Abdurauf Fitrat (sometimes spelled Abdulrauf Fitrat or Abdurrauf Fitrat, ; 1886 – 4 October 1938) was an Uzbek author, journalist, politician and public intellectual in Central Asia under Russian and Soviet rule.
Fitrat made major contributions to modern Uzbek literature with both lyric and prose in Persian, Turki, and late Chagatai. Beside his work as a politician and scholar in many fields, Fitrat also authored poetic and dramatic literary texts. Fitrat initially composed poems and authored essays and polemic prose in the Persian language, but switched to a puristic Turkic tongue by 1917. Fitrat was responsible for the change to Uzbek as Bukhara's national language in 1921, before returning to writing texts in Tajik later during the 1920s. In the early 1920s, Fitrat took part in the efforts for Latinization of Uzbek and Tajik.
Fitrat was influenced by his studies in Istanbul during the early 1910s, where he came into contact with Islamic reformism and authored several philosophical essays. After returning to Central Asia, he turned into an influential ideological leader of the local jadid movement. In opposition to and in exile from the Bukharan emir he sided with the communists. After the end of the emirate, Fitrat accepted several posts in the government of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic, before he was forced to spend a year in Russia. Later, he taught at several colleges and universities and held a research position at the Academy of Sciences of the then Uzbek SSR.
During Stalin's Great Purge, Fitrat was arrested and prosecuted for counter-revolutionary and nationalist activities, and finally executed in 1938. After his death, his work was banned for decades. Fitrat was rehabilitated in 1956, yet critical evaluation of his work has changed several times since. While there are Tajik criticis that call the likes of Fitrat "traitors", other writers have given him the title of a martyr (shahid), particularly in independent Uzbekistan.
Naming variants Fitrat's name has a number of variation across forms and transliterations: He mostly went by the pen name Fitrat ( Fiṭrat, also transcribed as Fetrat or, according to the Uzbek spelling reform of 1921, Piträt). This name, derived from the Arabic term , fiṭra, meaning “nature, creation”, in Ottoman Turkish stood for the concept of nature and true religion. In Central Asia, however, according to the Russian turkologist Lazar Budagov, the same word was used to refer to alms given during Eid al-Fitr. In Persian and Tajik the notion of fitrat includes religion, creation and wisdom. Fitrat was used as a pen name before by the poet Fitrat Zarduz Samarqandi (late 17th to early 18th centuries). Abdurauf Fitrat's first known pseudonym was Mijmar (taken from the Arabic , miǧmar, “incensory”).Allworth 2002, p. 359.
Fitrat's Arabic name is ʿAbd ar-Raʾūf b. ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm (sometimes rendered ), with Abdurauf as his proper name. During his Istanbul period he preferred to add the nisba Bukhārāī 'The Bukharan' to his name. In reformed Arabic script, Fitrat was depicted as or . The Turkic variant of the nasab is .
Some of the many Russian variants of his name are Abdurauf Abdurakhim ogly Fitrat and Abd-ur-Rauf; Fitrats Soviet, russified name is Abdurauf Abdurakhimow or, omitting the component Abd, Rauf Rakhimovich Fitrat.ФИТРАТ Рауф Рахимович, accessed 6 June 2021 The variant Fitratov can also be found.Begali Qosimov: Maslakdoshlar. Behbudiy, Ajziy, Fitrat. Sharq, Toshkent 1994. p. 149 In Uzbek-Cyrillic script his name is to be depicted with ; his name in modern Tajik is Abdurraufi Fitrat.
Fitrat sometimes bore the titles of "hajji" and "professor".
Life and work Education in Bukhara
Fitrat was born in 1886 (he himself stated 1884Allworth 2000, p. 7) in Bukhara. Little is known about his childhood, which is, according to Adeeb Khalid, characteristic for Central Asian figures of this era.Adeeb Khalid: The Bukharan Peopleʼs Soviet Republic in the Light of Muslim Sources. In: Die Welt des Islams, vol. 50, no. 3/4 (p. 335–361), 2010. p. 340 His father Abdurahimboy was a devout Muslim and a trader,Rustam Shukurov, Muḣammadjon Shukurov, Edward A. Allworth (ed.); Sharif Jan Makhdum Sadr Ziyaʼ: The personal history of a Bukharan intellectual: the diary of Muḥammad-Sharīf-i Ṣadr-i Ẕiya. Brill; Leiden 2004; p. 323 who would leave the family in the direction of Margilan and later Kashgar.Allworth 2000, p. 6 Fitrat came by most of his worldly education through his broadly read mother, named Mustafbibi, Nastarbibi or Bibijon according to varied sources.Baxtiyor Egamov: Fitrat va geografiya. In: Geography. Nature and Society, vol. 3, no. 1 (p. 24–30), 2020, . p. 26 According to Edward A. Allworth she brought him into contact with the works of Bedil, Fuzûlî, Ali-Shir Nava'i and others.Allworth 2000, p. 6f Abdurauf grew up with a brother (Abdurahmon) and a sister (Mahbuba).Begali Qosimov: Maslakdoshlar. Behbudiy, Ajziy, Fitrat. Sharq, Toshkent 1994. p. 71
Muhammadjon Shakuri suggests that Firat completed the hajj together with his father during his childhood. After receiving education at a maktab-type school Fitrat is said to have begone studies at the Mir-i Arab Madrasa of Bukhara in 1899 and to have completed them in 1910. As Shakuri continues, Fitrat travelled extensively through Russian Turkestan and the Emirate of Bukhara between 1907 and 1910. The literary scholar Begali Qosimov thinks that Fitrat studied in Bukhara until he was 18 and that he completed the hajj between 1904 and 1907, also visiting Turkey, Iran, India and Russia.Begali Qosimov: Abdurauf Fitrat (1886–1938), accessed 6 June 2021 According to Zaynobidin Abdurashidov, it was in the beginning of the 20th century that Fitrat went on a pilgrimage through Asia to Mecca during which he spent some time in India, where he earned some money for the journey home as a barber. As per Abdurashidov, Fitrat was already known as a poet then, using the pen name Mijmar.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 104 Beside Shakuri, also Khalid and AllworthAllworth 2002, p. 357 mention the Mir-i Arab Madrasa as Fitrat's place of study in Bukhara. While studying at the madrasah Fitrat was also instructed in ancient Greek philosophy by his teacher.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 106
