and literary criticism. The following works are examples of his studies

in these fields: "Dar Borai Vaz'iyyat va Digarguniho dar Tarkibi

Lughavii Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Sadahoi 10 to19 Milodi" ("About the

Situation and the Changes in the Semantic Construction of Literary

Tajiki During the 10

th

 to the 19

th

 Centuries," 1951), "Khislathoi Asosii

Inkishofi Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Avokhiri Sadai 19 va Avoili Sadai

20" ("The Essential Peculiarities of the Discovery of Literary Tajiki of

the End of the 19

th

 and Beginning of the 20

th

 Centuries," 1955), Folklori

Tojik (Tajik Folklore, 1952), Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Oghozi Sadai 20

Milodi (Literary Tajiki at the Beginning of the 20

th

 Century, 1954),

Pisateli Tadzhikistana (Tajik Intellectuals), Dushanbe, 1981.

Ma'sumi joined the Union of Writers of the Soviet Union in 1940.

He received two Orders of the Badge of Honor, and the Honorary Order

of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan.

 

Ma'sumi died in Dushanbe in 1974.