P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Iraj Bashiri

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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ferences, and worked on such major projects as the preparation and

presentation of the entire text of Firdowsi's Shahname(Book of Kings), a

project containing nine volumes of poetic materials. He also undertook

the editorial responsibility for the five-volume text of Jami's Collected

Works. As a littérateur, Aini has centered his work on the 15

th

 and 16

th

centuries. His main concentration is on the works of Badriddin Hiloli

and the contemporaries of Hiloli. However, he also has contributed to

the publication of several other works including Humo va Humoi (Humo

and Humoi, 1969), Gul va Navruz (Flowers and Nowruz, 1972), Vis va

Romin (Vis and Ramin, 1970), and Badoyi' al-Vaqoye' (Novel Events,

1970). At the present, he is one of the collaborators on a five-volume

monumental work entitled Research on Ancient Culture and

Understanding of the Avesta, as well as the founder of the Varorud

Intercultural Organization.

Aini, Sadriddin

Tajik historian and author Sadriddin Saidmurodovich Aini was born

on April 15, 1878, in the village of Saktara. He grew up in the

Ghizhduvon region of Bukhara in a traditional Islamic setting. His

grandfather and father were both learned figures of the time and fol-

lowers of the strict Kubravi school of thought. Orphaned at the age of

12, Aini left Saktara for Bukhara, where his older brother studied and

where he hoped to pursue his own studies. With him he carried a vast

number of popular stories and proverbs which he had learned by min-

gling with the shopkeepers and laborers of Ghizhduvon.

In Bukhara, Aini became familiar with the world of his time through

the works of Ahmad Donish. Donish had made three trips to Russia and

had documented his observations in Navodir al-Vaqaye' (Singular

Events). Aini also drew on the knowledge and teachings of Domulla

Ikromcha, a cleric with a refreshing and different view of life than his

own contemporary colleagues. Aini's awakening, happening at the time

of the October Revolution in Russia, impacted Aini's world view

immensely, so that his lyric poetry, centered on the themes of love and

nature, gave way to anthems in praise of the dawn of a new age for the

working people of Bukhara. Additionally, the more he learned about the

new society in the making, the more he detested the regime that had

fallen. In fictional works such as Ghulomon (The Slaves) and Jallodoni

Bukhoro (The Bukhara Executioners), he exposed the inhumanity of the

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