In his autobiography, published in 1929, Fitrat wrote that Bukhara had been one of the darkest religious centres. He had been a devout Muslim and initially in opposition to the reform movement of the Jadids (usul-i jadid ‚new method‘). Fitrat himself never received basic education in that "new method".Allworth 2000, p. 7f According to Sadriddin Aini Fitrat was known as one of the most enlightened and commendable students of the time in Bukhara,Sarfraz Khan: Muslim Reformist Political Thought. Revivalists, Modernists and Free Will. Routledge, London/New York 2003, ISBN 978-1-136-76959-7; p. 118f whilst being effectively unknown outside the city until 1911. Abdurashidov's explanation of why Fitrat did not take part in the activities of the first group of jadids in Bukhara refers to the strict, anti-liberal regime under emir 'Abd al-Ahad Khan. Abdurashidov continues that Fitrat became interested in reformist ideas approximately in 1909 and suggests that this happened under the influence of the magazine Sırat-ı Müstakim by Mehmet Âkif Ersoy. Together with other magazines and newspapers, this magazine circulated among Bukhara's students during this time.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 104–107 Beyond that, Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy was a mentor to Fitrat.Borjian 1999, p. 564–567 After completing his education Fitrat taught at a madrasah for a short period.
Stay in Istanbul and Jadid leader Around 1909, jadid actors in Bukhara and Istanbul (Constantinople) built an organizational infrastructure in order to enable Bukharan students and teachers to study in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. According to reports, Fitrat himself was involved in these activities.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 107–109 Thanks to a grant given by the secret "society for the education of the children" (Tarbiyayi atfol) which was financed by merchantsKhalid 1998, p. 111 Fitrat himself was able to go to Istanbul. He arrived there in spring of 1910 shortly after the very first group.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 109–111 "Sometimes", says Sarfraz Khan from the University of Peshawar, Fitrat's departure to Turkey is described as an effort to flee from the persecution by the authorities after a conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Bukhara in January 1910. Other authors date Fitrat's leaving to the year 1909.Sharifa Tosheva: The Pilgrimage Books of Central Asia. Routes and Impressions (19th and early 20th centuries).
During Fitrat's stay, in the Second Constitutional Era, Istanbul was governed by the Young Turks. These historical circumstances influenced Fitrat, the activities and the general social surroundings of the Bukharan students in Istanbul heavily.Kamoludin Abdullaev: Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham/London 2018, ISBN 978-1-5381-0251-0; p. 153Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 111 What Fitrat did after his arrival in Istanbul is not known exactly. According to Abdurashidov's analysis, Fitrat was integrated in the Bukharan diasporic community (he often gets mentioned as one of the founders of the benevolent society Buxoro ta’mimi maorif), he worked as a vendor at a bazaar, as a street cleaner, and as an assistant cook. Apart from that, he prepared for the entry exams at a madrasah, which he – according to Abdirashidov – probably passed mid-1913. This allowed him to become one of the first students of the Vaizin madrasah, which was founded in December 1912 and which used the "new method". Here he did not only receive lessons in Islamic science, but also in Oriental literature.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 111–113; id.: ʻAbdurra'uf Fitrat in Istanbul. Quest for Freedom. De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2023 (ANOR Central Asian Studies vol. 22), p. 1-15.
Other authors state that Fitrat spent the years between 1909 and 1913 studying at the Darülmuallimin, a training institute for teachers, or at the University of Istanbul. During his stay Fitrat became acquainted with further Middle Eastern reform movements, got into contact with the Pan-Turanist movement and with emigrants from the Tsardom of Russia, and turned into the leader of the jadids in Istanbul.Khalid 2015, p. 40 He wrote several minor pieces in which he – always in Persian language – demanded reforms in the social and cultural life of Central Asia and a will to progress.Khalid 1998, p. 108. His first texts were published in the Islamist newspapers Hikmet, published by Şehbenderzâde Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi, and Sırat-ı Müstakim, furthermore in Behbudiys Oyina and the Turkist Türk Yurdu. In his texts Fitrat pushed for the unity of all Muslims and portrayed Istanbul with the Ottoman sultan as the center of the Muslim world.Zaynabidin Abdirashidov: Known and Unknown Fiṭrat. Early Convictions and Activities. In: Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (p. 103–118), 2016. p. 113f