Muhammadgali Makhmudov

Muhammadgali Makhmudov – an artist-calligrapher, master of book miniatures, educator, and State Councillor. He was born in 1824 into a family of Tatar peasants in the Kazan Governorate. He was educated at the madrasa at the Blue Mosque in Kazan, where he studied Arabic calligraphy under the mudarres Khabibulla Rakhmankulov and achieved mastery in it.

 

On the recommendation of A. K. Kazem-Bek, in 1842 Makhmudov began teaching Arabic, Persian, and Turkic-Tatar calligraphy at Kazan University and the Kazan 1st Men's Gymnasium. After the transfer of the Oriental department of Kazan University to Petersburg in 1854, he refused to relocate and remained in Kazan, retaining his position as a calligraphy instructor and obtaining a post as a Tatar language teacher at the 1st Gymnasium. 

In 1876 Makhmudov became director of the Kazan Tatar Teachers' School, where he taught pedagogy and didactics, and also played an important role in preparing Tatar teachers of the Russian language. He retired in 1881. Makhmudov is the author of "Practical Guide to the Study of the Tatar Language," which received high praise from I. N. Berezin and was used by several generations of students and gymnasium pupils. In the early 1870s Makhmudov focused on issues of teaching Tatars the Russian language. He was co-author of the textbook "Russian Grammar for Tatar Students" (1873), published under the name V. V. Radlov. Muhammadgali Makhmudov died on January 31, 1891.