The novel “Yulduzli tunlar”

“Yulduzli tunlar” (“Bobur”) is a historical novel about the life of Zahiriddin Muhammad Bobur. In the textbook excerpt the sixteen-year-old Bobur returns from Samarkand and wants to free his homeland Andijan from Ahmad Tanbal’s occupation. His teacher Xo‘ja Abdulla has been killed by Tanbal, while his mother Qutlug‘ Nigor xonim and sister Xonzoda begim are in danger. The commander Qosimbek advises him not to hurry and to gather strength in Khujand; Bobur is eager to arrive sooner. These events take only a few pages in the “Boburnoma”. In the novel the writer adds a detail not in the “Boburnoma”: the mother gives her son Amir Temur’s sword as a gift. This is the writer’s invention, an artistic image, not a historical document. A novel usually brings alive the inner world and spirit of historical figures, whereas a historian mainly establishes events and dates. In the Soviet period the novel lay unpublished for six years; expanded editions were published in the years of independence.