Kazim Mechiev

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"Mechiev" redirects here. For other uses, see Mechiev (disambiguation).

Kazim Mechiev
Native name	Мечиланы Беккини жашы Кязим
Born	1859 Shiki, Russian Empire
Died	15 March 1945(1945-03-15) (aged 85) Taldıqorğan Oblast, Soviet Union
Occupation	Poet, Enlightener, Humanist
Language	Karachay-Balkar
Nationality	Balkar
Genre	Poem, Dhikr
Notable works	Takhir and Zukhra, Bouzdzhigit, Wounded tur

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Kazim Mechiev or Kyazim Mechiev (Karachay-Balkar: Мечи́ланы Беккини́ жашы́ Кязи́м; Russian: Кязи́м Бекки́евич Мечи́ев; 1859, Shiki village, Bezengi valley, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire — March 15, 1945, Taldıqorğan Oblast, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic) was a Balkar poet who wrote in Karachay-Balkar language using Arabic letters. He was perceived by contemporaries as one of the spiritual leaders of the Balkar people. He is considered the founder of Balkar literature. His poems have been translated into Russian, Turkish, and other languages.

Biography

Kazim Mechiev was born in the village of Shiki in a peasant family. His father, Bekki, was known as a handy craftsman. The village of Shiki was located high in the mountains at the very end of the Bezengi valley. Due to its isolated location and severe climatic conditions, the lives of the people of Shiki were poor and hardscrabble. Very few could read and write, and most of those were Muslim clerics. Kazim Mechiev had a birth defect of his left leg and had to lean on a staff when walking.

Having learned the basics of Arabic grammar from local mullahs, Kazim Mechiev continued his studies for several years in the nearby village of Bezengi and then in a medrese in Lesken village. He enriched his knowledge of Arabic and Persian literature and poetry with the help of Chepelleu Byozyulany—an effendi of Bezengi who was known as one of the most educated persons in the area and owned a well-stocked library of Eastern and Western literature, natural science, and medicine. Inspired by Eastern poetry, Kazim Mechiev began creating his own writings in Karachay-Balkar language using Arabic letters.

Returning to his home village, Kazim Mechiev began working in a forge, making housewares and agricultural implements. He developed skills inherited from his father and became a well-known blacksmith in the surrounding area. Being theologically educated, Kazim Mechiev gained authority among his countrymen and devoted himself to enlightening and preaching Islam.

In the period from 1900 to 1917, while traveling in the Middle East, Kazim Mechiev visited Istanbul, Baghdad, and Mecca; he attended lectures at the Omeyades' madrasah in Damascus and Cairo University.[1]

The social processes and military and political events in the Caucasus after the February Revolution 1917 were reflected in his works and in his active social position: the following spring, he participated in the village's meeting. This period of complex political and social transformations was accompanied by bloodshed, brutal repressions, and reprisals against political opponents. Highlanders society was split into opposing camps. Perhaps a series of tragic events in which he lost close friends predetermined Kazim Mechiev's choice and made him support the Bolsheviks, despite his initial skepticism about their ideas. He dedicated his poem "Soltan-Hamid" to the death of Balkar Bolshevik S-H. Kalabekov, an associate of Sergei Kirov, and "Chepelleu effendi" to the death of his friend and teacher, Chepelleu Byozyulany, who was killed by White Guards along with 18 other villagers during their counter-Bolshevik raid in Bezengi. His elder son, Muhammad, died during the Russian Civil War fighting against White Guards in Daghestan. Kazim Mechiev dedicated another poem to him, called "Jashima" ("To the son").

Soon after the victory of the Bolsheviks, Soviet power began ideological and political purges among former revolutionaries and ordinary people. Religious leaders became one of the categories of people subject to repression and extermination. Many of Kazim Mechiev's associates were killed or exiled. Thanks to the intercession of Kaisyn Kuliyev and other Balkar public and cultural figures, Kazim Mechiev himself managed to avoid serious reprisals. Reflecting on the tragic deaths and murders of distinguished Balkar revolutionaries, he dedicated his poem "Kairi ketdi Eney ulu" ("What happened to Eneev") to Magomed Eneev, one of the founders of Mountain ASSR; another poem, "Ne bolur minga taskha?" ("How did it happen, Khajibekir?"), was dedicated to an arrested and murdered associate.

In the spring of 1932, Kyazim Mechilany was elected a deputy of the First Congress of Distinguished Kolkhoz Workers in the city of Nalchik; in 1938, he was admitted to the USSR Writers Union; in November 1939, he received the rank of "honored artist of Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic". As a poet, Kazim Mechiev could not avoid the officially encouraged themes in the "era of socialist construction". In 1940, his first collection of poems in the Soviet era was issued under the name "Meni sezum" ("My Word"). It contained selected works praising the labor of agricultural and civil workers. All poems were edited by the strictest censorship, which caused an angry reaction from Kazim Mechiev, who responded to this publication with his poem "Bu ne zatkha ushagandi?" ("How does it look like?").

