P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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Amirs as they clung to power using repression and terror as a means to

sustain themselves. He also gathered materials and wrote extensively on

the transition that was taking place in Bukhara and the Kuhistan as new

trends replaced the old.

Aini's knowledge of the atrocities of the Amirs was first hand. In-

deed, he was arrested as a revolutionary by Alimkhan's henchmen and

was imprisoned in the Arg. Unlike those whose hands were tied in the

front--a sign to the watching crowd of the forthcoming execution--his

hands were tied in the back. He was administered 75 lashes of the whip.

Aini would certainly have died had not Bukhara fallen to the Red Army

that very day, so that he was taken to Kagan immediately to receive

medical attention.

Aini's contributions are manifold. As the father of Tajik and Uzbek

literatures, he has written in both languages, although more extensively

in Tajiki. He is recognized as one of the main figures of the Jadid

movement. In this regard he spearheaded the Maktabi Nov (the new-

method schools). He went personally to the homes of potential students

and persuaded their parents to allow their children to attend the new

schools. At school, he provided both the textbooks and the instruction

himself. He even found locations where the schools could meet either

openly or (later on) clandestinely.

As a revolutionary, Aini started his literary career with such fiery

poems as "Marshi Hurriet" ("Song of Freedom") and "Inqilob"

("Revolution") but, soon after, he chose prose as the medium that could

best serve his purpose: depiction of the centrality of daily events in the

life of the common man as material for literature. Some of the major

works of early Soviet Tajik literature are graced with his name. They

include Odina (Odina), Dokhunda (Dokhunda), and Ghulomon (Slaves),

just to name a few. Towards the end of his life Aini contributed to the

growth of such Soviet journals as Ovozi Tojik and Tojikistoni Surkh. His

most remarkable work is an account of his life, especially the formative

period. Written in the 1940s, it is called the Yoddoshtho

(Reminiscences); it details life in Bukhara of the turn of the century in a

most vivid and informative way.

Some of Aini's contributions, like Odina (Odina) and Margi Sudkhur

(Death of the Money Lender), have been the subject of exciting motion

pictures. His Margi Sudkhur is, indeed, a classic of the Soviet screen,

and is shown repeatedly to Tajik audiences.

---

Iraj Bashiri

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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