Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy

Mahkmudkhodja Behbudiy (Mahmudxo'ja Behbudiy) was jadid activist, writer, journalist and big public figure. One of the first people who fought for independence and human rights in Uzbekistan during Soviet times.

Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy was born on 20 January 1875, in Samarkand. He was born in middle-class family, and his father was one of the biggest representatives of Islam. From his early years, he was interested in religion and politics. Meanwhile, he spent his most of time on reading literature and history books. He showed his talent in writing articles for various magazines from early ages and had trips to different cities of the world like Stambul. His spirit and thoughts were filled up with the dreams of independent country, and he decided to dedicate his life to make this dreams come true. Behbudiy was one of the first jadid leaders in Uzbekistan with Abdurashidkhanov Munavvar qori. As many other representatives of jadism, he was caught and killed by the government in 1919, when he was in Qarshi. After his death, Qarshi city was renamed to his name and was called as "Behbudiy" from 1920 until 1930.

Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy had studied at old school in Samarkand before he entered to the Madrasa, where he studied for a short period of time. After this he travelled and worked in different countries including Egypt, Turkey (in 1900 and 1914) and Russia.

After his numerous visits to European countries, he started his literal activity in 1903, when he started writing his articles to famous magazines. Behbudiy's fight for independence can be divided into two big parts. The first phase was before the great October Revolution of 1917 and the second stage is after the revolution. During the first stage times Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy was only writing his articles and textbooks for some magazines, and doing some small work in the way of independence. After the revolution, Behbudiy started working with bigger problems and gave number of speeches to Soviet Union government representatives. His main idea was having the independent government, and he wanted all the people have equal rights to study. This was the reason why he wrote number of textbooks for middle-class people of those times. He also was one of the first men who fought for the rights of women, and he wanted the both genders to be equal. In 1917, he had a speech in front of delegation, and congratulated all of the people with the successful February Revolution.

In 1918, he came to Tashkent, where he attended in the meeting which was held by the government. The main purpose of the meeting was discussion of some important laws and rules regarding to the grain.

During his lifetime Behbudiy made great contributions to the Uzbek literature. By the time of his death, Behbudiy wrote more than 200 articles, textbooks and theatre plays for various magazines and newspapers. The main idea of his writings was teaching the citizens to something new. List of the most famous contributions:

1."Muntaxabi jug'rofiyai umumiy"(Geography textbook 1903).

2."Kitob-ul-aftol"(Book for kids 1904).

3."Muxtasari tarixi islom"(Brief history of Islam religion 1904).

4."Russiyaning qisqacha jug'rofiyasi"(Geography of Russia 1908).

His articles which were published from 1901 in famous newspapers like "Taraqqiy", "Xurshid", "Shuhrat", "Tujjor", "Osiyo", "Hurriyat", "Turon", "Sadoi Turkiston", "Ulug' Turkiston", "Najot", "Mehnatkash tovushi", "Tirik so'z", "Tarjumon", "Sho'ro", "Vaqt", "Toza hayot", "Samarqand", "Oyna" and "Turkiston viloyati gazeti" were recognized and highlighted by the young generation of those times.

The play "Padarkush" which was written in 1912 by Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy, is considered to be one of the best plays of that year. His play was acted in many different cities of current Uzbekistan, which are Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Andijan, Namangan, Kokand and many other cities.

Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy was killed by the Emir of Bukhara in 1919, in Qarshi. He was blamed on his jadid views and was killed after long period of pain and torture. Before his death, he wrote his last will, in which he indicated the importance of nation and public, he also highlighted that nation should be given the equal rights as the government representatives.