Muhammad Sharif Mujmal

Biography

Muhammad Sharif Mujmal was a gifted poet, a writer in the Sufi vein and an accomplished calligrapher active in the Kokand literary circle in the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century. The sources also give his full name as Muhammad Sharif Mirzaxo'ja o'g'li Mujmal. He was born, raised and educated in Kokand, then the cultural and intellectual centre of the Fergana Valley; in the city's leading madrasas he acquired a thorough command of Arabic and Persian, of logic, kalam and Sufism, and of the rules of classical poetics. He took an active part in the celebrated literary gatherings of the time of Amir Umarkhan (Amiriy) and Nodirabegim, and contributed his share to the shaping of the valley's literary tradition. Mujmal was a zullisonayn poet, writing in both Turki (Uzbek) and Persian; ghazals, muhammas, musaddas, ruba'is and chronograms dominate his legacy. He became best known for the muhammas he built on the ghazals of Alisher Navoiy and Hafiz of Shiraz. His pen name itself declares his method: 'mujmal' in Arabic means compressed, brief and pregnant with meaning, and the poet had the gift of fitting intricate Sufi and philosophical ideas into few words that carry far. He was also a scribe who founded a school of his own, excelling in the nasta'liq and naskh hands and copying and illuminating many divans and anthologies of classical literature. Some of the manuscripts he copied are kept in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. Notices of Mujmal and specimens of his verse appear in Fazliy Namangoniy's tazkira 'Majmuat ush-shuaro' (1821) and in the 'Tazkirayi Qayyumiy'.

Works

• G'azallar
• Muxammas va musaddaslar
• Ruboiy va ta'rixlar
• Nasta'liq va nasx xatida ko'chirilgan qo'lyozmalar