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.

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