Sadriddin Ayni

Who is Sadriddin Ayni?

Sadriddin Ayni was born on 15 April 1878 into a peasant family in the village of Sāktare in the Emirate of Bukhara. Orphaned at the age of twelve, he moved to the city of Bukhara to live with his older brother, where he studied at a madrasa and learned Arabic and Persian literary composition. As a young man he joined the Jadids, a movement of Central Asian Muslim reformers who pushed for modern education and social renewal, and he later supported the spread of the Russian Revolution into Bukhara and Tajikistan. In 1927 Ayni wrote Dokhunda, widely regarded as the first modern novel written in the Tajik language, helping to establish a modern Tajik literary prose tradition distinct from the wider Persian literary world. He went on to produce poetry, fiction, journalism, historical scholarship, and lexicographical work over a long career, representing Tajik writers at the first Soviet Congress of Writers in 1934. He served in the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR for two decades, was awarded the Order of Lenin three times, and became the first president of the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR. He died in Dushanbe on 15 July 1954. Ayni is remembered today as the founding father of modern Tajik literature and is regarded by Tajiks as their national writer.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Sadriddin Ayni" · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Sadriddin Ayni" · Association for Iranian Studies, "Sadriddin Aini — founding father of modern Tajik literature"