Mirhaydar Fayzi

Mirhaydar Fayzi (Mirhaydar Mustafovich Faizullin) – a Tatar and Bashkir playwright, editor, poet and publicist, the founder of the genre of Tatar national musical drama. He was born on 19 October 1891 at the Kukshel khutor of Orsk Uyezd, Orenburg Governorate. He received his education at the madrasa attached to the mosque in Orsk (1902–1905) and at the Husayniya madrasa (from 1905), which he left two years later for health reasons.

  

During his studies in Orsk, at Faizi's initiative a dramatic circle of Tatar youth was organized in the city. In 1905 he wrote his first play — "Tatar Wedding", and in 1909 his first staged work — the comedy "Two Hasans". From 1910 he began to be published in the newspaper "Idel" and the magazines "Yalt-Yolt" and "Shura". In 1912 his first collection "My Poems" was published.

 

On 19 March 1917 in Orenburg he staged the musical drama "Galiabanu", which marked the beginning of Tatar national musical dramaturgy. From 1919 he worked at a library opened by the Ramiev brothers in the village of Yuluk. In 1922 he moved to the village of Temyasovo, where he worked as a contributor to the newspaper "Kzyl Ural" ("Red Ural") and as head of the library. In 1923 he moved to Kazan, where he worked in the children's section of the central republican library. In 1926 he contracted tuberculosis and went to Crimea for treatment; he later returned to Bashkiria and worked in the libraries of Tubinsk and Baymak. Mirhaydar Fayzi died on 9 July 1928 and was buried next to the mass grave in the center of Baymak.