General · EdgepediaOctober 21, 20266 min read

Furqat

Furqat (Фурқат; pen name of Zokirjon Kholmuhammad o'g'li, 1858 or 1859 – 1909) was an Uzbek poet, thinker, publicist, translator, and calligrapher of the National Renaissance period, regarded as one of the leading representatives of Uzbek literature of his era¹^•². He was also, by the account of the literary historians Begali Qosimov and Nurboy Jabborov, the first Uzbek journalist, publishing literary and political articles in the newspaper Turkestan Wiloyatining gazeti³.

Key fact	Detail
Birth and death	Born in Kokand, 1858 or 1859 (sources differ); died in Yarkand in the autumn of 1909¹^•⁴
Real name	Zakirjan Kholmuhammadov; "Furqat" is a pen name²
Education	Madrasa in Kokand, from 1870 or 1873 (accounts differ) to 1876; Arabic and Persian languages, logic, philosophy, and classical Eastern poetry⁵^•⁴
Journalism	Worked on Turkestan Wiloyatining gazeti from 1890; introduced the feuilleton genre into Uzbek journalism with "Hind na'rangbozi Yorkenda" (1905)⁵
Travels	Left on foreign travels in 1891 through Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Arab countries, and India; settled in Yarkand (Kashgar, now Xinjiang, China)¹^•²
Known works	"Hammomi hayol", "Nuh manzara", the masnavi "Suvorov haqida" (1890, 172 lines), the treatise "Shoir ahvoli va she'r mubolag'asi xususida", and the Persian translation "Chor darvesh"⁶^•⁴
Literary role	Together with Muqimi he led a circle of progressive poets including Zavqiy and Avaz²

Life

Furqat was born in Kokand, in the Kokand Khanate, into the family of a trader, Mullo Kholmuhammad. Sources disagree on the year: the English-language ziyouz.uz profile and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia give 1858, while Uzbek-language biographical accounts give 1 March 1859¹^•²^•⁴. After learning to read at his neighborhood school, he continued at the Jome madrasa from 1870 or 1873 (accounts differ), studying Arabic grammar, logic, philosophy, and literature, and reading Hafez, Bedil, Jami, Fuzuli, and Alisher Navoiy at night⁴^•⁵.

In 1876 he moved to Yangi Margilan (present-day Fergana) at the request of a merchant uncle, helping in trade and later opening a small shop of his own while also working as a scribe, drafting petitions for people to official offices⁵. It was in Yangi Margilan that he fully formed as a poet, taking the pen name "Furqat" for his ghazals and gaining fame⁵. A related account places him in old Margilan around 1886–1887, living in a cell of the Masjidi Jome and holding literary conversations with local intellectuals such as Xo'jajon Rojiy and Mulla Toshboltu Royiq⁷.

Returning to Kokand in the early 1880s, he married and devoted himself mainly to creative work, joining the literary circle led by Muqimiy and Muhyi and taking part in its poetry evenings⁵. After the deaths of his wife and, shortly afterward, a child, he changed his pen name to Furqat, meaning separation, and his work took a democratic turn⁴.

Tashkent and journalism. In 1889 he traveled to Tashkent, stopping in Khujand on the way, and lived for about two years in a cell of the Ko'kaldosh madrasa⁵^•¹. There he met Russian intellectuals and European ways of life; Russian officials took him to theaters, gymnasiums, concerts, and exhibitions. From 1890 he formally joined the staff of Turkestan Wiloyatining gazeti, working for more than a year alongside enlighteners such as Sattorkhan and publishing poems and articles including "Ilm xosiyati", "Gimnaziya", "Vistavka xususida", and the masnavi "Suvorov"⁵. In these works he appeared as an advocate of science, European education, and progress, calling on his compatriots to master modern knowledge⁵.

