Dadakhon Nuriy

Dadakhon Nuriy was born in 1943 in the city of Namangan. He studied at the Oriental Faculty of Tashkent State University and, during his student years, worked as a stage designer at the Hamza Academic Drama Theatre.

He later taught Hindi in specialised schools and worked as a literary staff member and editor at the magazines “Guliston” and “Gulkhan” and at Uzbek television. His Hindi and his Oriental studies show in the travel books he wrote later.

His first lyrical novella, “Oqshom qo‘shiqlari” (“Evening Songs”), appeared in 1963. It was followed by “Begona” (1968), “Bog‘larda bahor” (1969) and “Mashina Kashmirga boradi” (1970–1971). In 1979 the publisher Yosh Gvardiya brought out his novel “Osmon ustuni”, edited by Odil Yoqubov. He is described as one of the youngest pupils of Abdulla Qahhor.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s he also made his name as an essayist: the collection “Shahar tegirmoni” (“The City Mill”, 1990) joined a novella and stories with articles on the city’s gardens and the protection of nature. Among his best-known pieces are “Pskom osmonida qora bulutlar”, “Shahar g‘ildiragi”, “Toshkentga bomba kerakmi?” and “Mushohada”, as well as the satire “Xumsondan chiqqan podshoh”.

He also wrote in the genres of travel writing and the essay: “Daricham ro‘parasidagi Pokiston” (1996), “Pokiston ‘Oltin devor’ tirqishidan” (1998), “Azim chinorlar panohida” (2005) and “Ram sohibdan hammaga salom” (2007). His book “Boysun jungllaridan Kandi o‘rmonlarigacha” is devoted to his “unwritten adventures”.

In his last years he published “Niqobsiz Amerika va boshqa manzilgohlar” (2010), “Iztirob” (2017) and “Vijdon hayqiriqlari” (2018). In “Iztirob” he draws on diary entries about the poet Erkin Vohidov, whom he had been close to for almost sixty years. His works have been translated into Hindi, Urdu, English, Kazakh, Korean, Turkish and Russian, and he received the Oybek prize of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan.

Dadakhon Nuriy died in Tashkent on 12 July 2021.