P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Iraj Bashiri

20
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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