The glorious history of the peoples of Central Asia has given rise to many legends about the heroism of its legendary heroes, such as Shirak, Tomaris, Spitamen, Jaloliddin Manguberdi. Historical writers, transforming the heroism of historical figures and the illustrious history of Turkic-speaking peoples, made an invaluable contribution to the development of historical prose not only in Uzbek, but also world literature. Among these writers, the work of the Uzbek writer Mirkarim Asim occupies a special place. The writer devoted his entire life to creating historical stories, raised new generations in the spirit of love for the historical past and famous people of the East, and glorified the ideas of patriotism and humanism.

In literary criticism, the works of Mirkarim Asim are analyzed based on their themes into three main groups:

1. Works on historical and heroic themes.

2. Works on historical and everyday topics.

3. Works on historical and biographical topics.

The heroic theme in the prose of Mirkarim Asim includes such works as “Shirak”, “Otror”, “Tomaris”, “Temur Malik”, “Alexander and Spitamen”.

Works on everyday themes include “Mohlar Ayim and Khanposhsha”, “Caravan Bell”, “Messengers”.

As examples of the writer’s historical and biographical works, one can cite such stories by the writer as “Darkness and Light” (Navoi), “Clouds over Jaykhun” (Beruni), “The Tale of Ibn Sina”, “The Birth of Algebra” (Al-Kharazmi), "Broken Setor” (Mashrab).

Mirkarim Asim became one of the innocent victims of Stalin’s repressions of the 40s. His works, in the spirit of patriotism, national pride and love of the past, brought dark days to their author. The writer suffered from a totalitarian regime for many years. Returning to his homeland in the 50s, the artist continued to write historical works and worked as a literary employee in publishing houses.

Mirkarim Asim stands out among historical writers for his artistic revival of the original story without destroying it. His works serve as a literary school not only for literary artists, but also for historians. Modern historians and writers rightly consider Mirkarim Asim as their teacher.

Russian-speaking writer of Uzbekistan Yavdat Ilyasov, continuing the traditions of Mirkarim Asim, entered great literature in the 50s of the twentieth century as a writer who reincarnated legends about the East in his fiction, in which the functions of hero and fiction are conceptual markers in the artistic interpretation of historical reality, the coverage of which is dedicated to our article. His works - “The Path of Wrath”, “The Spotted Death”, “Black Widow”, “Sogdiana”, “Anahita’s Revenge”, “The Snake Charmer” are dedicated to the glorious history of the East, in which one can trace the synthesis of realism and romanticism, free artistic invention, thanks to transformations of which the writer was able to revive and spiritualize the historical memory sounded in legends in his artistic creations.

“Where the document ends, there I begin,” wrote the Russian prose writer, playwright, screenwriter, translator, literary critic of the twentieth century Yu. Tynyanov, [7] author of the historical novels “Kyukhlya”, “The Death of Vazir Mukhtar”, “Pushkin” (unfinished). The writer takes what is exquisite with the help of historical reason and the means of artistic invention, and brings what he has obtained into a historical work.

A very interesting example of confirming our idea that the impartial message of a scientist under the pen of an artist, who interprets a historical phenomenon in his own way, becomes a living picture, is found in the story “The Path of Wrath” by Ya. Ilyasov. Historical Shirak, according to the author of the book “Ancient Authors on Central Asia” L. Bajenov [1], is a groom, an unremarkable gray-haired old man of advanced age. When the news came: the Persians were going to war against the Massagetae tribes, he offered his services in destroying the uninvited aliens - the hundred-thousand-strong Persian army. And he asked that for this his children and grandchildren be rewarded with money and that good houses be built for them. “As soon as kings Sakefar, Omarg, Omiris swore an oath to this, the groom took a knife from his bosom, cut off his nose and ears, mutilated himself and went to Darius, king of the Persians, with a complaint that the kings of the Sakas allegedly mutilated him, offering his services in leading the Persian army through the shortest, “safe” route through the sands in order to “take revenge” on the Saks for insulting him. Believing the groom, King Darius accepted his services. Shirak led a hundred thousand enemy army into the sultry waterless sands and almost completely destroyed it.”

