P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Iraj Bashiri

220
Nuraliev has traveled to India, Iran, Germany, Switzerland,

Denmark, and Holland.
Nuri, Said Abdullo
Tajik religious figure and politician Mullo Said Abdullo Nuri, also
referred to as Saidov, was born on March 15, 1947, into a religious and
intellectual family of the village of Sangvor in Tavildara. He received
his early education first from his father, Makhdumi Siyomuddin, and
later, clandestinely, from Hazrat Mavlavi Muhammadjon (also referred
to as Qorii Hindustoni). In the 1960s, Nuri's family moved to the
Turkmenistan Sovkhoz in the Vakhsh region of southern Tajikistan. In
1975, Nuri organized the illegal Islamic Education Organization for
youth.
Nuri's career began as a guard for the kolkhoz institutions. Later on,
he worked as a technician in Qurghonteppa. In 1986, along with forty
others, he was arrested by the KGB and imprisoned on charges of anti-
governmental activities. From 1988, the year he was released from
prison, until the early 1990s, he lived in the "Turkmenistan" kolkhoz as
a sharecropper. In 1990, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and visited the
Islamic Republic of Iran. In the early 1990's Nuri played a major role in
the formation of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and
became the Chairman of the Movement for Islamic Revival in
Tajikistan.
A recognized figure in the world of Islam, in 1992, Nuri became the
Editor of the religious journal Minbari Islam (The Pulpit for Islam).
In 1992, after the defeat of the Opposition, he fled Tajikistan. While
abroad, he was elected the Head of the United Tajik Opposition forces.
In 1997, Nuri returned to Tajikistan and became the Chair of the
Commission for National Reconciliation. In September 1999, he
replaced Muhammad Sharif Himmatzoda as the Head of the Islamic
Resurgence Party of Tajikistan.