Aysar Ibragimov

Aysar Ibragimov (Uzbek: Aysar Ibrohimov) was born on 5 May 1910 in the village of Asaka (today in the Andijan region) into a peasant family. As a child he herded sheep on the pastures of Qashqadaryo, where he also finished an incomplete secondary school. In 1927, at his father's wish, he entered a medical school in Fergana.

From youth he sang in an amateur circle. A performance in Fergana of the musical drama Farhod va Shirin by the Andijan theatre company, with Muhitdin Qoriyoqubov in the lead, made him take singing seriously. He learned by heart much of Navoi's poems Farhod and Shirin and Layli and Majnun.

He began on stage in 1929 in an amateur theatre in Asaka. Largely self-taught, he strove to play every role well, large or small. Noticing his talent, Ziyod Said, Mannon Uygur and Yatim Bobojonov invited him to the Hamza theatre, where he played Ne'mat in Halima and Asqar in Arshin mol-olan and won the audience's praise.

In 1931–1933 he worked in the travelling Young Workers' Theatre attached to the Hamza theatre, in the Fergana theatre and in the collective-farm theatre in Chust. From 1933 he was an actor of the Andijan theatre; his Andijan colleagues, among them Toxtasin Jalilov, Rasul Sultonov, Murod Qo'ldoshev, Vahob Azimov and Asad Ismatov, entrusted him with leading roles. His first role there was Shopur.

He played more than two hundred positive and negative roles, among them Miller in Schiller's Intrigue and Love, Gofir in Boy ila xizmatchi, Davron ota in Davron ota, Mavlon in Shohi so'zana, Abror in Parvona, Tribule in Qirolning dil xushi, the Lord Mayor in Shakespeare's Richard III and Shushu domla in Inson aziz. One of his best-known roles was Majnun in Layli va Majnun. He made skilful use of voice, facial expression and movement, aiming to reveal the characters' inner lives in depth.

In 1970 a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR awarded him the honorary title of People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR. He died in Andijan on 29 June 1989, aged 79.