Sadriddin Aini (1878 – 1954) (lane صدرالدین عینی) – founder of Tajik Soviet literature, writer, scientist, academician and first president of the Tajik SSR (1951-1954), honored scientist of the Tajik SSR, honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR. Hero of Tajikistan (1997).
Sadriddin Saidmurodzoda Aini was born on April 27 (15), 1878 in the village of Soktari, Gijduvan district, Bukhara emirate (Gijduvan district, Bukhara region of Uzbekistan). His son is an outstanding Tajik orientalist Aini Kamol. His father, Saidmurodhodja, was a farmer, but being illiterate, he tried to make his children educated and knowledgeable.
The dream of science and poetry brought Aini to Bukhara at age 12. It was very difficult for poor scholars such as Aini to do and study at Bukhara madrasah. However, because of his enthusiasm and desire for knowledge, he overcame all the difficulties of life and education and studied for 16 years in the madrasah of Bukhara. Aini studied at the madrasahs of Miri Arab, Olimjon, Badalbek, Khoja Zohid and Kukaldosh and graduated in 1908.
Over 27 years of life in Bukhara, Aini passed two schools: one school of labor, and the other a school of life. He worked hard to earn a living: sometimes he worked as a janitor, sometimes a cook, and sometimes a worker. At school of life, Sadriddin studied society. He studied the life knowledge of different segments of the population, the class relations of people, executioners of the emir, the struggle of the rich and the poor. Since 1896, Sadriddin Aini began to write poetry under the pen name Ayni. After reading the work of Ahmadi Donish “Navodir-ul-wakoe”, Aini’s attitude to the rotten structure of the Bukhara emirate has completely changed, and a secret hatred of this shabby society has appeared in his heart. Therefore, at the beginning of the 20th century, Aini continued to create advanced ideas of teachers Ahmadi Donish and Shahin and determined his future path. “Tahzib – us – sibiyon” was created by Aini in 1909 with the aim of educating adolescents in a modern spirit for students of new methodological schools in Bukhara.
Amir did not like such good deeds. Thus, Aini was thrown into prison and beaten 75 times with sticks. After 52 days at the hospital, Sadriddin Aini moved to Samarkand. He took part in the work of the Revolutionary Committee both in Samarkand and in Tashkent, wrote leaflets, invitations and declarations of war, and conducted propaganda. The Emir of Bukhara brutally murdered the younger brother of the writer Sirojidin in prison for allegedly having Ayni with anti-Amorite militants after they turned his back on him. “Marcia” Aini was written on this occasion. The bloodthirsty Amir was not satisfied with the death of Sirojidin and he kills his elder brother Muhiddinhoja. After these events, Aini’s pen was sharpened, and he was able to show in his articles, brochures, historical and artistic works that the eradication of the Emirate is historically legal. Thus, with the victory of the October Revolution, the writer again became young. Since 1918 he worked in the system of public education and the first Tajik-Uzbek revolutionary press.
After the creation of the Bukhara Soviet People’s Republic (1920), he served for some time at the consulate, then at his commercial office. Since 1926, he worked as a consultant and literary editor at the Tajik State Publishing House. In 1934, participated in the I All-Union Congress of Writers of the USSR and was elected a member of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. In the field of science, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philology and awarded the title of Honorary Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR. Aini was appointed academician of the Tajik SSR, he was the first president of the Tajik SSR (1951-1954). Sadriddin Aini died in 1954 in Dushanbe. Today, the Ayni Mausoleum in a picturesque place in Dushanbe is a pilgrimage site for scientists. Now it is called Sadriddin Aini Park.
The educational activities of Sadriddin Aini began in the days of his studies at the madrasah and continued in two directions: 1. Teaching in new teaching schools. 2. Writing textbooks.
In 1906, a Tatar named Abdurahmon Saidi founded the first new Tatar school in Bukhara. Since some Tajik children also attended school, Aini translated Saidi’s lessons into Tajik for Tajik-speaking students. When the first new Tajik school was opened in the courtyard of Mirzo Abduvahid Munzim on November 8, 1908, Aini’s teaching activities expanded further. At school M.A. Munzim and S. Aini also lacked the necessary books. To eliminate this drawback, in 1909, at the initiative of both, the Bukhara Sharif Company was created. First of all, the company presented the book “Tartib-ul-Quran” for the correct pronunciation of the sounds of speech, especially the verses of the Quran.
