P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Abdullo, Rashid
Tajik poet, journalist, and translator, Rashid Abdullo was born into a
family of laborers in Samarqand in 1910. He was Ghani Abdullo's
brother. Rashid received his early education in traditional Samarqand
schools.
Abdullo graduated from the Faculty of Literature of the Uzbekistan
Academy of Education in 1932. Thereafter, he became the Secretary of
Baroi Adabiyoti Sotsialisti and Tojikistoni Surkh in Dushanbe. He also
served as the Director of the Literary Division of the Republic, and the
Director of the Censors of Dushanbe Film Studio. Later on, the
Tajikistan Central Komsomol Committee recommended that Abdullo be
assigned to the education center of the Vakhsh Rural District as an
instructor. His tasks included the elimination of illiteracy in the region.
Rashid Abdullo's poetry appears in the literary journals of the 1930s.
His story entitled "Qodir" ("Qodir"), depicts the feelings of a youth
upon taking control of a tractor for the first time; it was published in
1933 by the Tajikistan government press. His collection of poetry
appeared in 1935, followed in 1936 by Vakhsh (Vakhsh) which depicts
the Soviets' recovery of the Vakhsh marshes for cultivation.
As a translator, Abdullo brought some of the works of Lermontov
and Nazim Hikmat into Tajiki.
Rashid Abdullo joined the Union of Writers of Tajikistan in 1934. In
1937, he was accused of slander, a charge that placed him in Stalin's
prisons. He died in prison shortly after that.

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Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century

5
Abdullo, Safar

Tajik researcher and literary critic Safar Abdullo was born in 1955 in
the village of Artuch, in the Panjakent region of Zarafshan.
Abdullo graduated from Tajikistan State University in 1978 with a
degree in Tajiki language and literature. Subsequently, he worked
at
the
Rudaki
Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy
of
Sciences
of
Tajikistan
(1980-1984),
the
Moscow
International Literature Institute
(1984-1990), and the Institute of Oriental
Studies
of
the
Academy
of
Sciences
of
Tajikistan
(1990-1993).
Abdullo moved to Kazakhstan in 1993, where he headed the Iran
Section of the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan. He also was part of
the faculty of the Farabi University in Alma-Ata (present-day Almaty).
Abdullo's contributions include Hamosahoi Milli dar Shi'ri Ruz
(National Epics in Contemporary Poetry, 1986) and Nuri Sukhan ( The
Light of Speech).