Latest / The Story of Uzbekistan: Silk Road Kingdoms and Soviet Legacy — Fexingo History / The Jadid Movement: Uzbekistan's Forgotten Modernists
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about Uzbekistan's ancient past — the Silk Road, Timur's empire, the khanates. But today I want to look at a much more recent chapter, one that's often overlooked: the Jadid movement. Luna: Jadid? That means 'new' in Arabic, right? Lucas: Exactly. It comes from 'usul-i jadid' — the new method. And it refers to a reformist movement that swept through Central Asia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Think of it as a Muslim modernist awakening, kind of like what was happening in the Ottoman Empire or South Asia at the same time. Luna: So what were they trying to reform? Lucas: Everything, really. Education was the biggest one. The traditional Islamic schools — the maktabs and madrasas — focused on memorizing the Quran and studying classical texts. The Jadids wanted to introduce secular subjects: math, science, geography, modern languages. They called their schools 'usul-i jadid' schools. Luna: That sounds a lot like the reforms in the Ottoman Empire. Lucas: It was part of the same wave. The movement was inspired by a Crimean Tatar intellectual named Ismail Gasprinski, who started publishing a newspaper called 'Tercüman' — 'The Interpreter' — in 1883. He argued that the Muslim world needed to modernize to survive. His slogan was 'unity in language, thought, and deeds'. Lucas: In Central Asia, the Jadids really took off in places like Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent. A key figure was Mahmud Khoja Behbudiy, a writer and publisher from Samarkand. He wrote plays, textbooks, and articles pushing for reform. He even traveled to the Ottoman Empire and Egypt to see how other Muslim societies were modernizing. Luna: I've heard of Behbudiy. Wasn't he executed by the Soviets? Lucas: He was. But that came later. In the early 1900s, the Jadids were gaining real traction. They started newspapers like 'Bukhara-i Sharif' and 'Turan', and they opened dozens of new-method schools across the region. But they faced fierce opposition from the conservative ulama — the religious scholars — who saw them as a threat to traditional Islam. Luna: So it was a cultural battle, not just political. Lucas: Exactly. The conservatives were called 'Qadim' — 'old method' — and they fought hard against the Jadids. But the Jadids also had allies among some Russian officials, who saw them as a way to modernize Central Asia without direct Russian rule. That alliance was fragile, though. Lucas: Then came the Russian Revolution of 1917. Suddenly, the Jadids saw an opening. In November 1917, they declared the Turkestan Autonomy in Kokand — a self-governing state within Russia. It was their moment. But the Bolsheviks saw it as a counter-revolution. In February 1918, the Red Army crushed Kokand, killing thousands. Luna: That's brutal. So that was the end of the Jadid political project? Lucas: Not quite. Some Jadids, like Faizulla Khojaev and Sadriddin Ayni, initially cooperated with the Bolsheviks, thinking they could still push for reform within the Soviet system. But by the late 1920s, Stalin was purging any independent thinkers. Khojaev was executed in 1938 as a 'bourgeois nationalist'. Behbudiy had already been killed by the Bolsheviks in 1919. Luna: It's heartbreaking. They wanted to modernize their own society, and they got crushed from both sides. Lucas: Yeah. And the Soviet version of history buried them entirely. For decades, the Jadids were erased from textbooks. Their schools were shut down, their books banned. It's only since Uzbekistan's independence in 1991 that people have started rediscovering them. Lucas: There's a great line from the poet and Jadid sympathizer Cholpan — he wrote, 'The nation that does not know its past has no future.' And that's really the spirit of this episode. Luna: Cholpan — he was executed too, wasn't he? Lucas: He was, in 1938. Along with many other intellectuals. The Jadid legacy is a tragic one, but it's also inspiring. They dreamed of a modern, educated, independent Central Asia. And that dream didn't die — it just went underground. Luna: I'm glad we're talking about them. This is exactly the kind of history that needs to be told. Lucas: If today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It genuinely helps us keep doing deep dives like this without any sponsorship breaks. Luna: Yeah, I love that we can just dig into whatever corners of history we find interesting. Lucas: Absolutely. So back to the Jadids — one of the things I find most poignant is their emphasis on women's education. Figures like Abdulla Avloniy wrote passionately about girls' right to schooling. In his book 'Turkiy Guliston', he argued that a nation's progress depends on educating its women. Luna: That was radical for that time and place. Lucas: Very radical. The Jadids were pushing against centuries of tradition. And they knew it. They were willing to die for it. And many of them did. Luna: What about their relationship with the Russian Empire? Did the Tsarist authorities see them as a threat? Lucas: It was complicated. In the early years, the Russians actually tolerated the Jadids because they opposed the more traditionalist ulama, who were seen as potentially rebellious. But after the 1905 revolution, the Tsarist regime cracked down on all reform movements, Jadids included. They started shutting down newspapers and arresting activists. Lucas: There's one more figure I want to mention: Fitrat, whose real name was Abdurauf Abdurahim oglu. He was a Bukharan Jadid who studied in Istanbul and wrote a famous play called 'The Indian Traveler' that criticized the Bukharan emirate. He later became a Soviet diplomat, but he too was executed in the purges. Luna: So the Jadids were caught between the old regime and the new. Lucas: Exactly. They tried to find a third way — a modern Islamic democracy — but both the emirate and the Bolsheviks saw them as enemies. It's one of the great 'what ifs' of Central Asian history. What if the Turkestan Autonomy had survived? What if the Jadids had been allowed to build their modern society? Luna: It's a fascinating counterfactual. Lucas: It is. And it reminds us that history isn't a straight line. There were alternatives, real people fighting for different futures. The Jadids are a testament to that. Luna: Thanks for bringing their story to light. Lucas: My pleasure. And for anyone who wants to learn more, there are some great resources emerging now — books like Adeeb Khalid's 'The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform' really dig into the Jadid movement. Worth checking out.