By dying himself, Shirak saved his homeland from enslavement. This story is a legend that only found scientific confirmation in the 20th century. It should be noted that in Mirkarim Asim’s story “Shirak” the plot unfolds as described in the book by L. Bazhenov. In Y. Ilyasov’s “The Path of Wrath” [2], this old man, who is living out his life, is interpreted by the will of the artist’s imagination as a young man with an ardent soul and a warm heart, in love with the beautiful Faroat, the daughter of the leader of the Orel tribe, who, according to the customs of that time, will give her love only to the strongest and bravest warrior. Shirak became such a warrior. He fights a huge angry bull and defeats it. Other warriors could not do this, and Faroat’s heart began to belong to this romantic young man.

The above facts from historical novels give grounds to assert that the artistic interpretation of historical events is to a certain extent typological, for similar examples are found in a number of historical novels by such outstanding artists as A. Tolstoy, Aybek, O. Forsh, P. Kadirov, S. Borodin, Y. Ilyasov and others [6, p.37]

In order to understand and appreciate the artistic significance of these works, to determine the uniqueness of the complex and integral literary personality of Y. Ilyasov, the features of his artistic history and images, it is necessary to dwell at least briefly on his civic and aesthetic position.

“If my “Trail” and “Sogdiana” added even a drop to those insignificant dewdrops of knowledge about the ancient East that were preserved in the yellowed pages of history, I will look into the reader’s eyes without embarrassment,” he wrote to his friend Uzbek writer Askad Mukhtar from Penjikent, collecting material for Black Widow. And he had the right to say so. [6, p.47]

One of the features of Y. Ilyasov’s work in historical novelism is the ability to indirectly reflect the problems of our time through the artistic interpretation of the distant past. “The Path of Wrath” was written in 1955, during the fierce national liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia and Africa for their independence and state independence. The prerequisite for the development of a number of “Paths of Wrath” themes was the events that unfolded in the countries of the Far, Near and Middle East. As soon as the guns died down beyond the 18th parallel in Korea, the blood of the Algerian people was shed in the fight against the colonialists; Many peoples of Africa, who so lacked unity in the struggle against foreigners, groaned under colonial oppression.

Such socio-political collisions are not new. They also took place in ancient times, during the era of the invasion of the Persian king Darius, and then the armies of Alexander the Great into the territory of Maveranahr - present-day Central Asia. The nomadic and sedentary tribes between the Syrdarya and Amudarya rivers had to defend their independence with arms in hand. They lacked unity in the fight against the conquerors.

It was these historical analogies that prompted Ilyasov to turn in his work to the history of the ancient East. “The Path of Wrath” was the name of his first historical story, which was published in the mid-50s. At the top of the book’s binding, in oriental script, was written “Yavdat Ilyasov,” notes Nikolai Krasilnikov, poet, prose writer, essayist, translator, critic, “An unfamiliar and therefore attractive name.” The story told about the struggle of the Massagetae against the Persians who invaded Central Asia. The name of the author and the topic itself (in those years of inattention to the truth of Russian history, smoothing it out) was very rare, for some reason they suggested that its creator was obviously a scientist wise over the years... Then, years later, I found out that this wonderful book ( with excellent illustrations by the People's Artist of Uzbekistan V. Kaydalov) was written by a twenty-five-year-old young man. [5]

The story was immediately met with great interest. The author's talent captivated the reader with his romantic interpretation of historical events and images, the brightness of his colors, the adventurous poignancy and extraordinary lightness of the plot, and the boldness of his compositional solution.

