Mollo NIYAZ (1820-1896) - poet, thinker, and educator. He was born in the Shai-Merden valley (Shakhimardan) in southern Kyrgyzstan. He studied at a madrasah (a higher Muslim school) in the city of Kashgar. His poems and poetic admonitions, which have survived to this day, are characterized by wisdom and a call for enlightenment. He traveled through both Fergana and Southern Kyrgyzstan, as well as Central Tengri-Too and Eastern Turkestan. His philosophical views on life, death, the universe, good and evil align with the Central Asian trend of Sufi-philosophical worldview. In "Sanatakh" ("Admonitory Poems"), Mollo Niyaz reflects on the historical events of his time: the migration of part of the Fergana Kyrgyz who revolted against the Kokand Khan Kuda-Yar, the complicated relationships of Yakub-Bek, the Kashgar ruler, with the newly arrived Kyrgyz, the conquest of Tashkent and Chimkent by Russian colonizers in 1865, and so on. The manuscripts of Mollo Niyaz testify that even in the 19th century, a number of Kyrgyz enlighteners sought to write works in their native language, not limiting themselves to the regionally common "Chagatai" written language. Only in the years of our country's independence did some works of Mollo Niyaz get published as separate editions.
