Contributors

Kamila Akhmedjanova

Chair
Kamila Akhmedjanova is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford working on the intellectual history of the 19th-century Persian-speaking world. Before starting her PhD, she completed her BA and MPhil degrees at the University of Oxford, having previously specialised in Italian literature and linguistics. She also holds an MSt in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford.

Kamila Akhmedjanova took part in various academic conferences. She has also published several academic articles, covering topics related to the 19th-century Persian-speaking intellectual trends, as well as to the methodology of teaching Persian. Her most recent published article explores the interplay of literature and politics in the works of Sadriddin Aynī, one of the founding fathers of modern Tajik literature. Kamila Akhmedjanova has two forthcoming articles this year: the first one analyses the image of Persia in Russian literature of the Silver Age, while the second one is dedicated to the analysis of Ahmad Dānish’s intellectual legacy. She has also contributed to the forthcoming volume ‘The Tajiks: History, Culture and Identity’.

Stéphane A. Dudoignon

Writing the History of Twentieth-Century Tajik Persian Literature:
Before and After Muhammadjon Shakuri
Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His research focuses on Islam, Sufism, tribal structures and political life in the frontier societies of Central Asia, Iran and the wider Middle East, with particular attention to Tajikistan and Baluchistan. Dudoignon is the author of a number of books, translations and articles, including monographs ‘Les Gardiens de la révolution islamique d’Iran: sociologie politique d’une milice d’État’ (2022) and ‘The Baluch, Sunnism and the state in Iran: from tribal to global’ (2017), as well as edited volumes ‘Iran: les Pasdaran dans l’appareil d’État de la République islamique, leur influence sur le processus décisionnel’ (2019), ‘Yémen: les tribusau sein des forces loyalistes et de la “rébellion”, l’impact du conflit sur l’organisation tribale’(2019).

Parviz Mullojonov

The Revival of Tajik National Identity and Muhammadjon Shakuri's Generation
Independent historian, political scientist, and conflict resolution expert specialising in Central Asia and especially Tajikistan. He is a senior adviser at the International Alert office in Tajikistan and former Chairman of the Board of the Tajik branch of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) and has been active in Tajik civil society since the mid-1990s.Mullojonov is a former member of the Inter-Tajik Dialogue, an international peace-building civic initiative during the civil war in Tajikistan, and a former member of the EUCAM (EU and Central Asia Monitoring) research group. He worked for various international agencies and organisations such as Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, UNHCR, UNDP and ADB.Mullojonov is the author of many publications, including monograph ‘The History of the Tajik Civil War, 1992–1997’ (2022) and analytical articles published in Central Asia, Europe and the United States.

Rustam Shukurov

On the Archive of Muhammadjon Shakuri

Researcher at the Institute for Medieval Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is a historian of Byzantium and the medieval Eastern Mediterranean. Shukurov is the author of numerous works on Byzantine, Iranian and Turkic history, including monographs‘The Grand Komnenoi and the Orient, 1204–1461’ (2001), ‘The Byzantine Turks, 1204–1461’ (2016) and ‘Byzantine Ideas of Persia, 650–1461’ (2024), as well as the co-authored works ‘Peuples d’Asie centrale’ (1994) and ‘The Personal History of a Bukharan Intellectual: The Diary of Muḥammad-Sharīf-i Ṣadr-i Żiyā’ (2004).

Monica Whitlock

A Visit to Muhammadjon Shakuri
Journalist and author who worked for the BBC World Service over many years. She first went to Afghanistan in 1992 and was the BBC’s Central Asia correspondent from 1995 to 1998, and again in 2002 to 2005, with offices in Tashkent, Dushanbe and Almaty. Monica is the author of Beyond the Oxus: The Central Asians (2002), which combines eyewitness accounts, unpublished letters and first-hand reporting to trace the lives of Central Asians through the upheavals of the twentieth century and the post-Soviet period. She continues to make radio/podcast documentaries.