The writer creates a peculiar psychological mood before informing the reader, a dozen pages later, that the commander and governor Datis are being taken to a large military council under the king, who declares his will - a campaign to the North, to the lands of the Saks and Massagets, to the shores of the Aral Sea. The psychologically anxious reader perceives with heartache the writer’s message that Darius has already crushed the floor of Sogd and Khorezm, the people of March are groaning under the shoes of Persian warriors, smelling of horse sweat and iron swords. Now the ruler of the world - as his like-minded people call the king - wants to take possession of the black and reed swamps - the possessions of the Massagetae tribes, although he knows and warns him at the council that no one has yet been able to conquer the northern people. This is where the ruler sees the tempting nature of his intentions: he will be the first to conquer the rebellious. Contrary to logic and common sense, Darius, with little approval from his vassals, equips an army of one hundred thousand and goes with it to the North.

Hard victories and terrible defeat await the Persians here. The nomadic liberation tribes are excellent archers, perfectly oriented in different steppes: each sak is ready for self-sacrifice. Massaget, the son of a shepherd, the legendary Shirak, sacrifices himself, leading the Persian army into the hot sands. Here is the end, here is death, for there is no water and there is a lot of hot sun. Realizing the tragedy of the situation, King Darius orders all the gold to be demolished at the feet of Shirak, just let him show the way to the water. But the hero is adamant, he will not show the way. Shirak, by order of Darius, will be torn to pieces, but his army will die. Only its pitiful remnants, led by the king, surrounded by a group of like-minded people, reach Persepolis. The invader is punished, retribution is done.

This is the plot of the historical story “The Path of Wrath” by Y. Ilyasov, full of romantic colors, corresponds to the facts of history, to what happened: King Darius and his army were: there was a campaign against the lands of the Saks and Massagets; there was Shirak and his great feat; there was the heroism of the peoples of Mesopotamia, who fought against uninvited strangers. What happened - the historians said, how it happened, the writer told. Y. Ilyasov - in his artistic interpretation, living pictures of popular anger against the Persian conquerors are romantically resurrected.

A major figure in “The Path of Wrath” is the fictional hero the hunchback Gobriya - the secret adviser to Darius, a talented intelligence officer, a cunning diplomat and politician, a subtle psychologist who, as he believed, knows how to unravel the secret thoughts of people. Gobriya is the fruit of the author’s artistic imagination, embodied in an image that performs a number of plot, compositional, and cognitive functions. Gobriya in the story is both the embodiment of romantic principles and plot intrigue, the eyes and ears of the author, thanks to which he and the reader see and hear, and the guide of the inquisitive reader who gets acquainted with the way of life, social and political traditions in ancient Merga. Let us remember the first chapter, called by the author “The Hunchback”. In the city, in various public places - tavern, market, square, etc. - a “mysterious ragamuffin” appears in a dirty long chiton, “the hem of which covers up the traces of his feet, like the tail of a sly fox.” The goals of his appearance in Marga are clearly defined by the king and Hystaspes, and finding out for the king the mood of the townspeople, how they live, what they think about, what they want in secret from the Persian conquerors. Penetrating gaze and keen hearing do not let anything pass the Hunchback's attention. Here are “plowmen in tattered trousers” selling the gifts of the land, here is heard from the lips of shaggy nomads... ferocious, and over there, a little to the side, “the weavers are subtly shouting,” “the shoemakers are cheerfully calling to each other.” There is a slow trade going on. “They exchange sheep for cauldrons, grain for camels, carpets for slaves. Gold rarely glittered. It does not ring where the jugs and hoes ring.” Thus, through the perception of Gobriya, the writer conveys a picture of the life of the unconquered Marg, conquered by the Persians. The Gobrians were convinced of this and learned what thoughts and desires filled the souls of the townspeople from a conversation between a Khorezm merchant and an Indian merchant, overheard in a tavern by a “ragamuffin.” “It seemed that the tramp was sleeping,” the author of the story says confidentially, “but his ear, turned to the chatterers, trembled, like a leopard crouched against a dune in the reed thickets.” In the tavern they talked about dangerous things and carelessly expressed criminal thoughts. Gobriyas, hearing this, understands that rebellious thoughts are wandering in people’s heads, dissatisfaction with exorbitant taxes and market duties is brewing among the people, the people’s soul hurts about the lost glory, about the failed uprising once raised by Frada during the time of King Cyrus, the predecessor of Darius Hystaspes. But the Hunchback is calm - he understands that the experiences of the Margians remain a dull, helpless murmur, devoid of any organized force. The envoy of Darius learns about the insurmountable fear of the upper caste of the conquerors, about the discord and strife between the various classes of residents and visitors of Marg and is convinced that this people is not yet capable of resistance.

