Mahkam Mahmudov

Mahkam Mahmudov was born on 5 December 1940 in the village of Qadim in the Asaka district of the Andijan region. He studied at the Muqimiy school in Andijan in 1947–1957 and at Tashkent State University (today the National University of Uzbekistan) in 1957–1962.

From 1960 he worked in the editorial offices of newspapers and magazines and in publishing houses, and later became a literary staff member of the magazine “Muloqot”. He began with poetry, then turned to prose, writing mostly on historical themes and in the science-fiction genre.

His historical works include “Bibixonim”, “Shohlar malikasi” (“Queen of Kings”), “Movarounnahr yulduzi” (“Star of Transoxiana”), “Sulton Mahmud G‘aznaviy”, “Boysung‘ur ibn Shohruh” and “Imom Zayniddin G‘azzoliy”. Among his science fiction are “Men — men emasman” (“I Am Not Me”), “Teskari ko‘zlar sayyorasi” (“The Planet of Inverted Eyes”), “Sirli qasr” (“The Secret Castle”) and “Mangu kuy izlab” (“In Search of an Eternal Melody”).

As a literary scholar he held the degree of Candidate of Philology, and published the books “Talant va ijod falsafasi” (1976), “Abadiyat lahzalari” (1981) and “Hayrat va tafakkur” (1992). As a translator he rendered into Uzbek Aristotle’s “Poetics”, Balzac’s “The Wild Ass’s Skin”, Andersen’s fairy tales, a collection of novellas by Stefan Zweig (together with O‘tkir Hoshimov) and Oscar Wilde’s stories “The Star-Child” and “The Devoted Friend”.

He was a member of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan and in 1998 received the Order “El-yurt hurmati” for services to literature. He died on 13 December 2024, aged 84.