PUBL.- Muhib: Kulliyot - The Complete Works of Mordekhay ben Hiyo Bachayev
Posted by: Thomas Loy <t.loy@web.de>
Muhib: Kulliyot (Complete works in 7 vols.) Jerusalem 2006 (Vol. I-IV)
2007 (Vol. V-VII), containing all the works of the Bukharan Jewish
author in Judeo-Tajik (in Cyrillic script) and a few in Russian.
Muhib: Kulliyot The Complete Works of the Bukharan Jewish writer,
poet and intellectual Mordakhay H. Bachayev (penname Muhib) is both a
great example of and a unique introduction to the culture and
literature of the Bukharan Jews (the term is used for all
Persian-speaking Jews of Central Asia) of the 20th century. Iranist
Jiri Becka once called Muhib the most prominent representative and
continuator of Judeo-Persian literary tradition. Nevertheless, even
in scholarly circles Muhib's oeuvre is scarcely known, since the rich
cultural and literary heritage of this community is only to be found
in Russian and Central Asian archives (The huge amount of publications
of the 1920s and 1930s) or published privately in very small editions
and basically circulates only amongst the big Bukharan-Jewish
communities in Israel and the United States.
The Complete Works of Muhib for the first time provides the
opportunity to for a broader access to history, language, culture, and
literature of this extraordinary Jewish community.
The seven volumes of this extraordinary edition are unique and
amazing, as is the life-history of its author. On more than 3000
pages the reader gets the full variety of Central Asian literature,
culture and history and all this from a specific Bukharan Jewish point
of view. Bachayev's memoirs Dar juvol-i sangin (In a stony sack), his
opus magnum in prose, is split into two volumes (vol. III and vol.
IV). On 1000 pages it covers the first 30 years of Bachayev's life.
The memoirs start in 1918 and end in 1944 when Bachayev, for the first
time after his arrest in 1938, returned from an Ural labor camp to see
his family back home in Tashkent. Bachayev's memoirs are much more
than just a portrait of a Bukharan Jewish intellectual's life in the
Soviet Union. On the whole the author falls back on personal
experiences and those of his family members and close friends.
Flashbacks and the use of oral traditions of the Bukharan Jews
(anecdotic narratives, fairy-tales, poems, proverbs, etc.) enable
Muhib to break the linear mode of narration. Occasionally he throws
light on the cultural memory of the Jews of Central Asia, their daily
life, customs, mourning-rites, etc. Bachayev's memoirs are a major
contribution to the genre of Tajik autobiographical writing and can be
seen in line with Sadriddin Ayni's "Yoddoshtho". The work is supposed
to represent a unique piece of indigenous discussion of early Soviet
times in Central Asia.
The volumes:
Bd. I: "Guldasta" (Bouquet) poetry with an introduction by Prof.
Mikhael Zand - (517 pages)
Bd. II: "Dostonho" (Poems) variations of stories from Tanakh (Old
Testament) and the three books of Podshoh Shlomo (King Salomon)
(482 pages)
Bd. III: "Dar juvol-i sangin" Yoddoshtho (Kitob 1) In a sack of
stones Memoirs (book 1) from 1911 to his arrest in 1938 (519 pages,
several pictures)
Bd. IV: "Dar juvol-i sangin" Yoddoshtho (Kitob 2) In a sack of
stones Memoirs (book 2) from 1938 to 1944: imprisonment and
concentration camp (530 pages)
Bd. V: "Vatanv (motherland) features the poem of the same name as
well as fragments from the notebook "folklore", poetry, proverbs, and
fairytales. The second part is a collection of prose works composed in
Russian language. (511 pages)
Bd. VI: "Qadamho-i avvalin" (first steps) Early partly unpublished
poetry, prose, translations and letters from the 1920s and 30s (up to
his arrest). The second part contains essays and reviews from the
1960s and from Israel as well as interviews with Muhib and selected
correspondence in Tajik. (551 pages)
Bd. VII: Tafsir-i kalima va iboraho (dictionary) consisting of a
dictionary compiled by Bachayev (7000 entries in
Judeo-Tajik/Bukhori and Tajik) and the author's correspondence in
Russian. (538 pages)
Short Biography of Muhib (Mordakhay ben Hiyo Bachayev); born 1911 in
Marv (in today's Turkmenistan); Bukharan-Jewish writer, poet,
publicist and translator; 1929-1938 editor of the Samarqand (later
Tashkent) magazines "Rushnoi" and "Bayroq-i mehnat"; first publication
1929; 1938 arrested for "Jewish bourgeois nationalisms" and
"anti-soviet agitation"; 1939-1945 Soviet concentration camp and
forced labor in northern Ural; 1945-1954 banned from Tashkent and
Samarqand, administrative job in a mine near Angren/Uzbek SSR; 1957
complete rehabilitation; 1955-1972 translator (Russian-Tajik) and
editor at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism in Dushanbe (Tajik SSR);
1973 M. H. Bachayev left the Soviet Union and immigrated into Israel.
He died on 9 March 2007 in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.
Muhib: The Complete works - are available now (September 2007).
Price: 350 Euro (shipment included)
For orders or more information please contact: info@tibetbook.net
or visit our site on
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