The functions of artistic fiction expand significantly when it comes to the negative facts of history in the narrative; an element of personal and satirical vision of Marg’s life is introduced. Here is a detachment of Persians, “keeping a sullen silence, stamping with the unusually thick heels of their strong shoes,” chasing away four prisoners, “whose lips were blackened from caked blood,” “Why were they taken?” - asks the nameless character of the story. “For one word... For frowning eyebrows,” replies the meat seller, also a nameless Margian. “Tomorrow the unfortunates will break their bones.” Oh Gods! What is more insulting, humiliating, disgracing... than fear of a person? A grave is better...”

Romantic intrigue plays a prominent role in the plot of “Paths of Wrath.” The function of fiction comes down to understatement, the veiling of the writer’s ultimate goal in a specific episode of the overall plot of the story. The appearance in Marga, where everyone knows everyone, of a mysterious, essentially unknown to no one, and not only an ugly person, possessing such a golden plate, before which the powers that be tremble, interests readers, draws them into the very process of reading in order to find out what kind of a riddle is this - the Hunchback. The intrigue intensifies when a golden plate with the image of God in the solar disk falls into the hands of the ruler Datis, and he froze in a particularly respectful pose in front of this tramp. Then the unpredictably hasty departure of Datis to Persepolis to the ruler of the world. And then the reader has a dozen questions: what kind of tramp is this? Why in the rags of a beggar, but with a gold plate? From whom and why is he hiding his origin? Why did he take his ruler away so quickly? And you can’t tear the reader away from the book - he wants to immediately get answers to these questions that arose in his mind during the reading process.

Having intrigued the reader, Y. Ilyasov conducts a leisurely but economical conversation about the social situation in Marga: “In the stuffy, dull city, where it seemed as if flies were falling asleep mid-flight from boredom, torturing the Margians became a kind of entertainment for high-ranking Aryans.” For now, the Margians could only oppose all this with silence, only patience. The people paid with their blood, with their lives, for the fact that at one time they failed to unite to fight the enemy. With a picture of the battle between the “Deer” and “Eagle” tribes, Ya. Ilyasov shows how the Massagetae lacked unity to oppose the invasion of the Persians. The entire course of the struggle of the Massagetae, its very logic leads to the realization of the need to unite all the forces of the Massagetae against the Persians. The entire course of the struggle of the Massagetae, its very logic leads to the realization of the need to unite all the forces of the Massagetae against the Persians. When Shirak’s father Sohrab managed to unite the broken tribes into a single fist - and this became possible because the bitter lessons of defeat, hatred of enemies, the thirst for revenge for the desecrated land led to the growth of people's social consciousness - the Persians did not have enough strength or courage, “not the number of horsemen” to defeat the Massagetae. And the very death of the Persian army was only the reason that there was no strong alliance among the leaders of the Persian army and even among those close to King Darius. There would have been such an alliance, but it fell apart like a house of cards at the very first serious tests. “The union of the tiger, jackal and hyena fell apart like the skeleton of a decayed skeleton.” “All three promised each other their loyalty, but forgot their vows at the first major failure. Such is the “friendship” that begins in bags of gold.”

Psychologization of an image is one of the important functions of artistic fiction and the author’s interpretation of a particular event. Even in landscape sketches, limitedly woven into the psychological perception of the conquerors, broken spiritually and physically, we find confirmation of this: “The night grew thicker, dense stuffiness hung in, thunderclouds floated from somewhere, the stars disappeared. The sky was filled with a completely black threshold.

