Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy

Mehmudkhodja Behbudiy was born on 20 January 1875 (new calendar) on the outskirts of Samarkand in Russian Turkestan. Many members of his family were Islamic scholars, and Behbudiy too became a Qazi following his madrasah education. After an eight-month trip to Arabia, Transcaucasia, Istanbul and Cairo in 1899, which brought him into contact with the cultural movements in Islam in the wider world, he started his public career in Central Asia in 1903. He subscribed to Ismail Gaspirali's Tercüman and changed his name from ibn Behbud Chodscha to Behbudiy.[1] He also wrote articles in support of Jadidism in all Central Asian newspapers and in 1913 launched Ayina ("The Mirror"), a weekly magazine, which he published almost by himself for twenty months.[2] He also published the newspaper Samarkand.[3] His friends included Siddiqiy Ajziy, Abduqodir Shakuriy and Haji Muin.

After the February Revolution in 1917, Behbudiy became one of the two Muslim members of the first executive committee in Samarkand.[4] During the debate on territorial autonomy for Turkestan in the following months, Behbudiy was one of the few Jadids to argue in favor.

Behbudiy was arrested by the last Emir of Bukhara in Qarshi in 1919, probably while on his way to the Paris Peace Conference.[5] After a period of torture, in which he also wrote his last will, he was executed.[6] Qarshi was later renamed in his honor from 1922 to 1937.[7]

Title page of the first edition of Ayina

Behbudiy's work is divided into two phases by the Russian Revolution of 1917. Before it, Behbudiy wrote newspaper and magazine articles as well as textbooks, his first publication being an article in Turkiston viloyatining gazeti. He also established a reading room in Samarkand and promoted theatre, which he saw as an effective way to spread propaganda. In 1913, he also wrote the first modern Central Asian play with Padarkush ("The Patricide"), which was seen as a native counterweight against Tatar guest plays. Typical for modernist writing in Central Asia, many of his works had a strong educational message.[2] After the revolution, he became directly involved in politics, attending congresses and giving speeches to Soviet government representatives.

One of his concerns was equal education opportunities for all citizens; he also fought for the rights of women and wanted both genders to be equal.

One of the positive deeds Behbudi started for the improvement of the country was the library "Behbudiya". Behbudi was one of the first to start a library. He published the first local newspaper and national magazine in Samarkand, wrote the first national drama, and was "the first theoretician and practitioner" of Methodist schools in Turkestan, as B. Kasimov noted.

On September 11, 1908, this library was inaugurated in the "Yangi rasta 99" after being granted official approval by the Governor of Samarkand.

However, the news of the library's opening was published a while ago. The "Turkiston viloyatining gazeti" ("Gazette of Turkistan Region") reported this. The program, which had 27 chapters, defined all of the library's official issues (Gazette of the Turkistan Region, 1908, No. 27). The annual membership cost to the library is 3 soums. The library's primary goal is to encourage local Muslim youth and madrasah students to pursue modern sciences.

His friends Haji Muin, Vasli Samarkandi, and instructor Abdulkadir Shakuriy helped him in establishing the library. The library quickly accumulated a sizable collection of priceless periodicals from the local, national, and international press. In particular, readers and users could read and use secular and religious literature from many nations, children's books, picture books, newspapers, dictionaries, atlases, and encyclopedias in the library.

The library first ran 14 hours a day with 200 and eventually 225 volumes of literature. The library has been open for seven months, has 125 members, and over that time has tended to the spiritual needs of nearly 2,000 readers. For library work, the first two years were helpful. A sufficient number of patrons and volunteers existed to sustain the library. But by 1910, he started to become less active. This was due to a number of factors. The main causes of this were primarily the battle between the ancient and the ancient, as well as the false accusations made by the ancient scholars against the ancient. The common people, who lacked education and comprehension of these issues, fought for his situation. The ulama reportedly labeled the library as an infidel and a dangerous location in the 16th issue of the "Gazette of the Turkistan Region" from 1910, and they issued a fatwa to parents not to send their kids to such places. The library was in total decay by 1912, when that year was born. The issue with money is on the agenda. Nevertheless, Behbudi's efforts allowed the library to keep running. The library was having a difficult time operating in the beginning of 1914. At the annual meeting this year, it was decided to stage a play with the help of 15 library patrons in order to save the institution and address its financial issues. But the library did not benefit from this event in any way. Behbudi wanted the country's library to serve the people for a very long time, but that is no longer the case. Behbudi then relocated the library to his yard. The name of it was Library "Behbudiya".

During his lifetime, Behbudiy made important contributions to Uzbek literature. By the time of his death, he had written more than 200 articles, textbooks and theatre plays for various magazines and newspapers, including Tercüman and Vaqt.

• 1903: Muntaxabi jug'rofiyai umumiy (Textbook for Geography)
• 1904: Kitob-ul-atfol (Children's book)
• 1904: Muxtasari tarixi islom ("A Brief History of Islam")
• 1908: Russiyaning qisqacha jug'rofiyasi ("The Geography of Russia")
• 1913: Padarkush ("The Patricide")

• Adeeb Khalid: The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia, Berkeley & Los Angeles 1998.
• Ahmad Aliyev: Madhmudkho'ja Behbudiy, Tashkent 1994.
• D. Alimova, D. Rashidova: Mahmod Khoja Behbudiy and his Historical Vision, Tashkent 1998.
• Charles Kurzman: Modernist Islam, 1840–1940. A Sourcebook, New York 2002, p. 257.