P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century

171
Editor of the multi-volume Ta'rikhi Khalqi Tojik (The History of the

Tajik People).
Masov's contributions include Istoriografia sotsiolisticheskovo preo-
brazovanie sel'kovo khoziostvo v Tadzhikistone (Historiographical
Problems of Agriculture in the Organization of the Kolkhozes of Tajiki-
stan, Dushanbe, 1974); Istoriografia sotsiolisticheskovo stroitel'stva v
Tadzhikistone
(The History of Socialist Historiography in Tajikistan, Dushanbe,
1988); Ta'rikhi Tabar Taqsim ( The History of a National Catastrophe,
Dushanbe, 1991); Tojikon: Ta'rikhi Komilan
 
Serri
(Tajiks:
 
A
 
Top Secret
History, Dushanbe, 1995).
Maston Sherali
See Sheraliev, Maston.
Ma'sumi, Nosirjon
Tajik intellectual and poet Nosirjon Asadovish Ma'sumi was born
into a family of steel workers in Hissar on May 2, 1915. He joined the
CPSU in 1945.
Ma'sumi graduated from the two-year Language Instruction Institute
in 1928, and from the Samarqand Pedagogical Institute in 1936. In be-
tween, he taught at the Panjakent Technical Institute for six years. In
1940, he completed a degree at the Dushanbe Pedagogical College con-
centrating on the Persian and Tajiki languages and literatures. Between
1940 and 1948, he served at the same college as an Assistant Director.
From 1948 to 1953, he was the Director of the Literature Division of the
Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan.
Ma'sumi's early poems were published in Baroi Adabiyoti Soveti in
1935. In the 1940s, he contributed several anti-Fascist pieces, of which
his 1944 "Mulki Sa'odat" ("The Land of Prosperity") is an example.
Ma'sumi's own youth is the subject of a piece in verse entitled "Dar
Javonii Man" ("During My Youth").
Another area in which Ma'sumi made a worthy contribution is in
shedding light on the lives of his predecessors. Authors about whom
Ma'sumi has provided information include S. Aini, Lahuti, Mirzo
Tursunzoda, Yusefi, Pulodi, Ansori, and Rahimi. About the latter, he
provided a volume entitled Muhammadjon Rahimi (Muhammadjon
Rahimi, 1961).

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Iraj Bashiri

172
Ma'sumi's major contributions, however, are in the area of linguistics

and literary criticism. The following works are examples of his studies
in these fields: "Dar Borai Vaz'iyyat va Digarguniho dar Tarkibi
Lughavii Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Sadahoi 10 to19 Milodi" ("About the
Situation and the Changes in the Semantic Construction of Literary
Tajiki During the 10
th
to the 19
th
Centuries," 1951), "Khislathoi Asosii
Inkishofi Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Avokhiri Sadai 19 va Avoili Sadai
20" ("The Essential Peculiarities of the Discovery of Literary Tajiki of
the End of the 19
th
and Beginning of the 20
th
Centuries," 1955), Folklori
Tojik (Tajik Folklore, 1952), Zaboni Adabii Tojik dar Oghozi Sadai 20
Milodi (Literary Tajiki at the Beginning of the 20
th
 Century, 1954),
Pisateli Tadzhikistana (Tajik Intellectuals), Dushanbe, 1981.
Ma'sumi joined the Union of Writers of the Soviet Union in 1940.
He received two Orders of the Badge of Honor, and the Honorary Order
of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan.
Ma'sumi died in Dushanbe in 1974.