Izzat Sultan

(pen name of Izzat Atakhanovich Sultanov). Born June 16 (29), 1910, in Osh. Soviet Uzbek literary critic and playwright. Honored Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR (1964). Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR (1966). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Sultan graduated from the Tashkent Pedagogical Institute in 1934. From 1945 to 1948 he was vice-chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Uzbek SSR. He was director of the A. S. Pushkin Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR from 1948 to 1951; in 1955 he became head of the division of literary theory of this institution.

Sultan wrote the works “Mezonul Avzon” and Its Critical Text (1947), Pushkin and Uzbek Literature (1949), On the Work of Abdulla Kadyri (1958), and Soviet Uzbek Literature at a New Stage (1961). His historical drama The Flight of the Eagle (1939) dealt with the establishment of Soviet power in Uzbekistan. Other historical dramas by Sultan were Alisher Navoi (1940; with Uigun) and The Unknown (1963). Sultan’s play People With Faith (1960) was devoted to the life of scientists.

Sultan received the Biruni State Prize of the Uzbek SSR (1970) for his participation in the joint History of Soviet Uzbek Literature (1967). He was secretary of the administrative board of the Writers’ Union of the Uzbek SSR from 1956 to 1959. He has been awarded two orders.