Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T06:37:07.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Guide to Knowledge: The Journal Rahbar-i Dānish and Its Role in Creating a Soviet Tajik Literature (1927–1932)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2022

Thomas Loy Open the ORCID record for Thomas Loy [Opens in a new window]
Thomas Loy*
Affiliation:
Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
*
loy@orient.cas.cz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite being in operation for a mere five years, the Soviet-era Tajik (Persian) journal Rahbar-i Dānish (1927–1932) was a key venue for exploring and debating the merits of Tajik literature in the context of new ideological and literary trends. Established litterateurs as well as literary newcomers published examples of their literature and literary criticism in this first Tajik monthly social, educational, and literary journal. The present article reviews the history of Rahbar-i Dānish and some of its authors to trace their influence on Tajik literature and literary criticism in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The article addresses the difficulties of creating a Soviet Tajik literature and scrutinizes the various genres featured in the literary section of the journal. Finally, it presents the trajectories of two literary newcomers, Jalāl al-Dīn Ikrām (who later became known as Jalol Ikromi) and Baḥr al-Dīn ʿAzīzī (who died in a Soviet prison in 1944), whose short stories were most prominent in Rahbar-i Dānish. This article is based on an almost complete set of the forty-five issues of the journal, published between August 1927 and March 1932.

Keywords

journalsliterary criticismSoviet Central AsiaTajikistanTajik literature
Type
Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 55 , Special Issue 3: Persianate Pasts; National Presents: Persian Literary and Cultural Production in the Twentieth Century , July 2022 , pp. 653 - 674
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdulla Qodiriy & seine Zeit. Festschrift für Barno Aripova. Edited by Autorenkollektiv. Potsdam: Edition tethys, 2018.Google Scholar
Abdullaev, Kamolidin. Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.Google Scholar
Adibon-i Tojikiston. Edited by Gulnazar. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Adib, 2003.Google Scholar
ʿAinī, Ṣadr al-Dīn. “Aḥmad-i dīvband” (part 1). Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 45–51.Google Scholar
ʿAinī, Ṣadr al-Dīn. “Aḥmad-i dīvband” (part 2). Rahbar-i Dānish 11/12 (1928): 28–32.Google Scholar
ʿAinī, Ṣadr al-Dīn. “Māhrūy.” Rahbar-i Dānish 7 (1929): 21–27.Google Scholar
Aini, Sadriddin. “Mohrūy.” In Sadriddin Aini: Kulliyot, vol. 5, 37–50. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Nashriyot-i Davlati-i Tojikiston, 1963.Google Scholar
Aini, Sadriddin. “Mukhtasar-i tarjima-i hol-i khudam.” In Sadriddin Aini: Kulliyot, vol. 1, 7–99. Stalinabad, Tajikistan: Nashriyot-i Davlati-i Tojikiston, 1958.Google Scholar
ʿAinī, Ṣadr al-Dīn. Namūna-i adabīyāt-i tājīk. Moscow: Nashriyāt-i markazī , 1926.Google Scholar
Aʿlāzāda, B. “Pārchahā-yi adabī-i nau-i tājīk,” RD 6 (1930): 5–6, Latin section.Google Scholar
ʿAlī, Khush. “Mulāhizahā-yi mā dar jabha-i adabīyāt-i prūletārī.” Tājīkistān-i surkh. January 28, 1929.Google Scholar
ʿAlīzāda, Ghulāmriżā. “Mubāriza barā-yi firqagī-i adabiyāt.” Tājīkistān-i surkh. May 26–June 6, 1932.Google Scholar
