Zainaddin Makhmud Vasifi

Born 1485; died 1551 or 1566. Tadzhik writer. Lived in Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tashkent.

Vasifi’s memoirs, Amazing Events, deal in satirical terms with the difficult time of the establishment of the Sheibanids’ power (1428-1598). They reflect the ideas of the urban antifeudal opposition. S. Ayni, who was the first to attribute high significance to Vasifi’s memoirs, published them in a revised form together with his studies on Vasifi’s life and work. The critical text of the memoirs was prepared and published by A. N. Boldyrev, who also published Russian translations of some passages.