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Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi
Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi in the 1920s
Native name	حمزہ حکیم زادہ نیازی Ҳамза Ҳакимзода Ниёзий Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy
Born	6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1889 Kokand, Russian Turkestan
Died	18 March 1929(1929-03-18) (aged 40) Shohimardon, Uzbek SSR, USSR
Cause of death	stoned to death
Occupation	author, composer, playwright, poet, scholar, and political activist
Notable awards	People's Writer of the Uzbek SSR (1926)

Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi (Template:Lang-uz / Ҳамза Ҳакимзода Ниёзий / Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy) (March 6  [O.S. 22 February] 1889, Kokand – 18 March 1929, Shohimardon) was an Uzbek author, composer, playwright, poet, scholar, teacher, and political activist. Niyazi is widely seen as one of the leading figures in the early development of modern Uzbek literary tradition. He is generally considered the first Uzbek playwright, the founder of modern Uzbek musical forms, as well as the founder of Uzbek social realism. During the Russian revolution, he strongly supported the Bolsheviks, as they strongly opposed the system of feudal rule that was prevalent in much of Central Asia. He was one of the first Uzbeks to join the Communist Party and dedicated his life to promoting literacy and education in his homeland, opening schools and orphanages.

Apart from Uzbek, Niyazi was fluent in several other languages, including Arabic, Persian, Russian, and Turkish. In addition to writing textbooks, non-fiction works, and newspaper articles, Hamza wrote plays, musicals, poetry, and novels. His prominent works include the novelette Yangi Saodat, the song Yasha, Shoʻro, and the poem memorializing honor killing victim Tursunoy Saidazimova as a martyr. His works generally dealt with social issues, such as women's rights, social inequality, and the prevalence of superstition.

Born to a devout Muslim family, he became an atheist over time, supporting measures to control religious fanaticism and superstition in Central Asia. Traveling village by village, he tried to help teach people to read the Uzbek language as well as discourage violence against women and superstitious practices and promoted the hujum by organizing rallies. Stationed in Shohimardon to help with the five-year plan, he knew that the shrine in Shohimardon to Ali was not the actual resting place of Ali and intended to remove it, as the local elites used it to extort the local peasants by demanding they pay alms to it. However, the local clergy was outraged by his activities of promoting the hujum and trying to educate the populace about the dubious nature of the shrine. Consequently, Hamza was stoned to death on 18 March 1929.

After his death, Hamza was hailed as a martyr in the struggle against feudalism and religious fanaticism. Streets, a station of the Tashkent metro (later renamed), the theater in Tashkent where he taught drama, and a literature prize were named in his honor. Statues built in his likeness were installed in numerous cities in the Uzbek SSR, and his character was the main protagonist in the 1961 movie Hamza and the 1970’s TV series Fiery Roads. However, after independence, Hamza became significantly less revered, as his political views supportive of the Soviet Union and opposition to religious activities were seen as un-Uzbek and anti-Muslim, despite the fact that many of the customs he pushed to abolish were derived from pre-Islamic practices.

Early life

Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi was born to an Uzbek family on 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1889 in Kokand, the youngest of four children. His father, Ibn Yamin Niyoz oʻgʻli (1840—1922), was a wealthy apothecary. His father was educated in Bukhara, fluent in Uzbek and Persian, had travelled to India and Xinjiang, but was very religious. His mother Jahonbibi was also very religious. As a child, Hamza started his education in a maktab, then attended a madrassah for seven years. However, as his family’s wealth declined, he found work at a cotton mill. He started writing poetry at age 16, commenting on social issues facing Uzbeks, although he did not start publishing his poetry until much later. From around 1906 to 1907, Hamza was an avid reader of Crimean Tatar newspaper Terciman, which inspired him to start questioning the social norms of Uzbek society and develop an interest in major social changes.

During Tsarist times, Hamza tried to promote education and founded secular schools for orphans and poor children to teach them how to read free of charge. However, he faced many setbacks, as local authorities would frequently try to close the schools. The school he opened in Kokand in 1911 was soon closed after the clergy accused him of promoting atheism, but he reopened it and went on to try to open schools in other towns such as Margilan. However, the local clergy was strongly opposed to the existence of secular schools and tried to stop the schools from functioning. Working as a teacher, he authored Uzbek-language primers and textbooks for children, such as Yengil adabiyot (Easy Literature) (1914), Oʻqish kitobi (Reading Book) (1914), and Qiroat kitobi (Reading with Intonation) (1915).

Works

Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi wrote his earliest poems under the pen name Nihoniy. His earliest collection of poems, Devoni Nihoniy (Nihoniy's Diwan), was found in 1949 and had 197 poems that he had written in 1903–04.

