Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi, modern Uzbek: Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy, Russian: Хамза Хакимзаде Ниязи, (March 6 [O.S. February 22] 1899, Kokand – March 18, 1929, Shohimardon) was a Soviet and Uzbek poet and author. He is widely seen as one of the leading figures in the early development of the modern literary tradition of Uzbekistan.
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Hamza Niyazi was first educated in a maktab, then in a madrassah. Having organized a free school for the children of the poor, Niyazi devoted himself to the project in the capacity of a teacher. Hisn early writings exhibit strong social-democratic leanings and sharp condemnations of social injustice.
Niyazi ardently supported the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He joined the All-Russian Communist Party (The Bolsheviks) in 1920 (after 1952 the organization was known as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) and, among other things, organized a theater troop for the entertainment of Red Army soldiers.
The author's works generally dealt wish social issues, such as women's rights, social inequality, and the prevalence of superstition.
An ardent supporter of the revolution, Niyazi was stoned to death in the town of Shohimardon by Islamic fundamentalists for his anti-religious activities.[1]
His work Niyoziys extolled the revolution and was directly connected with the struggle for social justice and liberation in Uzbekistan . Many of Niyazi's other works, including his poems, dramas and other writings were likewise often written in the turmoil of revolution and describe Niyazi's view of the awakening of Uzbek class consciousness. Niyzai'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, Saodat Yangi, Niyazi extols the benefits of education. The book was written to showcase the author's belief in the power of modern education to end "all superstitious nonsense, so detrimental to morale and purpose", 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. Niyazi tells the story of a poorly educated young man who marries and has two children before becoming a drunk 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 Hayot Zaharli 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, who's love is thwarted by the inflexible attitudes of the boy's parents, who stick closely to their rigid ideas about social structure. The two young people eventually commit suicide - victims of the feudal class system
Niyazi also wrote "The Bey and The Servant", published from 1917 to 1922, which deals primarily with the revolutionary upheaval in Western Turkestan and with the institution of arranged marriage - the young heroine of the story commits suicide after being forced to marry a man she does not love
One of the author's final works is "Paranji sirlari" ("Secrets of the Veil", 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 from Uzbekistan, but also Kashgar and Tatar melodies set to music. Niyazi himself was a master of several traditional Uzbek instruments: the dotar and the tanbur.
Niyazi also wrote two comedies - Tuhmatchilar jazosi ("Punishment of a Slanderer," 1918) and Burungi qozilar yoki Maysaraning ishi (1926).
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. Adeeb Khalid writes in "The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform", it is difficult to imagine the history of modern Central Asian literature without Niyoziys.
Niyazi's political legacy is complex, although he undoubtedly helped develop the national literature of Uzbekistan, Jadidist (nationalist) writers saw Niyazi pro-Soviet position as inherently un-Uzbek because of its non-national, and political themes. 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, which had been the dominant written form for several centuries. The reforms eventually resulted in a significant shift in spelling and pronunciation.
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+ Edward Allworth: The Modern Uzbeks: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present: A Cultural History . Hoover Institution Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0817987329 (English)
+ Edward Allworth: Uzbek Literary Politics . Mouton & Co., The Hague 1964 (English)
+ SS Kasymov: Usbekskaja Sozialistitscheskaja Sovetskaya Respublika. XIII. Literatura . In: Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1956), p. 31-34 (in Russian), translation into English by Edward Allworth, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic ... The Literature in Uzbek Literary Politics , p. 254-260
+ Viktor M. Beliaev: Central Asian Music. Essays in the History of the Music of the Peoples of the USSR (Editor: Mark Slobin; translation from the Russian by Mark and Greta Slobin). Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1975th P. 316-321 (English)
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+ Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy: Tola asarlar toplami (Editor: N. Karimov et al.). 5 volumes. Fan, Tashkent 1988-1989 (Uzbek)
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