Mahmud Khoja Behbudi
International Foundation
copyright 2000
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Mahmudkhoja Behbudi International Foundation By-Laws * The Heritage, the Reformist and Enlightenment Activites, and the Life of Mahmudkhoja Behbudi |
For sixty years Mahmodkhoja Behbudi's name has not been mentioned. That is since 1937, when political terrorism started in the former Soviet Union and when Mahmodkhoja was accused of bourgeois nationalism as well as the leadership of the counterrevolutionary Jadidi movement.
As a result of such accusations, Soviet scholars were forbidden to investigate the life and works of this major figure of the history of Central Asia. And, of course, withou such investigations, it would be impossible to understand either the Enlightenment Movement or the more recent period of reformism in Central Asia.
After the collapse of Soviet Union and the formation of the Newly Independent States in Central Asia, the way was opened for scholars to undertake a thorough study of Behbudi's life and works. The researches of Uzbek and Tajik scholars, for instance, need no longer remain disconnected. Rather, they should be united into a profound understanding of the various aspects of Behbudi's socio-political and educational activities.
The main objective of the proposed Mahmud Khoja Behbudi International Foundation (Center for Study) is to bring together and coordinate the efforts of researchers from different nationalities dealing with Behbudi's works and life. The Foundation considers the key questions of the study of Behbudi's works and life to be as follows:
2. Discovering social, political, reformist, and enlightenment relationship that existed between M. Behbudi and foreign enlighteners in the East, especially, in Turkey and Egypt, where he spent a considerable amount of time. This includes searching mutual links between Behbudi and the Muslim reformist movement in Russia (Tataristan, Crimea, and Bashkirdistan). 3. A thorough and detailed study of Behbudi's activities as a member of the Russian State parliament and as a member and a supporter of the Kadet Party. On the basis of archival materials uncovering Behbudi's relation with the Russian administration in Turkestan. 4. Conducting a study of the reformist, enlightenment, and didactical thoughts of Behbudi for a definition of their roots. 5. Collecting and describing the large literary and enlightenment heritage of M. Behbudi using domestic and foreign sources. This includes collecting his works in Tajiki and Uzbeki and preparing a selection of his works for publication. Preparing to issue his important works in English and Russian. 6. Compiling a bibliography of works by M. Behbudi, as well as of researches on him. 7. The establishment of M. Behbudi memorial museum in which materials related to M. Behbudi and his followers would be kept. The information was compiled by Dr. Rasul Hodizoda, Professor Emeritus and edited by Iraj Bashiri, Professor, University of Minnesota, USA.
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