Furkat

(pen name of Zakirdzhan Khalmukhamedov). Born 1858 in Kokand; died 1909 in Iarkend. Uzbek poet, thinker, and publicist writer.

Furkat was educated in a madrasa in Kokand, where he studied Arabic and Persian, as well as classical Eastern poetry. At this time he began writing lyric and satirical verse. In 1889 he moved to Tashkent, and beginning in 1891 he traveled widely through South Asia and the Balkan Peninsula. In 1894, Furkat was persecuted by the aristocrats he had satirized and was compelled to settle in Iarkend in Kashgaria, now the Sinkiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. There he devoted himself to translating various works and to compiling a collection of his own works.

Furkat’s lyric ghazals were notable for their originality of style and imagery. They affirmed the dignity of man and attacked religious mysticism and asceticism. Furkat’s satirical poetry condemned the ignorance and self-interest of the aristocracy, merchants, and clergy. In his socially oriented poetry, Furkat emerged as a humanist grieving over the hard life of the working people and criticizing social injustices. Together with the poet Mukimi, Furkat headed a group of progressive poets that included Zavki and Avaz.

Furkat was a leader of the cultural renewal in Uzbek social thought and literature that took place during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. He stressed the importance of drawing on the achievements of Russian culture in order to develop Uzbekistan and its native intelligentsia. The humanist views of Furkat and his followers contributed greatly to the development of Uzbek literature, philosophy, and pedagogy and helped combat feudal and patriarchal institutions.