Tuychi Hafiz

Mulla Tuychi Tashmukhamedov was born in 1868 in Tashkent into a family of weaving artisans. As a child he helped his father in the workshop; after his father died he worked at a madrasa and then as a neighbourhood cook. In 1878–1884 he attended an old-style school.

He learned the secrets of singing in youth from his uncle Qo'chqor-ota. He knew the ghazals of Navoi, Mashrab, Bedil and Fuzuli well and sang them as songs; together with the hafizes Abduqahhor, Saidahmad and Nazirkhan he organised «Qo'shiq bazmi» evenings. The song cycle “Shahnoz–Gulyor”, sung in 1890 with the hafiz Shojalil and the tanbur player Shobarot, brought him fame, and his name later spread to every town of the Turkestan region.

Tuychi Hafiz was among the first singers to have his songs recorded on gramophone discs. The firm “Pishushchiy Amur” recorded 25 of his songs in all (in Riga in 1905 and in Skobelev in 1911), among them the two-part “Ilg'or”, “Xisrav” and “Suvora”, as well as “Bobo Ravshan”, “Yangi kurd” and “Avji kurd”. People called these recordings “Mulla Tuychi's records”. In 1908–1910 he was also the first to have the singing of the Fergana Valley women singers Adolatkhan and Mozidakhan put on disc, and on his initiative gramophone and record shops opened in Andijan, Fergana, Khujand and other towns (1906–1912). Before Soviet times he sang mostly in small circles and at family celebrations; in 1912 the poet Xislat compiled the collection “Armug'oni Xislat” in his honour, and most of its poems came from his repertoire.

In 1913–1914 he performed in towns of Eastern Turkestan. In Soviet times he sang for wide audiences: in 1923 he took part, with a group of Uzbek musicians, in concerts at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow, and in the 1920s he helped choose the music for stagings of “Farhod and Shirin” and “Layli and Majnun”. In 1927 his many years of work were widely celebrated and he was given the title of People's Hafiz of the Uzbek SSR; sources add that the same year he was named Hero of Labour of the Uzbek SSR. From 1927–1928 until his death he was a soloist of the folk-instrument ensemble of the Uzbek radio committee and a leading singer of the Uzbek State Philharmonic.

In 1937 he took part in the Decade of Uzbek Art in Moscow; that year the All-Union radio committee recorded his performances of the maqoms “Bayot” and “Ushshoq”, and researchers led by V. A. Uspensky recorded “Chorgoh”, “Bayot”, “Ko'cha bog'i”, “Suvora” and other songs. On 31 May 1937 he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour. The hafiz died in Tashkent in 1943 and was buried at the Chilonzor Ota cemetery.

His performing tradition was carried on by singers such as Sh. Shoumarov, Yunus and Rixsi Rajabiy, K. Zokirov and B. Mirzayev. From 1945 the Tashkent gramophone record factory bore his name, and the Kashkadarya regional musical drama and comedy theatre is also named after Tuychi Hafiz. In 2000 he was posthumously awarded the Order «Buyuk xizmatlari uchun» (For Outstanding Services).