Ismoil Tukhtamishev

Ismoil Tukhtamishev was born in 1950 in the Qashqadaryo region. After finishing school in 1966 he began work as a proofreader at the regional newspaper “Qashqadaryo haqiqati”.

From 1967 to 1972 he studied at the journalism faculty of Tashkent State University (today the National University of Uzbekistan). He then worked in a number of organisations, later headed the Qashqadaryo regional department of culture, and for a time served in the staff of the President’s office.

His poems began to appear in print in the 1970s. His first books, “Cho‘l boychechagi” (Snowdrops of the Steppe) and “Onam tilaklari” (My Mother’s Wishes), came out in the 1980s. They were followed by “Dunyo ustuni” (Pillar of the World), “Hayqiriq” (The Cry), “Senga intildim” (I Strove Toward You), “Dil sadolari” (Voices of the Heart) and “Ko‘hna Nasaf xayoli” (Dreams of Ancient Nasaf), and later by “Ot — yigitning yo‘ldoshi”, “Had”, “Bu gulshan sahnida”, “Ko‘ngil bitiklari”, “Yerqo‘rg‘on”, “Shonli tayanch” and “Yonib yashash baxti”.

The titles themselves show the poet’s attachment to his homeland: the snowdrops of the first book are those of the Qashqadaryo steppe, and Nasaf in the fifth is the old name of Qarshi. His themes are the motherland, the mother, kindness between people and spiritual life.

A group of his poems was published in issue 5 of the journal “Sharq yulduzi” in 2013. In October 2021 Shavkat Mirziyoyev, speaking as a presidential candidate, named him among the poets who came out of the Qashqadaryo literary school that bears Abdulla Oripov’s name.

Ismoil Tukhtamishev died in 2015.