At the initiative of S. Aini, another textbook “Tahzib-us-sibyon” (“Education of Youth”) was also prepared and published. It should be noted that the schools of the new method were fundamentally different from ordinary schools of the emirates. Pupils in the Emirate’s schools, where Sadriddin Aini described his teaching methods at the Old School, lost years of life and remained illiterate.
It should be noted that the schools of the new method were fundamentally different from ordinary schools of the emirates. Pupils in the Emirate’s schools, where Sadriddin Aini described his teaching methods at the Old School, lost years of life and remained illiterate. Young students in the old school were taught to read and memorize the Quran and other religious books only blindly. In schools with a new method, the pupils practiced reading and writing for several months. In addition to the religious sciences, these schools also taught children the natural and exact sciences. All this led fanatical mullahs to rebel against new schools and their teachers. Religious scholars who did not understand the true teachings of Islam called the teachers of the new school “infidels” and the school “Satanic home” and urged people not to send their children to infidel schools.
Everywhere, the founders and teachers of new schools were insulted, threatened, and considered them the plague of recent times. In particular, Abduvahid Munzim and Sadriddin Aini were under intense pressure. But they did not leave the sacred profession of a teacher, there were even times when they went to school in women’s clothing to avoid the enemy. However, on September 25, 1909, by order of the government of the emirate, the Munzim school was closed. After that, teaching Bukhara in schools according to the new Tatar method was prohibited.
Aini’s work dates back to the 90s of the 20th century, and he quickly became one of the leading poets. His literary works are created in the form of poetry and prose. He wrote his first poems while studying at a madrasah under the pseudonyms “Mukhtoji”, “Jununi” and “Sifli”. In 1895, he adopted the pseudonym Ayni and gained worldwide fame under that name. Aini entered the field of literature or poetry with the poem “Red Rose”, created in 1895 under the pseudonym Aini. The textbook Tazhib-us-Sibion (1909-1917) and the parable Kirmaku Parvona (1917) are educational, moral, and social in nature and are some of his best pre-revolutionary works. His poems, written in 1918-1921, include the “March of Freedom”, “In Honor of the October Revolution”, “Revolution”, “International March”, “May Day” and others were published in the magazine “Shulai Inkilob” and in the magazine “ Mehnatkashlar tovushi ”(“ The Voice of the Workers ”) and entered the first collection of his poems“ Akhtari Inkilob ”(Bukhara, 1923).
In 1920, he wrote his first story about the musnand “The executioner of Bukhara.” Then he wrote the story “The Story of a Poor Tajik” or “Odin” and published its first parts in 1924–1925 in the newspaper Ovozi Tochik. In 1927, the story was published in a separate book called Odin. The work describes the life of the mountain Tajiks of Eastern Bukhara on the eve of the revolution. His first novel, Dohund, was published in 1930. In 1935, his greatest novel, Slaves, was published. One of the outstanding works of the master, on which he worked for many years, is “Notes”.
Literary and scientific heritage
• “The History of the Bukhara Revolution (book)” (1920)
• “Bukhara executioners” (1920)
• “Odina” (1924)
• The novel “Dohunda” (1927–1928, 1930)
• The novel “Slaves” (1934)
• “Death of the usurer” (1937, revised edition (1953))
• “Orphan” (1940)
• “Notes” (in 4 books)
• His works were published in Kulliyoti Aini in 15 volumes
• “Old school”.
Awards and prizes
• The Stalin Prize of the second degree (1950) – for the book “Memoirs” (“Bukhara”)
• Three orders of Lenin
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• Honored Scientist of the Tajik SSR
• Honorary Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR
• Hero of Tajikistan (September 8, 1998) – posthumously
• Order “Buyuk Hizmatlari Uchun” (Uzbekistan, 2001) – posthumously.