Shokir Sulaymon

A tireless advocate of enlightenment ideas, Shokir Sulaymon was a poet, novelist, publicist, and literary critic who was one of the active figures in the social, literary, and cultural movement in Uzbekistan in the 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Shokir Sulaymon was born in Kokand in 1900, on the eve of the Nowruz holiday. The Kokand literary environment, which had produced a number of famous poets in the 19th century, had not yet lost its literary and spiritual influence. This situation left a lasting mark on the formation of Shokir Sulaymon's literary and social activities.

He studied there in a new-method school until 1916. Later, he went to Orenburg and continued his education at the famous Husayniya Madrasah. This allowed him to learn Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Tatar, and Russian, and to read newspapers and magazines published in those languages.

After returning to Uzbekistan following the October Revolution, Shokir Sulaymon followed the path of promoting enlightenment ideas on the pages of the local press.

Between 1922 and 1926, he studied first at a workers' faculty in Moscow, and then at the Krupskaya Pedagogical Institute.

His contributions regarding representatives of brotherly literatures, such as A. Sa’diy, O. Ibrohimov, Hodi Toqtosh, Hasan To’fon, S. Ayniy, and A. Lohutiy, served to strengthen brotherhood and deepen literary and cultural ties.

During the war years, when creative and socio-educational activity intensified, the breath of the era of repression reached Shokir Sulaymon as well.

He was arrested on August 25, 1941, and met his tragic end on August 8, 1942, at the age of 42.

Thus, by the mid-1920s, Shokir Sulaymon had begun to emerge as a publicist, short story writer, poet, translator, literary scholar, and critic, as well as an author of textbooks and numerous manuscripts.

He was only cleared of charges in the 60s, and in 1964 his short story collection titled «O‘ch» (Revenge) was published.

Activities

While he created dozens of articles and essays in which he called his people toward enlightenment and culture, in a number of his short stories such as «Qotil» (The Murderer), «Hukm» (The Verdict), «Farmoza otasi» (Farmoza's Father), «Lolazordagi shumg‘iya» (The Parasite in the Poppy Field), «Parazitlar» (Parasites), and «Yamo bilan Xamo» (Yamo and Xamo), he tried to show the struggle between the new and the old.

Shokir Sulaymon had gained significant fame as a poet in his time. The joy and anxieties of the «new life» were loudly celebrated in his poetry collections and epics, such as «Erk kuylari» (Songs of Freedom, 1926), «G‘alaba marshi» (March of Victory, 1928), and «Davr hayqirig‘i» (Cry of the Era, 1932).

Pedagogical activity holds an important place in Shokir Sulaymon's life. He created a series of textbooks and manuals for secondary and higher educational institutions, in which he provided valuable information, in particular, regarding the works of Sufizada, Hamza, Mirmuhsin, Fitrat, and Cholpon.