Allworth, Edward A. Evading Reality: The Devices of ʿAbdalrauf Fitrat, Modern Central Asian Reformist. Leiden: Brill, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allworth, Edward A. The Preoccupations of ‘Abdalrauf Fitrat, Bukharan Nonconformist: An Analysis and List of his Writings. Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atabaki, Touraj, and Ravandi-Fadai, Lara. Zhertvy vremeni. Zhizn i sud'ba iranskikh politicheskikh deiatelei i trudovykh migrantov v mezhvoiennyi period. Moscow: IV RAN, 2020.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Ba zabān-i darī-i durrī sukhan suftan mekhwāham,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1929): 4-6, Latin section.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Bīdānabāzī,” Rahbar-i Dānish 12 (1929): 17–19.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Buzkashī,” Rahbar-i Dānish 9 (1929): 23–26.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Chil hujra,” Rahbar-i Dānish 10/11 (1929): 37.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Darbāra-i zabān-i adabī-i tājīk,” Rahbar-i Dānish 7 (1930).Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Gul,” Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1930): 17–18.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Nikāḥ-i Dilkhwāh,” Rahbar-i Dānish 3 (1930): 21–27.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Pādishāh- Pādishāh,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1930): 20–24.Google Scholar
ʿAzīzī, Baḥr al-Dīn. “Istarafshan – Uropteppa,” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1930): 31–32.Google Scholar
Baldauf, Ingeborg. “Educating the Poets and Fostering Uzbek Poetry of the 1910s to Early 1930s.” Cahiers d'Asie centrale 24 (2015): 183–212.Google Scholar
Baldauf, Ingeborg. “Jadidism in Central Asia within Reformism and Modernism in the Muslim World.” Die Welt des Islams 41, 1 (2001): 72–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bečka, Jiří. “Literature and Men of Letters in Tajikistan.” Journal of Turkish Studies 18 (1994): 25–40.Google Scholar
Bečka, Jiří. Sadriddin Ayni: Father of Modern Tajik Culture. Naples: Instituto Universitario Orientale, 1980.Google Scholar
Bečka, Jiří. “Tajik Literature from the 16th Century to the Present.” In History of Iranian Literature, edited by Rypka, Jan, 572–85. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1968.Google Scholar
Bergne, Paul. The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bīktāsh, Narẕullāh Ḥaidarī. “Vilādīmīr Māyākūvīskī.” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1930): 20–21.Google Scholar
Borjan, Habib. “Feṭrat. ʿAbd-al-Raʾūf Boḵārī.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. 26 January 2012. https://iranicaonline.org/articles/fetrat-abd-al-rauf-bokari.Google Scholar
Clark, Katerina, and Dobrenko, Evgeny, eds. Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917–1953. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
“Davām-i yaksāla-i Rahbar-i Dānish.” Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 1–3.Google Scholar
Dihātī, see Pīrmuḥammadzāda, ʿAbd al-SalāmGoogle Scholar
Dobrenko, Evgeny. “Transformations of the Literary Field during the Cultural Revolution, 1928–1932.” In A History of Russian Literary Theory and Criticism: The Soviet Age and Beyond, edited by Dobrenko, Evgeny and Tihanov, Galin, 43–63. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudoignon, Stéphane A. “Faction Struggles among the Bukharan Ulama during the Colonial, the Revolutionary and the Early Soviet Periods (1826–1929): A Paradigm for History Writing?” In Muslim Societies: Historical and Comparative Aspects, edited by Tsugitaka, Sato, 62–96. London: Routledge Curzon, 2004.Google Scholar
Eden, Jeff, and Sartori, Paolo, DeWeese, Devin. “Moving Beyond Modernism: Rethinking Cultural Change in Muslim Eurasia (19th and 20th Centuries).” JESHO, 59 (2016): 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgar, Adrienne Lynn. Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Fedtke, Gero. “How Bukharans Turned into Uzbeks and Tajiks: Soviet Nationalities Policy in the Light of a Personal Rivalry.” In Patterns of Transformation in and around Uzbekistan, edited by Sartori, Paolo and Trevisani, Tommaso, 19–50. Reggio Emilia: Diabasis, 2007.Google Scholar
