Maqsud Qoriyev

Maqsud Qoriyev (Maksud Kariev in Russian-language sources) was born on 1 August 1926 in Tashkent. During the Second World War he worked on a collective farm in Yunusabad. In 1947 he graduated from the Tashkent Law Institute and stayed on there as a lecturer, then went on to postgraduate study; he became a candidate of law in 1960 and later an associate professor. He was one of the authors of the textbook “Theory of State and Law”.

Alongside teaching he took up journalism in the 1950s: he worked at the newspaper Qizil O‘zbekiston, was a staff writer at Sovet O‘zbekistoni and headed a department at the journal O‘zbekiston kommunisti. In 1954–1963 he was deputy editor-in-chief and then editor-in-chief of the newspaper Toshkent haqiqati. From 1963 to 1984 he edited Sovet O‘zbekistoni (today O‘zbekiston ovozi), and in 1984–1988 he was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Mushtum.

His fiction began to appear in print in the second half of the 1960s. His first novella, “Oydin kechalar” (“Moonlit Nights”), came out in 1968, followed by “Jiyda gullaganda” (known in Russian as “Silvery Leaves”, 1970), “Afrosiyob go‘zali” (“The Beauty of Afrasiab”, 1974) and “Turnalar baland uchganda” (“When the Cranes Fly High”, 1976). They deal with the lives and fortunes of young people and with family life. The novella “Qiz uzatib borganda” was made into a feature film of the same name at Uzbekfilm (1985), and one of his lyrical novellas was adapted as the television play “Mirzo and Lola”. From 1973 his books were also published in Russian by Sovetsky Pisatel in Moscow.

His later work leans towards historical subjects: the novel “Spitamen” (1985) describes the Sogdian leader’s struggle against Alexander the Great’s army, and the novel “Ibn Sino” (1995) is devoted to the life of the great physician and philosopher. He also wrote the novella “Ibn Sino’s Childhood” (2002) and later published the historical novel “The Ghaznavids”, along with stories on historical themes such as “Stories about Temur” and “Taj Mahal”.

He was a member of the USSR Writers’ Union and won a prize of the USSR Union of Journalists. In 1968 he was named Honoured Worker of Culture of the Uzbek SSR; in the years of independence he received the Shuhrat Medal (1996) and the El-yurt hurmati Order (1998). Maqsud Qoriyev died in Tashkent in 2010.