Orif Gulxaniy uy-muzeyi

Orif Gulxaniy house-museum is located in the city of Samarkand. This house-museum is dedicated to the life and work of the famous Uzbek and Tajik poet and thinker Orif Gulxaniy, who spent almost his entire life living in this house.

Biography of Orif Gulxaniy

Orif Gulxaniy was born in 1879 in Samarkand into an intellectual family. He graduated from the Samarkand madrasa, later received higher religious and secular education in Bukhara. After completing his studies in Bukhara, he returned to Samarkand and began teaching at the “Madrasai Nav” madrasa. While working at the madrasa, he studied the works of Alisher Navoi and Bedil, and at that time began writing poems under the pen name Gulxaniy, which means “fiery” in Persian and Tajik.

His acquaintance in Samarkand with Muqimiy, Furqat, Vasliy, Pisandiy, and Sadriddin Ayniy had a great influence on his creative activity. Because of Gulxaniy’s work, other poets also emerged in Samarkand, among them Mirzo Akramiy, Fikriy, Tugʻral, Abdulaziz Abdurasulov and others are famous. Together with them, Gulxaniy organized creative meetings for madrasa students and local poets and poetry enthusiasts in Samarkand. Later, due to these meetings, which became a tradition, poets such as Said Nazar, Nazarmat, Oʻtkir Rashid, Raʻno Uzoqova, Vohid Abdullayev, Dushan Fayziy developed.

Gulxaniy’s work became publicly recognized in 1980 at the initiative of Sharof Rashidov, a famous Uzbek state official, poet, and follower of Gulxaniy. That year the 100th anniversary of Gulxaniy’s birth was celebrated.

House museum

For many years manuscripts and materials were collected for the house-museum. In 1993 the Orif Gulxaniy house-museum was opened, and the street where this house-museum is located was named after him. Later restoration work was carried out in the museum, and the museum was taken under state protection.

When entering the museum, a room where the poet engaged in literary work is located on the right side. In the house‑museum, the rooms where he lived, Gulkhani’s nearly 300 personal manuscripts, 145 works, letters, more than 2,500 exhibits consisting of household items from the end of the century, manuscripts and books, photographs, Gulkhani’s personal belongings are kept and many other items are presented. In addition, the museum presents books on history, religion, calligraphy, collections of the journal “Oyna” (1914), the divans of Hofiz and Bedil, the original copy of Bartold’s book “On Irrigating the Turkestan Regions”, poetic collections of poets Furqat, Muqimiy, Umarxon, Zavqiy and others, the book “Alifbe”, an Arabic language grammar book and other works. The poet’s children and grandchildren’s grown‑up cradle, a rare aluminum music stand, 19th‑century dishes, ceramic bowls, kilim (kalyan), the poet’s costumes are notable exhibits. In the courtyard of the house‑museum a large garden with fruit trees and flowers has been created.