Niyazi extolled the Russian Revolution and was directly connected with the struggle for social justice and liberation in Uzbekistan. Many of Niyazi's works, including his poems, dramas, and other writings were often written in the turmoil of revolution and describe Niyazi's view of the awakening of Uzbek class consciousness. Niyazi's novels are generally moralistic and focus on showcasing and condemning those aspects of Uzbek society the author considered backward and detrimental to both individual and national development.

In his first novel, Yangi saodat (New Prosperity) (1915), Niyazi extols the benefits of education. The book was written to showcase the author's belief in the power of modern education to end superstitions and to allow a human being to reach his full potential and improve not only his own life, but also the lives of those around him. In the novel, Niyazi tells the story of a poorly educated young man who marries and has two children before becoming a drunkard and a gambler and eventually leaving the family. His wife takes care of her son, who, in contrast to his father, completes his education. The son then finds his now destitute father and reunites the family.

In Zaharli hayot yoxud Ishq qurbonlari (Poisonous Life or the Victims of Love), Niyazi portrays a young couple, the 18-year-old son of a well-to-do family and the 17-year-old daughter of a craftsman. The couple's love is thwarted by the inflexible attitudes of the boy's parents who stick closely to their rigid ideas about social structure. The young people eventually commit suicide — they become victims of the feudal class system.

Niyazi also wrote Boy ila xizmatchi (The Bey and The Servant) (1918) which deals primarily with the revolutionary upheaval in Western Turkestan and with the institution of arranged marriage. In the story, the young heroine commits suicide after being forced to marry a man she does not love.

One of the author's final works is Paranji sirlaridan bir lavha Yoki yallachilar ishi (One Episode from the Secrets of the Veil or the Case of Yalla Singers) (1922) which describes the problems faced by Uzbek women.

In addition to his explicitly political novels, Niyazi is also known for his anthologies of folk songs and melodies. In his anthologies, Niyazi collected about 40 songs, mostly Uzbek, but also Kashgar and Tatar melodies. Niyazi himself was a master of several traditional Uzbek instruments, especially the dotar and the tanbur.

Niyazi also wrote two comedies: Tuhmatchilar jazosi (The Punishment of Slanderers) (1918) and Burungi qozilar yoxud Maysaraning ishi (Old Judges or the Case of Maysara) (1926).

Legacy

Niyazi is one of the most important early representatives of a distinctive Uzbek literature. He is generally considered the first Uzbek playwright, the founder of modern Uzbek musical forms, as well as the founder of Uzbek social realism. His writings were also significant for being "ideologically valuable" in the early years of Soviet power in Uzbekistan. Although socialist realism became the "official" style of Uzbek literature only in 1932, Niyazi is generally credited as the founder of the movement. In his book The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia, Adeeb Khalid, whose research focuses on Central Asian history, writes that it is difficult to imagine the history of modern Central Asian literature without Niyazi.

Niyazi also participated in the controversial Uzbek language reforms of the 1920s which were meant to codify a literary Uzbek language in place of the older, fading Chagatai. Chagatai had been the dominant written form for several centuries. The reforms eventually resulted in a significant shift in spelling and pronunciation.

Although Niyazi's political legacy is complex, he undoubtedly helped develop the national literature of Uzbekistan. Jadidist and nationalist writers saw Niyazi's pro-Soviet position as inherently un-Uzbek because of its non-national and political themes.

Niyazi became a National Writer of the Uzbek SSR in 1926. To honor his memory, in 1967 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan established the State Hamza Prize to recognize outstanding achievement in literature, arts, and architecture. Many institutions in Uzbekistan, including a station of Tashkent Metro, three theaters, as well as several schools and streets are named after him. There are two museums of Niyazi in Kokand.

