Azizkhon Kayumov

Azizkhon Pulatovich Kayumov was born on 19 January 1926 in Kokand into an educated family. From 1944 to 1949 he studied at the Eastern Faculty of the Central Asian State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan) and began his scholarly career as a junior researcher at an oriental studies institute.

His main field was classical Uzbek literature, above all the legacy of Alisher Navoi. His candidate dissertation (1954) was on the Kokand poet Mahmur, and in 1961 he defended a doctoral thesis on the literary milieu of Kokand. He wrote a separate study of each of the five poems of Navoi’s Khamsa, worked on textual criticism and prepared the works of several classical poets for publication.

Alongside research he held senior posts. In 1958–1961 he headed the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences, then led a department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, worked at the republic’s Ministry of Culture in 1963–1964 and chaired the State Committee for Cinematography in 1964–1974. From 1974 to 1979 he was rector of the Tashkent State Institute of Culture.

From 1979 to 1998 Kayumov directed the Institute of Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences. In 1983 he was named Honoured Science Worker of the Uzbek SSR; he became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in 1989 and a full member (academician) in 1995. He was a deputy of the Oliy Majlis in 1995–2000. From 1998 until the end of his life he was a leading researcher at the Alisher Navoi State Museum of Literature.

He also wrote poetry under the pen name Aziziy; his muxammas built on Navoi’s ghazals were collected in “Navoiyga ta’zim” (“Homage to Navoi”). He received the Order “El-yurt hurmati” (2003) and the Order “For Outstanding Merit” (“Buyuk xizmatlari uchun”, 2014).

Azizkhon Kayumov died in Tashkent on 16 February 2018, aged 92, and was buried in the Minor cemetery. His archive is kept at the Alisher Navoi State Museum of Literature; the centenary of his birth was marked in 2026.