Sirojiddin Sayyid

Sirojiddin Sayyid (real name Sirojiddin Salohovich Saidov) was born on 30 October 1958 in the village of Kundajuvoz in the Sariosiyo district of the Surxondaryo region. His poems began to appear in print in the 1970s.

From 1974 to 1979 he studied journalism at Tashkent State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan). He worked at the newspaper Toshkent Oqshomi (1980–1989), then at O'zbekiston Adabiyoti va San'ati (1989–1990 and 1991–1996) and at the magazine Mushtum (1990–1991) as a staff writer and head of department; he later became editor-in-chief of O'zbekiston Adabiyoti va San'ati.

His first collection of poems, The Map of My Soul (Ruhim xaritasi), came out in 1985. It was followed by collections such as In the Palm of Cool Boulders, The Land of Love, Kindness Will Remain, Love Will Remain, I Burned (1994), Studying the Homeland (1996) and The Homeland Is Eternal (2001), a two-volume selection, The Path of the Word (2008), and a book about Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur, A Hundred Sighs, Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur (2011). Critics note in his verse the traditions of classical Uzbek poetry, the influence of folklore and words of the Surxondaryo dialect.

Sayyid is also a translator: from Russian, Bulgarian, Tajik and other languages he has rendered into Uzbek poems by Andrei Voznesensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Vladimir Vysotsky and Alexander Feinberg, as well as works by Alexander Pushkin and Lyubomir Levchev. His work has been published in Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

From 2001 to 2003 he was deputy chairman of the board of the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan, and from 2003 its first deputy chairman. In April 2018 he was appointed chairman of the union and remains in that post. On 18 January 2020 a presidential decree appointed him a member of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis.

His honours include the Order «Do'stlik» (1999), the title People's Poet of Uzbekistan (2006), the Order of Labor Glory (2021) and the Order «El-yurt hurmati» (2025).