Modern Tajik literature and its history is bound up with the standardisation of the Tajik language

Tajik language

Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

. Tajik literary centres include the cities of Bukhara

Bukhara

Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...

 and Samarkand

Samarkand

Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

, currently in present day Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

.

During the Soviet era

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, the principal literary output was social realist in nature.

Tajiks in Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

 describe all of the major literary works written in Persian until the twentieth century as Tajik, regardless of the ethnicity and native region of the author.

Three writers dominated the first generation of Soviet Tajik literature. Sadriddin Aini (1878-1954), a Jadidist writer and educator who turned communist, began as a poet but wrote primarily prose in the Soviet era. His works include three major novels dealing with social issues in the region and memoirs that depict life in the Bukhoro Khanate. Aini became the first president of Tajikistan's Academy of Sciences.

Abu'l-Qasem Lahuti (1887-1957; in Tajik, Abdulqosim Lohuti) was an Iranian poet who emigrated to the Soviet Union for political reasons and eventually settled in Tajikistan. He wrote both lyric poetry and "socialist realist" verse. Another poet, Mirzo Tursunzoda

Mirzo Tursunzoda

Mirzo Tursunzoda - was an important poet and a prominent politic figure. Today Tursunzoda has been elevated to the level of a national hero of Tajikistan. Tursunzoda's face appears on the front of the one Somoni note. The town of Tursunzoda is named in his honor. He was awarded the Stalin...

 (1911-77), collected Tajik oral literature, wrote poetry of his own about social change in Tajikistan, and turned out various works on popular political themes of the moment. Since the generation that included those three writers, Tajikistan has produced numerous poets, novelists, short story writers, and playwrights.

Notable writers

• Sadriddin Aini
• Mirzo Abdulvohid Munzim
• Pairav Sulaimoni
• Abulqosim Lohuti
• Sadri Ziyo
• Sotym Ulughzoda
• Mirzo Tursunzoda
  Mirzo Tursunzoda
  Mirzo Tursunzoda - was an important poet and a prominent politic figure. Today Tursunzoda has been elevated to the level of a national hero of Tajikistan. Tursunzoda's face appears on the front of the one Somoni note. The town of Tursunzoda is named in his honor. He was awarded the Stalin...
  
  
• Laiq Sher-Ali
• Bozor Sobir
• Muhammadjon Shukurov