APersonIndependent states
Mahmudkhoja Behbudiy
Jadid reformer, writer and journalist (1875–1919), author of the first Uzbek play.
Born in Samarkand, Mahmudkhoja Behbudiy was a leader of the Jadid enlightenment movement that opened new-method schools in Turkestan, and he wrote textbooks for them.
His 1911 play Padarkush (The Patricide), showing the disasters of ignorance, is considered the first Uzbek drama, and he published a newspaper and magazine in Samarkand.
He was killed in Qarshi in 1919. Today the Jadids are honoured in Uzbekistan, and streets and schools bear Behbudiy's name.
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Updated: October 3, 2026