“Nasihatname li-ehle zamana” (the written legacy of Makhrui Muzaffariya)

Abstract

The article is provided to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the outstanding educator, teacher, and poetess Makhrui Gadbelvalievna Muzaffariya (1873–1945). The paper highlights the life and work of the teacher and gives a brief overview of her written heritage. The academic novelty of the study lies in the fact that the article analyzes in the most detail the book by M. Muzaffariya "Nasihatname li-ehli zamana", i.e. "Instructions to Contemporaries", which has not been an object of research until now. The manuscript of the book was prepared on April 21, 1900; it was censored on November 27 of the same year and was published in the printing house of Kazan Imperial University in 1901. The book is not large, it consists of 14 pages. The work was written in the form of instructions and recommendations. It includes three small chapters, which discuss mainly the issues concerning a woman’s life. In the first chapter, the author focuses on the problems of education and upbringing; the second chapter contains recommendations to mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law; and in the third chapter, the duties of husbands and wives are addressed. The book is also notable for the fact that it helps to identify or clarify the pages of M. Muzaffariya’s life, to find out the author's personal view of past events and to present the atmosphere of that time, since the content of the book is supplemented with examples from the educator’s life.

Keywords

• guidance
• women’s education
• education and upbringing of girls
• bride
• mother-in-law