On March 8, 1944, Kazim Mechiev, along with all Balkar people, was deported to Central Asia. Like thousands of other people, in old age and under harsh and violent conditions, Kazim Mechiev died after one year of exile on March 15, 1945, in Kumtobe village of Taldy-Kurgan Region, Kazakhstan, where he was buried.

Сreative work

Kazim Mechiev wrote his works in his native Balkar language using Arabic characters. The earliest known publication, called "Lessons on the Purity of Human Body and Spirit," was issued in 1896 in the city of Temirkhan-Shura. Among the early works of religious and philosophical character are "Edifications to Women," poems "Iman-Islam" and "Prophets," and religious poem songs (zikirs). Besides the religious enlightenment topic, which played a major role in his poems, Kazim Mechiev addressed different subjects in his poetry and lyrics: love lyrics, humanism, social injustice, devotion to his native country and people.

Kazim Mechiev's views were molded by the realities of life and the traditions of the highlanders, their ethics code (tau adet), and his strong Islamic beliefs and education. Several long pilgrimage journeys that Kazim Mechiev undertook during his life had a major effect on his mindset and were reflected in the philosophy of his poems and social activity. Kazim Mechiev's poetry was influenced by Arabic, Turkic, and Persian literature. He translated certain Eastern poems (dastans) into his native language, in particular, Turkmen poet Molla Nepes's "Legend of Takhir and Zukhra". His poem "Buzjigit" was a kind of dedication to his teachers. The main topics of his works are religious and moral searching, the issues of power and fairness, good and evil, a human's place in the world and in society. His compositions are characterized by depth of thought, richness of images, and fine shades of emotion; at the same time, they express the tragic notes of the perception of life and psychological tension similar to the social and emotional atmosphere of that time.

Legacy

Balkar poets and writers K. Kuliev, K. Otarov, and S. Shakhmurzaev were followers of Kazim Mechiev. Many of Mechiev's poems were interwoven with the folk songs of the Balkars; some of them were distributed on paper. A large part of his manuscripts and lyrics written down at his dictation was lost forever in 1942 along with the archive of the Kabardino-Balkar Scientific Research Institute. Kazim Mechiev's compositions are most completely published in a two-volume collection published in the Balkar language in Nalchik in 1989.

In 1989, in the former village of Shiki, which had been abandoned by its inhabitants under pressure from the authorities in 1939, the Kazim Mechiev house museum was founded.[2]

In November 1999, a special expedition to Kazakhstan was organized to carry out the reburial of Kazim Mechiev. His remains were transported and interred in Nalchik.

Bibliography

• "Lessons on the Purity of Human Body and Spirit" (Karachay-Balkar: ???; Russian: "Поучения о чистоте человеческого тела и духа"). 1986, Temirkhan-Shura.
• "Iman-Islam" (Karachay-Balkar: "Ийман-Ислам"). 1903 (1909?), Temirkhan-Shura.
• "My Word" (Karachay-Balkar: "Мени Сёзюм"; Russian: "Мое Слово"). 1940, Nalchik.
• Selected Works (Karachay-Balkar: Сайлама Чыгъармалары). 1959, Nalchik.
• "Poems" (Russian: "Стихи и Поэмы"). 1962, Nalchik.
• "Flame of Hearth" (Russian: "Огонь Очага"). 1970, Moscow.
• Selection (Karachay-Balkar: Сайламалары). 1975, Nalchik.
• Selection (Russian: "Избранное"). 1976, Moscow.
• "Book of poems" (Karachay-Balkar: "Назмула Китабы"). 1984, Nalchik.
• "Poems" (Karachay-Balkar: "Назмула бла Поэмала"). 1987, Nalchik.
• Collected Works issued in 2 volumes (Karachay-Balkar: Чыгъармаларыны экитомлугъу). 1989, Nalchik.
• "Poems, Dhikrs." (Karachay-Balkar: "Назмула, Зикирле, Поэмала"). 1996, Nalchik.
• "Tahir and Zuhra" (Karachay-Balkar: "Тахир бла Зухра"). 1999, Nalchik.
• "Poems" (Russian: "Стихи, Поэмы"). 2003, Nalchik.
• "Mind and Voice" (Russian: "Разум и Голос"). 2009, Nalchik.
• Selected Works (Karachay-Balkar: Сайлама Чыгъармалары). 2009, Nalchik.

External links

• Kazim Mechiev Culture Foundation

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