Gorky, Maksim. “Tūnal.” Translated by Tūraqul Dhihnī. Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1928): 34–36.Google Scholar
Grassi, Evelin. “From Bukhara to Dushanbe: Outlining the Evolution of Soviet Tajik Fiction.” Iranian Studies 50, no. 5 (2017): 691–704. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2017.1322943.Google Scholar
Hitchins, Keith. “ʿAynī, Ṣadr-al-Din.” In Encyclopædia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan, vol. 3, 144–49. New York: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, 2019.Google Scholar
Hitchins, Keith. “A Bukharan Poet between Tradition and Revolution: Paĭrav Sulaĭmonī.” In Iranian Languages and Literatures of Central Asia from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, edited by Chiara, Matteo de and Grassi, Evelin, 259–72. Paris: Association pour l'avancement des études iraniennes, 2015.Google Scholar
Hitchins, Keith. “Solaymāni, Ātajān Peyrow.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. 24 September 2010. https://iranicaonline.org/articles/solaymani.Google Scholar
Hodgkin, Samuel Gold. “Lāhūtī: Persian Poetry in the Making of the Literary International, 1906–1957.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2018.Google Scholar
Hodgkin, Samuel Gold. “Muḥammad ʿAlī Manāfzāda Sābit's ‘A Literary Revolution,’” in Literary Modernity in the Persophone World, ed. Noelle-Karimi, Christine et al. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Holt, Katharine. “Performing as Central Asia's Source Texts: Lahuti and Džambul in Moscow, 1935–36.” Cahiers d'Asie centrale 24 (2015): 213–38.Google Scholar
Holzwarth, Wolfgang. “Die Geschichte vom Aufstand des Voseʿ: Vom Theaterstück zur Verserzählung und Oper.” In The Written and the Spoken in Central Asia; Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit in Zentralasien: Festschrift for Ingeborg Baldauf, edited by Redkollegiia, 83–129. Potsdam: Edition tethys, 2021.Google Scholar
Husainzāda, Sharīfjān. “Mubāriza dar jabha-i adabiyāt-i tājīk.” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1930): 27–28.Google Scholar
Husainzāda, Sharīfjān. “Mubāriza dar jabha-i adabiyāt-i tājīk.” Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1930): 19–20.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Adabīyāt va ṣanʿat dar proto-marksizm.” Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 29–31.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Adabīyāt va ṣanʿat dar proto-marksizm.” Rahbar-i Dānish 11/12 (1928): 36–38.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Adabīyāt-i zabān-i pahlavī.” Rahbar-i Dānish 1/2 (1928): 15–16.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Az taʿrīkh-i adabīyāt-i fārs.” (part 1). Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1928): 30–32.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Az taʿrīkh-i adabīyāt-i fārs.” (part 2). Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1928): 15–19.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Az taʿrīkh-i adabīyāt-i fārs.” (part 3). Rahbar-i Dānish 7 (1928): 12–15.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Masʿala-i alifbā-yi nau.” Rahbar-i Dānish 10 (1928): 15–19.Google Scholar
Ibrāhīmī, Mīrzā Muḥsin. “Tāʿrīkh-i adabīyāt-i Īrān (daura-i islāmī).” Rahbar-i Dānish 3 (1928): 18–19.Google Scholar
Idāra. “Akhṭār.” Rahbar-i Dānish 5/6 (1929).Google Scholar
Idāra. “ʿAlāqa-i mā bā khwānandagān. Javābhā.” Rahbar-i Dānish 3 (1927): 36.Google Scholar
