Sheidai

Born circa 1730; died 1800. Turkmen poet.

Sheidai, a member of the Salor tribe, lived in the Bukhara Khanate. In his poems he denounced the vices of society and abuse of power, in particular the duplicity and sanctimoniousness of the clergy. Setting his hopes on the enlightenment and self-improvement of man, he called for diligence, humaneness, and modesty. In the poem “The Condition of the Turkmens,” he glorified the Ghuz-Turkmen tribes of the ninth to 13th centuries, contrasting them with the spiritually impoverished society of the 18th century.

Sheidai’s lyric love poems followed the canons of Eastern poetry with its stereotyped images, similes, and flowery epithets. His works were influenced greatly by Persian culture, for example, his dasian of love and adventure Gul and Sanubar (translated into Russian as Prince Sanubar, 1909).