Nukhai Batyrmurzaev

Born 1869, in the village of Aksai, in Dagestan; died October 1919. Kumyk writer and enlightener.

Batyrmurzaev was born into a poor peasant family and worked as a jeweler. In 1916 he collaborated with his son Zeinalabidin and others to form the literature and drama society Tang Cholpan (Morning Star) in Khasaviurt, and he contributed to the society’s magazine of the same name (1917–18). He and his son were seized and executed by the Denikins. He wrote the novellas Unlucky Khabibat (1910), Garun and Zubaida, or Unlucky Zhanbike (1910), and Davud and Laila (1912), which laid the foundations for prose realism in Dagestani literature. The problems of women’s education and education in general were the principal themes in his work.