Author: Shokir Mukhtor
Title: Doctor of Science and Professor
Born: 20/11/1946
Died: 15/02/2004
Bio: Shokir Mukhtor was born November 20, 1946 in Sarchashma village of Shahrisabz District of Qashkadaryo Oblast[1] of Uzbekistan. After graduating from the Rudaki school of his village (1963), he worked as a teacher for two years. In 1965 he entered in the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the State University of Dushanbe in Tajikistan and graduated from there in 1969 with a Red Diploma[2]. Having been an exemplary student, the Director of the Institute decided to hire him as a Chief Laboratory Assistant at the French Faculty. After a two-year interruption from 1970 to 1971 in order to accomplish compulsory military service in the Soviet Armed Forces, he then started working as a French Professor in the French Faculty of same institute. 

 

From 1976 to 1977 Shokir Mukhtor was a postgraduate student in classic literature at the Rudaki Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan. In 1980 under the guidance of Professor Sadri Saadiev he defended his thesis on “The History of Study and Translations of Gulistan of Saadi in France” in front of the Thesis Council of Language and Literary Research of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan. From 1985 to 1987 Shokir Mukhtor undertook doctoral studies at the Institute of World Literature of Moscow within the A. Gorki Academy of Science of the USSR. In 1990 he obtained his PhD with a doctoral thesis on “Tajik-Persian Classical Poetry in France: the problem of study, translation and influence on the basis of the work of Firdousi, Khayam and Hafiz”. From 1987 thereon Shokir Mukhtor was Chief of the French Faculty of the Teacher’s Training University of Dushanbe. In 1995 he became Dean of the Foreign Faculty of the same University. From 1997 until 1999 he became Chief of the Germane- Romanic Philological Faculty of the Teacher’s Training University. Shokir Mukhtor was a distinguished teacher of the Republic of Tajikistan. 

 

He is the author of more than three hundred articles and following books: 

 

1.                              “The Stars of the Eiffel Tower”.  Dushanbe: Irfon.  1982

2.                              “Tajik Literature in France” Dushanbe: Irfon.  1985

3.                              “The Sound of the East” Dushanbe: Adib.  1986

4.                              “France Reads Gulistan” Dushanbe: Donish. 1987

5.                              “Time and Interpretation” Dushanbe: Adib.  1989

6.                              “Firdousi in World Verse”. Dushanbe: Adib. 1991

7.                              “Hafiz, Selections” (in Russian and Tajik)  Dushanbe: Irfon. 1993

8.                              “ The History of the Development of French  Iranology” Dushanbe: Irfon. 1996

9.                              “Rudaki Must Return to the World Once More” Panjakent. 1996

10.                          “The Literature of the Samanides in France” Dushanbe, 1999

11.                          “Firdousi in France”- Dushanbe, 1999

12.                          “The Fame of Rumi in France” - in Tajik Dushanbe: Sino. 2000

13.                          “Articles” – Dushanbe: Matbuot. 2001

14.                          French –Tajik Phrase Book-Dushanbe. 2002

15.                          French-Tajik Dictionary - Paris, Asiatheque. 2003

16.                          Persian-Tajik Classical Poetry in France. (The problems of Research & Translation). –Dushanbe, Devashtich. 2003

 

Shokir Mukhtor analyses the work of French writers on the study of classical and contemporary Persian-Tajik literature. In particular he looks into the following issues: 

 

·         Research of Russian translations of Tajik Persian classical literature; 

·         Defining of the role of Tajik Persian literature in the development of European poetry in the XVII-XX centuries; 

·         Research on literary relationships between East and West; 

·         Research of cultural relationships between Tajikistan and France; 

·         Analysis of creativity in translation trends of classical Tajik Persian poetry; 

·         Study of Russian translations of the contemporary Tajik poetry, and; 

·         Research on the role of Tajik Persian poetry in the development of world poetry etc. 

 

Shokir Mukhtor translated numerous books into Tajik and Russian and novels including those of well known French authors such as Pero, Godler, Balzac and Francophone writers such as Isoa Traora.

 

Shokir Mukhtor is an author of several learning manuals and curricula in Tajik to learn French. He also directed academic research in Tajikistan in the field of comparative literature linking East and West. His works were published and translated in Iran, Russia, France and Uzbekistan.