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The Guide to Knowledge: The Journal Rahbar-i Dānish and Its Role in Creating a Soviet Tajik Literature (1927–1932)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2022

Thomas Loy Open the ORCID record for Thomas Loy [Opens in a new window]
Thomas Loy*
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Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
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[email protected]
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Abstract

Despite being in operation for a mere five years, the Soviet-era Tajik (Persian) journal Rahbar-i Dānish (1927–1932) was a key venue for exploring and debating the merits of Tajik literature in the context of new ideological and literary trends. Established litterateurs as well as literary newcomers published examples of their literature and literary criticism in this first Tajik monthly social, educational, and literary journal. The present article reviews the history of Rahbar-i Dānish and some of its authors to trace their influence on Tajik literature and literary criticism in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The article addresses the difficulties of creating a Soviet Tajik literature and scrutinizes the various genres featured in the literary section of the journal. Finally, it presents the trajectories of two literary newcomers, Jalāl al-Dīn Ikrām (who later became known as Jalol Ikromi) and Baḥr al-Dīn ʿAzīzī (who died in a Soviet prison in 1944), whose short stories were most prominent in Rahbar-i Dānish. This article is based on an almost complete set of the forty-five issues of the journal, published between August 1927 and March 1932.

Keywords

journalsliterary criticismSoviet Central AsiaTajikistanTajik literature
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Iranian Studies , Volume 55 , Special Issue 3: Persianate Pasts; National Presents: Persian Literary and Cultural Production in the Twentieth Century , July 2022 , pp. 653 - 674
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Iranian Studies

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