Mirtemir

Mirtemir (Mirtemir Tursunmat’s son) was born in the village of Eski Iqon near the city of Turkistan; documents give his birth date as 10 May 1910. According to the poet himself, his father was a farmer and herdsman, and his grandfather on his mother’s side a mulla and school-keeper. At eleven he ran away to Tashkent, studied at a new-method school and a teacher college, finished in 1929 and went to Samarkand, where he studied at the pedagogical academy and was the secretary of Yo‘ldosh Oxunboboyev. He was a friend of Hamid Olimjon; later he was falsely accused and imprisoned. Mirtemir wrote lyric poems, prose-poems (sochma), dastans, dramatic and prose works, made many translations, and also did literary criticism. In 1971 he received the title “People’s Poet of Uzbekistan”, and he died on 25 January 1978.