Fear and doom take possession of the aliens “Coes fell silent, but daring to utter a terrible word. The commanders listened with tension to the breath of the night, but not a sound reached the desert. However, people felt that something huge and menacing was moving around them.” And this is a premonition generated by animal fear of the invincible strength of the people, united by one desire - to avenge the desecrated land and saturated with “the blood of the fallen Massagetae and the tears of those who mourned them.”

“...The desert and mountains were simultaneously illuminated by thousands of torches. They surrounded the Persian camp with a circle of fire, and this circle narrowed faster.” The psychological symbolism of the image of the torch grows into a realistic picture of the approach of a huge popular force, which will certainly plunge strangers into dust. The image of the torch merged to a limited extent with the legendary image of Shirak. This synthesis of the real and the symbolic-romantic takes on a strong generalizing sound. Now the Persians behind the legendary Shirak clearly see the entire country of the Massagetae “from Arancho to Jakhartes,” united in a single formidable and crushing fist, “Shirak is coming!” Shirak! These terrible words sound like a refrain throughout the disastrous path of the Persians, sounding like a formidable warning and reminder to everyone who dreams of conquest, about new “living spaces.”

“Sohrab looked for a long time, standing on the shore, at the pitiful wreckage of the great Aryan army. Visions floated before the old man’s eyes: a disturbing morning when the “eagles” drove the “deer” out of the settlement near the Blue Mountains, the high walls of the fortress of the unknown Kunkhaz, the beautiful eyes of Faroat, the smile of Shirak.

- Ahmenides! – Sohrab clenched his fist, “Let your most distant descendants not forget about this day!”

The leader’s voice dissolved in thunderclaps: it seemed as if nature itself was warning the invaders.”

In the psychological duel of intelligence and cunning, perseverance and insight, resourcefulness and endurance, played out between Gobriya and Shirak in the tent of King Darius, when Gobriya calls on all her extraordinary mind and experience to test the “defector” who pretended to be “victim” from Sohrab, ready to transfer the army across the Red Sands - the victory of good over evil, the superiority of folk wisdom, born in a just struggle for independence, is clearly revealed.

The hero and the people, their destinies and roads, aspirations and thoughts are united, and all this is connected in “The Path of Wrath” quite convincingly and organically. After the death of Faroat from an enemy arrow, the psychologically broken Shirak withdrew into the world of personal experiences. For some time, he stopped caring about the fate of the tribe; everything became indifferent to him. Shirak died spiritually and morally along with Faroat. But this did not last long - until he returned to his tribe, merged with his great grief. Shirak gathered the strength for the feat, which he drew from the abyss of grief and anger: “Everyone has a piece of hot copper instead of a heart, everyone is in pain! Look, listen, feel, Shirak! “Sohrab fiercely squeezed his son’s shoulder and waved his hand at the pitiful huts, “and if this does not touch your heart, it’s better to die!”

Realizing the grief of the people, all the horror of the consequences of the enemy’s raid, sharing his soul and body with the general misfortune, “Shirak felt rebirth in himself - it came at once, like a storm... Even in the morning he lay at the foot of the mountain and saw one narrow valley. And now a mighty whirlwind threw him to the top, and he saw a great expanse,” and an epiphany came: “What did I know? Only my own sorrows,” the hero’s deep inner monologue with himself: “My heart did not hear the pain in other hearts. But everyone is tormented by what torments me. In thousands of hearts there is only one suffering!... This is... What does Shirak’s suffering mean when everyone suffers? And anger and hatred towards the conquerors boils up with renewed vigor - a significant, sublime feeling, which fits perfectly into the concept of national patriotism. And “this feeling pleased the shepherd...”, because now, he understood the main thing, the most important thing that he lacked - a civil understanding of his role as a person in these events: “What will happen if everyone who has lost his Faroat turns his face away from the white Sveta?” - he thought, “The end will come for everyone, the end will come for the people. This means that everyone needs to be together. And together they took revenge on their enemies. For thousands of Faroats, for thousands of Kunhakhs.”