Idāra. “Dar aṭrāf-i yak masʿala-i muhimm,” Rahbar-i Dānish 2/3 (1929): 54.Google Scholar
Idāra. “Mauzūʿhā-yi mā,” Rahbar-i Dānish 2 (1927): 23.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Bahā al-Dīn. “Faqirazan va klūb-i zanān,” Rahbar-i Dānish 3 (1927), 27–28.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Bahā al-Dīn. “Yatīma,” Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1928), 33.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Āyā Chī bāyad kard?” Rahbar-i Dānish 9 (1929): 17–22.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Naẓare ba ‘Namūna-i adabiyāt-i tājīk.’” Rahbar-i Dānish 12 (1929): 22–24.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Raḥmatullā Īshān,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1929): 37–38.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Shabe dar rīgistān-i Bukhārā,” Rahbar-i Dānish (1927): 22–23.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Shīrīn,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1/2 (1928): 29–32.Google Scholar
Ikrām, Jalāl al-Dīn. “Yak ḥauża-i purkhūn,” Rahbar-i Dānish 10/11 (1929): 25–29.Google Scholar
Ikromi, Jalol. On chī az sar guzasht. Yoddoshtho. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Sharq-i ozod, 2009.Google Scholar
Kalinovsky, Artemy M. Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalid, Adeeb. Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinmichel, Sigrid. Aufbruch aus orientalischen Dichtungstraditionen. Studien zur uzbekischen Dramatik und Prosa zwischen 1910 und 1934. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993.Google Scholar
Kleinmichel, Sigrid. “The Uzbek Short Story Writer Fiṭrat's Adaptation of Religious Traditions.” In Religious Perspectives in Modern Muslim and Jewish Literatures, edited by Abramson, Glenda and Kilpatrick, Hilary, 135–48. London: Routledge, 2006.Google Scholar
Loy, Thomas. Bukharan Jews in the Soviet Union: Autobiographical Narrations of Mobility, Continuity, and Change. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2016.Google Scholar
Manāfzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī Sābit. “Akhṭār.” Rahbar-i Dānish 2 (1927): 2.Google Scholar
Manāfzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī Sābit. “Inqilāb-i adabī.” Rahbar-i Dānish 2 (1927): 19–20.Google Scholar
Manāfzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī Sābit. “Latāfat-āy firīb khūrd.” Rahbar-i Dānish 8 (1929): 22–25.Google Scholar
Manāfzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī Sābit. “Līv Nīkulāīvīj Tālstūī.” Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 19–25.Google Scholar
Manāfzāda, Muḥammad ʿAlī Sābit. “Pārchahā-yi adabī-i mā.” Rahbar-i Dānish 1/2 (1928): 37–41.Google Scholar
Muḥiddīnūf, ʿAbd al-Qādir. “Khāṭirahā-yi majala-i rahbar-i dānish.” Rahbar-i Dānish 3 (1927).Google Scholar
Muḥiddīnūf, ʿAbd al-Qādir. “Mardum-i shahr va aṭrāf-i Bukhārā tājīkand yā ūzbak.” Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 15–18.Google Scholar
Mukotiba-i Sadriddin Aini va Abulqosim Lohuti. Edited by Otakhonova, Khursheda and Shahobuddin-i, Shujoʿ. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Devashtich, 2003.Google Scholar
Mūsavī, Muḥammad. “Māksīm Gūrkī.” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1928): 18–22.Google Scholar
Mūsavī, Muḥammad. “Maktūb ba navisandagān-i muḥtaram-i Rahbar-i Dānish,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1929): 6, Latin section.Google Scholar
Nabiev (Nabavi), Abdulkholiq. Narzullo-i Bektosh va ilmu adab-i tojik-i solho-i 20-30 sada-i xx. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Irfon , 2004.Google Scholar
Nabiev (Nabavi), Abdulkholiq. Taʿrikh-i tashakkul-i ittifoq-i navisandagon-i Tojikiston. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Adib , 2004.Google Scholar
