Jurakhan Sultanov

Jurakhan Sultanov was born on 29 January 1903 in Margilan. He had his first singing lessons from his father, then learned the yalla style from Madali Hafiz, the katta ashula from Boltaboy Rajabov and Mamatbuva Sattorov, and the maqom paths from Sodirkhon Hafiz and Mulla Tuychi Hafiz. He began by performing at folk celebrations and in tea houses.

In the mid-1920s, from 1926, he joined the Uzbek state ethnographic troupe led by Muhiddin Qori-Yoqubov. He toured with it to Moscow, Leningrad, Kazan, Astrakhan and Baku, and after these tours his name became widely known.

Sultanov was a soloist first at a theatre in Margilan (1928–1932) and then in Tashkent: at the Uzbek State Musical Theatre (from 1932), the Uzbek State Philharmonic (1936–1939) and the Muqimiy Theatre (1940–1950). On stage he also played roles, among them the hafiz Parfi in “Tohir and Zuhra” and Norquzi in “Nurkhon”. In 1939 he was named People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR.

From 1950 to 1958 he sang with the Uzbek State Estrada, and from 1958 until the end of his life with the “Maqom” ensemble of the radio. For more than twenty-five years he performed in tandem with his pupil Ma’murjon Uzoqov, and together they developed a manner of their own.

He was known among the people as the “pir of the katta ashula” and was also a master of the yalla and of askiya wit. Setting poems by Navoi, Furqat, Chustiy and others to Uzbek folk melodies, he sang them with instrumental accompaniment, creating such pieces as “Naylayin”, “O‘lmasun”, “Keling, ey ahboblar” and “Bir qadah”. His recordings are kept in the archives of Uzbek Radio and the Institute of Art Studies, and some were issued on gramophone records, cassettes and discs.

Jurakhan Sultanov died on 19 October 1965. In 2000 he was posthumously awarded the Order “For Outstanding Merit”. Since 1997 Margilan has held a national singers’ competition named after Sultanov and Uzoqov.