Muhib (Mordakhay H. Bachayev): Kulliyot (Collected works in 7 Vols.) Jerusalem 2006 (Vol. I-IV) 2007 (Vol. V-VII). containing all the works of the author in Judeo-Tajik (in Cyrillic script) and a few in Russian.  350,00€
Kulliyot – The Complete Works of the Bukharan Jewish writer and intellectual Mordakhay H. Bachayev is both a great example of and a unique introduction to the culture and literature of the Bukharan Jews (the term is used for all Persian-speaking Jews of Central Asia) of the 20th century. Iranist Ji?í Be?ka once called Muhib (the penname of Bachayev) the most prominent representative and continuator of Judeo-Persian literary tradition. Nevertheless, even in scholarly circles Muhib’s oeuvre is scarcely known, since the rich cultural and literary heritage of this community is only published privately in very small editions and basically circulates only amongst the big Bukharan-Jewish communities in Israel and the United States.
The Complete Works of Muhib for the first time provides the opportunity to a broader access to history, language, culture, and literature of this extraordinary community.
The seven volumes of this edition are unique and amazing, as is the life-history of its author. On more than 3000 pages the reader gets the full variety of Central Asian literature, culture and history and all this from a specific Bukharan Jewish point of view. Bachayev’s memoirs Dar juvol-i sangin (In a stony sack),his opus magnum in prose, is split into two volumes (vol. III and vol. IV). On 1000 pages it covers the first 30 years of Bachayev’s life. The memoirs starts in 1918 and ends in 1944 when Bachayev, for the first time after his arrest in 1938, returned from an Ural labor camp to see his family back home in Tashkent. Bachayev’s memoirs are much more than just a portrait of a Bukharan Jewish intellectual’s life in the Soviet Union. On the whole the author falls back on personal experiences and those of his family members and close friends. Flashbacks and the use of oral traditions of the Bukharan Jews (anecdotic narratives, fairy-tales, poems, proverbs, etc.) enable Muhib to break the linear mode of narration. Occasionally he throws light on the cultural memory of the Jews of Central Asia, their daily life, customs, mourning-rites, etc. Bachayev’s memoirs are a major contribution to the genre of Tajik autobiographical writing and can be seen in line with Sadriddin Ayni’s “Yoddoshtho”. The work is supposed to represent a unique piece of indigenous discussion of early Soviet times in Central Asia.
Short Biography: Mordaxaj ben Hijo Bacaev, penname Muhib; born 1911 in Marv (in today’s Turkmenistan); Bukharan-Jewish writer, poet, publicist and translator; 1929-1938 editor of the Samarqand (later Tashkent) magazines „Rushnoi“ and „Bayroq-i mehnat“; first publication 1929; 1938 arrested for „Jewish bourgeois nationalisms“ and „anti-soviet agitation“; 1939-1945 soviet concentration camp and forced labor in northern Ural; 1945-1954 banned from Tashkent and Samarqand, administrative job in a mine near Angren/Uzbek SSR; 1957 complete rehabilitation; 1955-1972 translator (Russ..-Taj.) and editor at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism in Dushanbe (Tajik SSR); 1973 M. H. Bachayev left the Soviet Union and immigrated into Israel. He died on 9 March 2007 in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.
The volumes:
Bd. I: „Guldasta“ (Bouquet) poetry – with an introduction by Prof. Mikhael Zand
Bd. II: „Dostonho“ (Poems) – variations of stories from Tanakh (Old Testament) and the three books Podshoh Shlomo (King Salomon)
Bd. III: “Dar juvol-i sangin“ – Yoddoshtho (Kitob 1) In a sack of stones – Memoirs (book 1) – from 1911 to his arrest in 1938
Bd. IV: “Dar juvol-i sangin“ – Yoddoshtho (Kitob 2) In a sack of stones – Memoirs (book 2) – from 1938 to 1944: imprisonment and concentration camp
Bd. V: „Vatan“ (motherland) – features the poem of the same name as well as fragments from the notebook „folklore“, poetry, proverbs, and fairytales. The second part is a collection of prose works composed in Russian language.
Bd. VI: „Qadamho-i avvalin“ (first steps) Early partly unpublished poetry, prose, translations and letters from the 1920s and 30s (up to his arrest). The second part contains essays and reviews from the 1960s and from Israel as well as interviews with Muhib and selected correspondence in Tajik.
Bd. VII: Tafsir-i kalima va iboraho (dictionary) consisting of a dictionary compiled by Ba?aev (7000 entries) and the author’s correspondence in Russian.
Another volume with miscellaneous works on the author and contributions to his work will be published in 2008, but not as a part of the Collected Works.

Muhib (Mordakhay H. Bachayev): Kulliyot (Collected works in 7 Vols.) Jerusalem 2006 (Vol. I-IV) 2007 (Vol. V-VII). containing all the works of the author in Judeo-Tajik (in Cyrillic script) and a few in Russian.  350,00€ excl. VAT will be sent from Germany

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