Noelle-Karimi, Christine. “ʿAbd al-Salām Pīrmuḥammadzāda Dihātī's ‘Let's Make Our Literature Accessible to the Masses by Means of Self-Criticism,’” in Literary Modernity in the Persophone World. Edited by Noelle-Karimi, Christine et al. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
O'zbek adabiyati namunalari. Edited by ʿAbd al-Raʾūf Fiṭrat. Tashkent/Samarkand, Uzbekistan: O'znashr, 1928.Google Scholar
Pickett, James. Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Sulaimonī, Pairau. “Gulandām,” Rahbar-i Dānish 11/12 (1928): 33–35.Google Scholar
Pīrmuḥammadzāda, ʿAbd al-Salām. “Adabiyātamān-rā barā-yi ʿāmma nazdīk kunīm (ba ṭarīq-i khud tanqīdkunī),” RD 2 (1930): 21–22.Google Scholar
Pīrmuḥammadzāda, ʿAbd al-Salām. “Ajinahā-yi chūpānatā,” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1930): 8–10, Latin section.Google Scholar
Pīrmuḥammadzāda, ʿAbd al-Salām. “Dāgh-i farzandī,” Rahbar-i Dānish 5/6 (1929): 46–48.Google Scholar
Pīrmuḥammadzāda, ʿAbd al-Salām. “Ḥamīda-i siyābakht,” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1929): 32–34.Google Scholar
“Rahbar-i Dānish dar rāh-i ijrā kardan-i vaẓīfahā-yi naubatī-i khūd.” Rahbar-i Dānish 5/6 (1929): 1–3.Google Scholar
Raḥīm Mīm, . “Antun Chekhūf.” Rahbar-i Dānish 7 (1929): 10–12.Google Scholar
Raḥīm Mīm, . “Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿalī Akhūndūf, 1812–1878.” Rahbar-i Dānish 4/5 (1928): 9–12.Google Scholar
Raḥīm Mīm, trans. “Yak shudan żarūr ast. (Edinoe na potrebu)”. Rahbar-i Dānish 8/9 (1928): 26–28.Google Scholar
Raḥīm Mīm. “Yakumīn qiṣṣa-i inqilābī-i tājīk,” Rahbar-i Dānish 6 (1928): 37–41.Google Scholar
Roberts, Flora. “Old Elites under Communism: Soviet Rule in Leninobod.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2016.Google Scholar
Rustamzoda, Muhammadzarif. “Tāʿrīkh-i bāsharaf (1927–2017).” Accessed 22 May 2021. http://www.marifatiomuzgor.tj/right_content.php?id=1.Google Scholar
Rzehak, Lutz. Vom Persischen zum Tadschikischen. Sprachliches Handeln und Sprachplanung in Transoxanien zwischen Tradition, Moderne und Sowjetmacht (1900–1956). Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2001.Google Scholar
Schild, Kathryn Douglas. “Between Moscow and Baku: National Literatures at the 1934 Congress of Soviet Writers.” PhD diss., University of California, 2010.Google Scholar
Seay, Nicholas. “Soviet-Tajik Writing Intelligentsia in the Late 1930s.” RUDN Journal of Russian History 19, no. 1 (2020): 119–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shakuri, Muhammadjon. Abbos Aliev. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Shujoyon, 2010.Google Scholar
Shakuri, Muhammadjon. Fitna-i inqilob dar Bukhoro. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Shujoyon, 2010.Google Scholar
Shakuri, Muhammadjon. Khuroson ast injo: Maʿnaviyat, zabon va ėhyo-i milli-i Tojikiston. 2nd ed. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Oli Samon, 2005.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. “Yak shab bā Saʿādat.” Translation. Rahbar-i Dānish 1/2 (1928): 34–36.Google Scholar
Ulūghzāda, Sātim. “Yak nigāh ba nas̲r-i tājīkī. Latāfat-āy firīb khūrd.” Rahbar-i Dānish 1 (1930): 24–26.Google Scholar
Yountchi, Lisa. “The Politics of Scholarship and the Scholarship of Politics: Imperial, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Scholars Studying Tajikistan.” In The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies, edited by Kemper, Michael and Conerman, Stephan, 223–27. New York: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Zabon-i tojiki dar mabno-i mubohisaho. Majmūa-i maqolaho-i solho-i 20-um. Edited by Nabavi, Abdulkholiq-i, et al. Dushanbe, Tajikistan: Irfon, 2007.Google Scholar