Exile and Yarkand. In May 1891 he set out on a foreign journey, traveling by way of Samarkand, Bukhara, Margilan, Ashgabat, Baku, and Batumi to Istanbul, then visiting Egypt and Greece, and reaching Bombay in September 1892⁴. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia records that, persecuted by the nobility he had mocked, he was forced to settle in Yarkand in 1894; the Uzbek textbook account dates his arrival there, by way of Kashmir and Tibet, to August 1893²^•⁴. He lived in Yarkand for the rest of his life, married a woman named Ra'nohon, had three sons, and became a famous physician⁴. He died in the autumn of 1909 and was buried in the Dangdar cemetery of Yarkand⁴.

Poetry and themes

Furqat's lyric heritage consists mainly of ghazals, mukhammas, musaddas, masnavi, and tarji'band in the classical tradition. His ghazals and mukhammas are valued for their vitality, musicality, and sincerity, and he composed naziras and takmises on Alisher Navoiy's ghazals⁵. A leading theme of his lyric is exile and separation, the grief of the emigrant far from his homeland⁸.

His social verse condemned the colonial order, injustice, violence, and the ignorance that flourished while the wise were humiliated, in lines such as "Ayshni nodon surub, kulfatni dono tortadur"⁵. The mukhammas beginning "Demish xon bir kunikim, davru davronlar qayon qoldi?" was written in the voice of Khudoyor Khan, stripped of throne and grandeur, after the Kokand Khanate was finally abolished and turned into a colony⁵. In the musaddas "Sayding qo'yaber, sayyod..." he defended the right of the individual to live freely and firmly condemned oppression⁵.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia characterizes his ghazals as stylistically original, affirming human dignity and standing against religious mysticism and asceticism, while his satirical verse denounced the ignorant, greedy nobility, merchants, and clergy².

Prose, criticism, and journalism

In the same Kokand years Furqat wrote the treatise "Hammomi hayol", translated the story "Chor darvesh" from Persian, and created the poetic book "Nuh manzar"; he also collected his poems into a compilation, which, like the treatise and translations, has not been found to this day⁶.

His masnavi "Suvorov haqida", written in Tashkent in 1890, consists of 172 lines and was prompted by seeing the dramatist N. Kulikov's play about the Russian commander A. V. Suvorov at the Tashkent theater on 5 October 1890⁴. In the treatise "Shoir ahvoli va she'r mubolag'asi xususida" ("On the condition of the poet and the exaggeration of verse"), written in the second half of the 19th century, he argued that the artistic discovery of life and its truths is the poet's highest task and that authenticity is required, holding that poetry is closely tied to life; scholars see in this the buds of a realistic view of artistic thinking⁹.

In journalism he is credited with introducing the feuilleton genre into Uzbek press history with "Hind na'rangbozi Yorkenda" (1905)⁵. His articles in Turkestan Wiloyatining gazeti retain relevance today, according to Qosimov and Jabborov³.

Legacy

Furqat's enlightenment ideas, his lyrical and social poetry, and his journalism left a lasting mark on the development of Uzbek literature and the history of the press¹⁰. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia credits him, as head of the enlightenment movement in the social thought and literature of his region, with articulating the significance of Russian culture for the development of his homeland and its intelligentsia, and states that the ideas of him and his like-minded contemporaries played a significant role in the development of Uzbek literature, philosophy, and pedagogy².

His selected works have been published repeatedly: Kholid Rasul brought out Furqat's Selected Works seven times between 1940 and 1990, including a two-volume facsimile edition in Arabic script, and the works have also appeared in Russian (1958, 1962, 1972), Chinese (1989), and Uyghur (1989) translations³. Furqat's manuscripts are preserved in the Uzbekistan State Archives and the library of the Oriental Institute¹. The Center of Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan is creating a media project about him, with his literary environment in the Kokand Khanate reflected in its exhibition¹⁰.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Poets › Middle Eastern and Hebrew poets › Azerbaijani and Turkic poets

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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