Gayratiy

Gayratiy (real name Abdurahim Abdullayev) was born on 15 February 1902 (2 February in the old style) in the Degrez neighbourhood of Tashkent, into an artisan’s family. His mother died early and a neighbour, Oyimkhon, looked after him and taught him to read. The pen name “Gayratiy” is said to have been given to him by the Tashkent poet Hislat Eshon.

Abdurahim studied at a traditional school and a madrasa (1915–1916), where he came to know the poetry of Navoi, Muqimi and Furqat. He then attended the Namuna school (1917–1918) and a teacher-training course (1918–1919) and taught for some years at an incomplete secondary school in Tashkent. His first poem appeared in 1921. In 1926 he went to Baku, studied at a teachers’ seminary and met Azerbaijani poets.

His first collection, “Voice of Freedom” (“Erk tovushi”), came out in 1927, followed by verse collections such as “Songs of Life”, “Tempo”, “Fiery Bodies”, “Love” and “Golden Youth”, and story collections including “Deliverance”, “Hashar” and “Black Hearts”. In the 1930s he became known for the narrative poems “A Letter to My Mother” (1935) and “Jinasta” (1937), about the hard past of the Uyghur people. He led a literary circle at a factory, worked as an editor at the Uzbek State Publishing House and as a literary assistant at the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre.

During the Second World War Gayratiy was accused of nationalism and expelled from the Writers’ Union, which weighed on the rest of his literary career. In an effort to clear himself he wrote poems devoted to Hamza, Furqat and Zavqiy: “The Immortal Song”, “The Poet”, “Furqat in Exile” and “Our Hamza”. After the war he turned mainly to children’s literature: the poems “The Lost Boy” and “The Toshsoqa Canal”, the novellas “Unforgettable Days” and “Rustam’s Adventure”, and plays such as “Omon”, “Winged Friends” and “In the Forest” were staged by the republic’s puppet theatres.

From 1946 until the end of his life he headed the literary circle at the Palace of Pupils. Erkin Vohidov, Khayriddin Saloh, Yusuf Shomansur, Anvar Eshonov, Tamilla Qosimova and other writers who later became known came from that circle.

In 1972 Gayratiy was given the title People’s Poet of the Uzbek SSR. He died in Tashkent on 22 January 1976.