Mohlaroyim Nodira

Mohlaroyim Nodira – one of the most prominent poetesses of the 19th century, holds a special place in Uzbek literature. Continuing the traditions of maternal poetry, she wrote poems in the Uzbek and Persian-Tajik languages. She created under the pseudonyms “Nodira” and “Komila”. In her divans (poetry collections), one can encounter various genres of classical literature — ghazals, mukhammas, musaddas, musamman, tarjiband, and others.

Biography

Nodira was born in Andijon in 1792. Due to her interest in literature from a young age, despite mastering history and literature well, she also studied literature in Persian and Tajik. Most of her life was spent in palace circles in Kokand. When Nodira turned 30, her husband Umarxon was killed. The rest of the poetess's life passed among lovers of literature and patrons.

Nodira has several “Songs of Separation”. All her works spread widely among the people, and several of her manuscripts were included in manuscript collections of the last century.

Her father, the ruler of Andijon Rahmonqulbiy, was from the Ming tribe, and the uncle of Fergana ruler Olimxon. Olimxon gave his brother Umarxon the governorship of Margilan and married him to Nodira in 1807. Nodira began practicing poetry writing in that household, got acquainted with the poetess Uvaysiy, and invited her to the palace as a teacher. Nodira's husband, Amir Umarxon, also wrote under the pseudonym Amiriy.

In 1822, Umarxon passed away, and his 14-year-old son Muhammad Alixon (Ma'dalixon) ascended the throne. However, the state was mainly managed by Nodira herself. She strived to develop culture and art. The life and social activities of Nodira are presented with convincing evidence in the unfinished narrative poem of Nodira's contemporary, the judge Abdunabi Xotif: «My purpose in writing the work is to show that Nodira was a wise, understanding woman who valued science and words... After Umarxon's death, this jewel of the pearl of modesty considered it ingratitude for days to pass with grief and separation. She went to the garden of Chahorchaman, which was like a flower garden, and invited scholars, scientists, calligraphers, and painters from Fergana, Tashkent, Khujand, Andijon, and other cities to her service». Nodira had several books copied and encouraged poets to write new works. The poetess personally inspected the beautiful writing of the divans and the decoration of their covers. She gave gold pens and silver pen cases to well-working scribes, elevating them to the rank of «Zarrin qalam» (Golden Pen). Nodira paid attention to the construction of markets and stalls, mosques and madrasas, and caravanserais. She had the Madrasai Chalpak in Goristoni kalon and the Mohlaroyim madrasa in the Taqagarlik stall built.

Bukhara Emir Nasrullo invaded Kokand in 1842 and tragically killed Ma'dalixon, his brother Sultan Mahmudxon, his 14-year-old son Muhammad Aminxon, and Nodira.

Nodira's literary heritage, from the point of view of its ideological and artistic significance, is one of the beautiful examples of classical poetry. Her incomplete Uzbek divan is kept in the fund of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (inv. No. 4132). 109 ghazals (or 1704 verses) of Nodira are included in the divan.

Some important information about her biography is provided in the foreword written by Nodira herself. It has been determined that the divan copied in the 19th century, which is currently kept in the archive of the History Museum of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, contains 19 (328 verses) ghazals written by Nodira under the pseudonym «Komila». In 1962, the poetess's perfect divan was found in Namangan. It can be said that this divan, which is kept in the State Museum of Literature named after Alisher Navoiy of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (inv. No. 313), covers the poetess's heritage completely. In it, the foreword written by the poetess is presented perfectly. The divan contains 180 poems written by the poetess under the pseudonym «Nodira» (of which 136 are in the Uzbek language and 44 are in the Tajik language). In particular, there are 11 mukhammas, 2 musaddas, 1 musamman, 1 tarji'band, 1 tarkibband, and 1 firoqnoma. In the fund of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, there is a divan of Nodira written under the pseudonym «Maknuna», consisting of 333 ghazals (inv. No. 7766). Today, we possess about 10 thousand verses of lyrical heritage created by Nodira in the Uzbek and Persian-Tajik languages.

The basis of Nodira's poetry is lyricism. Nodira is a singer of love, loyalty, and faithfulness. She sang of beauty and loyalty, the pains, sorrows, and cries of Eastern women. While calling herself the mirror of love, this mirror reflected a person's hope for life, noble desires, and dreams. She sang that love is an eternal radiance placed in the hearts of people by Allah:

A person without love is not a human being,

If you are a human, choose love!

Nodira's concept of love acquires deep social content. Love rises above the circle of personal feelings and becomes a means of deeply perceiving humanity. Nodira believes that a person's highest virtue is loyalty. The theme of loyalty is covered in a wide circle in the poetess's ghazal with the radif «mebosh» in the Persian-Tajik language.

The poetess notes virtues such as generosity, patience, contentment, honor, and modesty as stations that bring one closer to enlightenment, i.e., reaching the union with God, and picturesquely describes that a person should perfectly internalize these honorable qualities in their spirit and guard them steadfastly in the treasure chest of the heart. As long as a human being is deprived of these qualities, they enter the path of hypocrisy.

Along with worldliness, Nodira expresses the human's relationship with society and nature, as well as their spiritual world on the path of divine love, in very beautiful and vivid verses through an integrity based on the Naqshbandiyya branch of Sufism in her work. Deeply perceiving the spirit of Islam, Sufi education, and the philosophy of life in Nodira's poems, she always looks at life with a hopeful gaze and searches for the seed of good within it. Even though Nodira lived in a palace, she could not feel happy spiritually.

That is why in one of her ghazals she says: «Seeing me on the throne of the empire, do not suspect me of having luxury and leisure».

Nodira protected scientists, poets, and especially poetesses. The poetess notes in the foreword she wrote to her Uzbek divan that her divans were «compiled according to the advice and initiatives of fellow learned pious women and scholarly virtuous female interlocutors».

Nodira dabbled in all existing genres of classical poetry. Her Uzbek and Persian-Tajik ghazals were created in various meters of Aruz in volumes of 5, 7, 9, 13, and even 18 couplets. The main part of the poetess's ghazals are 7—9 couplets. Nodira continued the traditions of classical literature with diligence and devotion. She composed mukhammas for the ghazals of Navoiy, Fuzuliy, and Bedil. In her ghazals, Nodira mostly used «mukarrar» (repetition of a word) and «qosh mukarrar» (double repetition) methods. Artistic means such as talmeh, majoz, tashbeh, istiora, tazod, tadrij, tashxis, and intoq were skillfully used in her works.

Nodira also wrote beautiful, touching poems in the Persian-Tajik language. They were also written at a high level in terms of content and artistic skill, playing an important role in studying the poetess's work even more broadly and completely.

Interest in Nodira's work began during the poetess's lifetime. The famous poetess Dilshod (1800—1905) dedicated special ghazals to Nodira, describing her as «a star in the sky of science-literature and poetry, a ghazal-singer of lovers, a sugar-scattering nightingale». Many poets wrote naziras (parallel poems) to Nodira's ghazals and composed mukhammas. In Uzbek literature and on stage, the artistic image of Nodira was created. H. Razzoqov's musical drama «Nodira» and Turob Tola's «Nodirabegim» were staged. Based on the script by Komil Yormatov and M. Melkumov, the film «Nodirabegim» was created. The poetess's works have been translated into Russian and other foreign languages. Her ghazals have been set to Uzbek maqoms and folk melodies. In cities and villages of Uzbekistan, many streets, cinemas, schools, and libraries are named after Nodira.