See also

• Ali-Shir Nava'i
• Chagatai language
• Furqat
• Uzbek language

References

1. "Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy". Ensiklopedik lugʻat (in Uzbek). Vol. 2. Toshkent: Oʻzbek sovet ensiklopediyasi. 1990. p. 515. 5-89890-018-7.
2. ^ Khalid 1999, p. 97. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKhalid1999 (help)
3. Звезда Востока: орган Союза советских писателей Узбекистана (in Russian). Объединенное изд-во «Кзыл Узбекистан« «Правда Востока» и «Узбекистони суркх». 1985. p. 182.
4. Malcomson 1995, p. 212-213. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMalcomson1995 (help)
5. Zotov, A. N. (1963). Города Ферганской долины: краткий справочник (in Russian). Gos. izd-vo Uzbekskoǐ SSR.
6. Weber, Gutsche & Rollberg 1997, p. 201. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWeberGutscheRollberg1997 (help)
7. Исмоил Гаспринский ва Туркистон (in Russian). "Шарқ" нашриёт-матбаа. 2005.
8. Qosimov, Begali (2004). Миллий уйғониш даври Ўзбек адабиëти (in Tajik). Маънавият.
9. Узбекский язык и литература (in Russian). "ФАН" науке. 1973.
10. Экономика и жизнь (in Russian). Редакция журнала. 1974.
11. Vitkovich, Viktor (1954). A Tour of Soviet Uzbekistan. Foreign Languages Publishing House.
12. Central Asian Review. Central Asian Research Centre. 1954.
13. Karimov, Naim (2005). "Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy". Oʻzbekiston milliy ensiklopediyasi (in Uzbek). Toshkent: Oʻzbekiston milliy ensiklopediyasi.
14. Safarov, Okhunzhon; O'rayeva, Darmon; Qurbonova, Manzila (2007). O'zbekiston xalqlari etnografiyasi va folklori: kasb-hunar kollejlarining madaniyat va san'at yo'nalishida ta'lim oluvchi talabalar uchun darslik (in Uzbek). "O'qituvchi" nashriyot-matbaa ijodiy uyi. ISBN 978-9943-02-104-4.
15. Zufarov, Komiljon, ed. (1980). "Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy". Oʻzbek sovet ensiklopediyasi (in Uzbek). Vol. 14. Toshkent. pp. 365–367.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
16. Ivanov, S. N. "Хамза Хакимзаде Ниязи (Khamza Khakimzade Niyazi)". In A. M. Prokhorov (ed.). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

Bibliography

• Allworth, Edward (1994), Central Asia, 130 Years of Russian Dominance, Durham: Duke University Press, ISBN 978-0-8223-1521-6.
• Allworth, Edward (1990), The Modern Uzbeks: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present: A Cultural History, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, ISBN 978-0-8179-8732-9.
• Allworth, Edward (1964), Uzbek Literary Politics, The Hague: Mouton & Co..
• Kasymov, S. S. (1956), Usbekskaja Sozialistitscheskaja Sovetskaya Respublika in Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Volume XIII. (in Russian), The Hague: Literatura.
• Beliaev, Viktor M. (1975), Slobin, Mark (ed.), Central Asian Music. Essays in the History of the Music of the Peoples of the USSR, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
• Kamp, Marianne (2006), The New Women in Uzbekistan. Islam, Modernity, and Unveiling under Communism, Seattle - London: University of Washington Press, ISBN 978-0-295-98644-9.
• Khalid, Adeeb (1998), The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform. Jadidism in Central Asia, Berkeley, LA - London: University of Washington Press, ISBN 0-520-21356-4.
• Klein Michel, Sigrid (1993), Departure from Oriental poetry traditions. Studies of Uzbek drama and prose from 1910 to 1934 (in German), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, ISBN 963-05-6316-9.
• MacFadyen, David (2006), Russian culture in Uzbekistan, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-34134-9.
• Malcolmson, Scott (1995), Empire's Edge: Travels in South-Eastern Europe, Turkey and Central Asia, London: Verso, ISBN 978-1-85984-098-6.
• Niyoziy, Hamza Hakimzoda (1988–1989), Karimov, N. (ed.), Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy: Toʻla asarlar toʻplami (in Uzbek), Tashkent: Fan.
• Soucek, Svatopluk (2000), A History of Inner Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65704-4.
• Witkowitsch, Viktor (1954), A Journey Through Soviet Uzbekistan, Moscow: Foreign Languages Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65704-4.

External links

• Adeeb Khalid: Printing, Publishing, and Reform in Tsarist Central Asia. 1994
• Mark Dickens: Uzbek Music Archived 2008-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. 1989
• Mark Dickens: The Uzbeks Archived 2008-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. 1990
• Works of Niyazi in English, Russian, and Arabic at the Wayback Machine (archived March 25, 2008)

• 1889 births
• 1929 deaths
• People from Kokand
• People from Fergana Oblast
• 20th-century novelists
• 20th-century Uzbekistani poets
• Jadids
• Bolsheviks
• Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
• Uzbeks
• Male poets from the Russian Empire
• Male writers from the Russian Empire
• Russian male poets
• People murdered in the Soviet Union
• Soviet poets
• Soviet male writers
• Former Muslims
• 20th-century atheists
• 20th-century male writers
• People killed in the Hujum
• Uzbekistani male poets
• Uzbekistani writers
• Russian male novelists
• Deaths by stoning
• Uzbekistani Arabic-language poets