{"id":42208,"date":"2023-03-03T17:48:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/?p=42208"},"modified":"2023-03-30T17:11:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T15:11:57","slug":"hymns-of-blood-tajik-short-stories-from-perestroika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/tajikistan\/hymns-of-blood-tajik-short-stories-from-perestroika\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHymns of Blood\u201d \u2013 Tajik short stories from Perestroika"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>In August 2022, the French historian and writer St\u00e9phane Dudoignon published \u201cHymnes de sang\u201d (or \u201cHymns of Blood\u201d) \u2013 a collection of short stories by Tajik writers from the Perestroika era translated into French. He is using this opportunity to tell of a time of optimism and intellectual upheaval in Dushanbe before the civil war.<\/strong><strong>This article was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/fr\/tadjikistan\/hymnes-de-sang-un-recueil-de-nouvelles-tadjikes-de-lepoque-de-la-perestroika\/\">Novastan\u2019s <\/a><\/strong><strong>French website on 21 September 2022<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hp-newsletter col-span-3 lg:col-span-1 flex flex-col bg-primary-100 border-t-8 border-secondary-500 rounded-lg justify-center items-center lg:items-stretch px-6 py-6 gap-4 box-border\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"flex\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"enveloppe\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i class=\"far fa-envelope text-5xl text-secondary-300\"><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"formulaire_nl\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"font-bold text-xl block\">The whole of Central Asia in your inbox\n<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our free weekly newsletter\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<form class=\"flex w-3\/4 lg:w-full\" action=\"https:\/\/us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=6a15a2256d412b041fdec39e8&amp;id=d479236523\" method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" target=\"_blank\" novalidate=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"flex-grow py-2 px-3 border border-primary-300 rounded-l\" type=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email\" name=\"EMAIL\" id=\"mce-EMAIL\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"bg-secondary-500 py-2 px-3 text-white rounded-r-md border border-secondary-500\" type=\"submit\" value=\"\" name=\"subscribe\">Register<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/form>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"underline text-secondary-700\">Click here for the latest issue\n<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><!-- newsletter -->\n\t\t\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nIt is a collection of short stories about a Tajikistan which is no longer recognisable. \u201cHymnes de sang,\u201d which appeared this summer from publisher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesindessavantes.com\/ouvrage\/hymnes-de-sang\/\">Les Indes Savantes<\/a>, contains short stories by various Tajik authors.&nbsp; Each of them questions the governance of the USSR in Central Asia in its own way. Through their works Janibek Akabir, Muhammad-Zaman Saleh, Bahmanyar, Qadir Rustam and Rahim Saidar ask what the future of an independent Tajikistan could look like.\n\nThe eight short stories in the collection were selected and translated by <a href=\"http:\/\/cetobac.ehess.fr\/index.php?154\">St\u00e9phane Dudoignon<\/a> about 20 years ago, when he met with Tajik authors in a writers\u2019 collective in Dushanbe. Those authors eventually became his friends.&nbsp; <em>\u201cI loved it, landing there, playing billiards, drinking vodka, and discussing literature with people who had lived there continually,\u201d<\/em> he says.\n\n<strong>Read more on Novastan: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/tajikistan\/who-is-manizha-the-tajik-born-singer-representing-russia-at-the-eurovision\/?noredirect=en-GB\"><strong>Who is Manizha, the Tajik-born singer representing Russia at the Eurovision?<\/strong><\/a>\n\nDudoignon travelled regularly throughout Central Asia during the late Soviet era to further his research into reformed Islam.<em>&nbsp; <\/em>He also worked as a film importer for French businesses and therefore came into contact with the \u201ccreative intelligentsia,\u201d that is, members of the intellectual circles in the USSR.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reckoning with Dominance<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nThe historian decided to honour his friends with the publication of these short stories, but they also possess a <em>\u201cthematic unity around the culture of political domination.\u201d <\/em>&nbsp;In lyrical, symbolic, or even grotesque registers, the writers probe their inheritance from Russian and Soviet rulers.&nbsp; What unites them is a certain <em>\u201creckoning with these rulers, who were particularly bloody in Central Asia in the 1920s and 1930s,\u201d<\/em> as Dudoignon states.\n\nIn the short story \u201cHymns of Blood,\u201d which gave the collection its name, the writer Muhammad-Zaman Saleh tells of the rule and forced Arabisation of Baghdad over the remote <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Greater_Khorasan\">Khorasan Province<\/a> by the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abbasid_Caliphate\">Abbasid Caliphate<\/a> between the 8<sup>th<\/sup> and 9<sup>th<\/sup> centuries. This, according to the historian, is a clear metaphor for Moscow\u2019s rule over Central Asian societies.&nbsp; On the other hand, the short story \u201cGenghis Khan\u201d by Qadir Rustam tells of villagers contemplating to overthrow a tyrant, denouncing the burden of Soviet \u201clittle bosses\u201d who dominated Tajikistan in the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century.\n\nSuch topics are approached with surprising optimism as the authors attempt to portray paths to emancipation, especially through culture. Persian-Central Asian identity, which is being resurrected by many, is seen as a tool which can help to rebuild a modern and independent Tajik nation.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A lost freedom<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\nThe time from 1987 to 1992 <em>\u201cwas a very special time in Tajikistan, especially with literary magazines such as \u2018The Way of the East\u2019 in Dushanbe, in which writers regularly published for a large readership.\u201d<\/em> While censorship in the collapsing USSR steadily decreased, the then-numerous bookshops and kiosks in Tajikistan overflowed with new ideas and trends, and were the scene of literary experimentation. <em>\u201cThis is difficult to imagine today in Tajikistan,\u201d<\/em> laments St\u00e9phane Dudoignon, as the country suffers under the dictatorship of President Emomali Rahmon, who blocks any deviating artistic expression.\n\nMany of the authors featured in \u201cHymnes de sang\u201d left Tajikistan or Dushanbe during the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tajikistani_Civil_War\">civil war<\/a>.&nbsp; Some died in exile, such as Rahim Saidar, who passed away in Moscow.&nbsp; As a result of their departure, the intellectual and cultural activity in Dushanbe vanished.\n\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong>Written by Emma Collet<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong>Translated from <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/novastan.org\/de\/tadschikistan\/hymnes-de-sang-tadschikische-kurzgeschichten-aus-der-perestroika\/\"><strong>French to German<\/strong><\/a><strong> by Florian Coppenrath<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong>Translated from German to English by Mari Paine<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong>Edited by Maya Ivanova<\/strong>\n<p><em>For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/Novastan_Eng\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Novastan.org\/\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/novastan\">Telegram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/fondation-novastan\/\">Linkedin<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/novastanorg\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In August 2022, the French historian and writer St\u00e9phane Dudoignon published \u201cHymnes de sang\u201d (or \u201cHymns of Blood\u201d) \u2013 a collection of short stories by Tajik writers from the Perestroika era translated into French. He is using this opportunity to tell of a time of optimism and intellectual upheaval in Dushanbe before the civil war.This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1681,"featured_media":42209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4284,2576],"coauthors":[4598,4602],"class_list":["post-42208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tajikistan","tag-literature","tag-perestroika"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43557,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42208\/revisions\/43557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42208"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=42208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}