L. Petrova quite correctly notes in her review of “Black Widow” that “history did not become an ivory tower for the writer - his twelfth century is connected with the twentieth.” These words apply entirely to “The Path of Wrath.”

Revealing the “dialectics of the soul” of Shirak, the evolution of his psychological and moral-civic rebirth, Y. Ilyasov comes to great social generalizations: “The walls of a fortress stood before Shirak’s eyes... The ferocious faces of the Persians... the fading eyes of Faroat. This spectacle grew wider and wider before the shepherd’s gaze, filled the entire great space between Arankha and Yakhartosh and, as it were, became a symbol of the land trampled by foreigners.

Shirak is a symbol of the earth, he is a generalized image of the people, their flesh and level. Like the people, he cannot be broken with a sword or bought with gold. When the Persians in the sultry desert realized that the end had come for them, King Darius tried, under pain of death, to force Shirak to show his will, but in vain, then he put forward the last argument in his opinion - gold.

A pile of gold and silver grew in front of Shirak, shepherd, it’s all yours, show us where the water is, but Shirak looked at the treasures with an indifferent look and turned away with this gesture, as if he repeated the sentence to the people expressed by Darius a minute earlier: “You deserve to die and you will die!”. Why is a person born?

And in this question, which the book answers throughout the course of the narrative, lies the writer’s philosophical concept of the role and place of man on earth.

Shirak’s heart is filled with a high patriotic feeling and pride from the knowledge that he is stronger than the entire army of Persians from the feeling of the greatness and beauty of his feat accomplished in the name of the victory of the people. This gives him strength, helps him overcome the debilitating thirst to overcome the shifting sands of the desert and go with open eyes to death. The writer reveals the romance of Shirak’s feat, the greatness of the hero’s nature, and finally the philosophy of the question of the meaning of man poetically, with strong means: “He rose to his full height, stretched out his hands to the East, grabbed three bellows of air into his lungs at once and shouted loudly, cheerfully, drawlingly Praising without words. The clear eye of Mithra looked tenderly from the sky at the man.

Literary critic T. Lobanova, analyzing the writer’s work, correctly noted: “The numerous wars that took place on the lands of Central Asia, the struggle of peoples for their independence, the world of endless steppes along which freedom-loving tribes roam, and the world of a medieval eastern city, the simple, harsh life of the Saka or Massageta and the magnificent ceremony at the Shah’s court, people of distant antiquity with their morals, characters, feelings and worldview - all this comes to life on the pages of Yavdat Ilyasov’s stories, the time range of which is not inferior to the thematic one - from the 6th century BC. until the 14th century AD.” [5]

T. Lobanova was objective when she called Y. Ilyasov an artist with his own creative personality. The ideological and thematic focus of the story, the liberation struggle against foreigners, heroic death in the name of saving the native people. The clearly defined originality of Y. Ilyasov’s artistic style of writing, trying not only with a serious knowledge of the history of Central Asia, but also its epic, folklore, ethnography, all this predetermined the tonality of his subsequent historical works, each of which, with all the differences in time of action, plot collisions, characters of the hero, dedicated to the historical past of the Central Asian peoples.

As we see, the theme of the glorious struggle of the peoples of the Ancient East for their independence is the main motive, the main plot of the writer’s work. Yavdat Ilyasov, continuing to follow the traditions of classical historical novels, made a significant contribution to the development and improvement of the historical and artistic genre. And therefore, the study of his work is a highly relevant task and deserves all approval. I would like to remind fans of historical works of the favorite theme of the East, which will sound like a refrain, runs like a red thread through the writer’s work and sounds in the mouth of Omar Khayyam, the main character of Yavdat Ilyasov’s novel “The Snake Charmer”: “I wrote everything about myself in my books. Read them and get to know me.” [3, p.79]