A Brief Note on Akbar Tursunov's Life by Iraj Bashiri copyright, Bashiri 2003

Tajik philosopher and intellectual Akbar Tursunov, also referred to as Akbar Tursunzod, was born into a family of workers of the Konibodom district in Khujand on October 1, 1939. He was educated at the Bahauddinov School. He joined the CPSU in 1982.

Tursunov graduated from Tajikistan State University with a degree in physics and mathematics in 1961. For the next two years he carried out research at the Physics and Mathematics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. Between 1964 and 1992, he was an associate researcher of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (until 1967), and the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences. He was a candidate of Science in 1968, and he received his doctorate degree in philosophy in 1982 from the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. From 1986 to 1992, he was the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. In 1987, he became a member of the same institution. In 1989, Tursunov participated in the formation of the Rastokhez movement. In 1992, he became Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, and was instrumental in the creation of the Government of National Reconciliation. In the following year, he was elected the President of the National Association of Political Scientists of Tajikistan, an association that he established.

Tursunov has produced an extensive amount of literature on philosophy, literature, history of science, and on the history and culture of the Tajiks. His 1984 Osori Ajam (Persian Relics) contains a wealth of information on subjects as diverse as the east-west relations in politics, on the one hand, and the place of philosophy in society, on the other hand. Tursunov's other contributions include Inson, Atum va Kaihon (Man, Atom, and the Universe, 1967), Mardi Nik Farjom (A Man with a Blessed End, 1967), Az Astura to Donish (From Myth to Gnosis, 1973), Andishai Ruzgor (Temporal Ruminations, 1975), Kaihon Shinosi va I'tiqodoti Dini (Space Discovery and Religious Beliefs, 1975), and Bandi Falak (The Cord of the Universe, 1976). Tursunov was awarded the Order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan. He left Tajikistan in 1994, and since 1996, has been a Visiting Curator for Central Asian Ethnology at the University of Pennsylvania.