P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Makhsumov, Akbar
Tajik politician and agriculture expert Akbar Nusratulloevich
Makhsumov was born in Kokand, in present-day Republic of Uzbeki-
stan, on May 2, 1928.
Makhsumov graduated from the Institute of Agriculture of the Acad-
emy of Sciences of Tajikistan in 1948. In 1963, he became an Aca-

---

Iraj Bashiri

164
demic. From 1962 to 1965, he was the Chief Scientific Secretary to the

President of the Academy of Sciences. Between 1961 and 1971, he was
the Minister of Agriculture. Thereafter, until 1975, he was the Associate
Chairman of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan.
A distinguished contributor to Tajik science, Makhsumov received
the Ibn Sina Prize, and was decorated with the Orders of the Red Ban-
ner of Labor, October Revolution, and the Badge of Honor as well.
Makhsumov died in Dushanbe in 2001.
Mamadkhonov, Hassan
Tajik author and translator Hassan Alikhanovich Mamadkhonov,
also referred to as Irfon, was born March 22, 1900, in Samarqand.
After finishing the gymnasium and two years of the Petrograd Com-
mercial and Industrial School, in 1919 he joined the only Tajiki journal
of the time, Shu'lai Inqilob (The Flame of Revolution), as a writer and
translator. During his long career, he served as translator, director of
publication, and language teacher. He retired in 1960.
Irfon's career as a translator and literary contributor began in 1926.
His translations were liked by Sadriddin Aini, to the point that he edited
some of the translations. Irfon's well-rounded knowledge of world lit-
erature allowed him to translate some of the best literatures of the world
(Gorkii, Defoe, and Tolstoi, for example) into Tajiki.
As a writer, Irfon followed Sadriddin Aini's example in the Reminis-
cences, Irfon wrote Du Yor az Du Diyor (Two Friends from Two Places,
1962) and Dar Kulbai Kosibon (In the Hut of the Retailers, 1964). The
latter is the first novel to deal with the lives of the merchant classes of
Central Asia and Khorasan. Irfon skillfully examines the social life, the
difficulties of labor, and the causes of the poverty, and with the revolu-
tionary zeal of the 1905 to 1907 era, calls the workers of all climes to
unity. These were the inhabitants of Herat, Samarqand, and the Fer-
ghana Valley, which itself includes Khujand, Quqand, Margilan, and
Namangan.
The new-method school was one of the major topics of discussion at
the turn of the century in Central Asia. The social, political, and eco-
nomic status of the region was, for a time, tied to this subject which,
after being mixed with religion, caused civil disturbances and, later,
civil war. Irfon was in support of the new-method school, and his works

---