He was born in 1893 into a
Kazakh Muslim family in modern-day
Astana and was given the name Muhammedjan Jumabayev at birth. For much of his childhood, Muhammedjan was exposed to Islamic poetry as his family was deeply religious. In his teenage years, he shortened his name from "Muhammedjan" to "Magjan". From 1905 until 1910, Muhammedjan (or Magjan hereafter) Jumabayev studied in a madrasah in the town of
Petropavl, where he learned the
Arabic,
Turkish, and
Persian languages. In 1911, He moved away from his home town and attended a
madrasah in the city of
Ufa, where he learned under the
Volga Tatar classical writer
Ğalimcan İbrahimof. In 1912 he began writing Kazakh poetry with the pen name "Şolpan". His poetry was written in the
Kazakh language, which used the
Arabic alphabet at the time. Within just a year, Magjan's works became highly popular among Kazakh intellectuals. During the summer and winter of 1917, he began taking part in the creation of Kazakh "Alash" party and
Alaş Orda, a coalition of Kazakh nationalists who wanted a new national government that promoted
Islam and was independent from their Russian overlords. Magjan was present at both All-Kazakh congresses as a delegate of
Akmolinsk Oblast. Magjan moved back and forth between
Petropavl and
Ufa before finally settling in the Russian capital of
Moscow. While living there, he translated the works of
Lermontov,
Koltsov,
Balmont,
Merezhkovsky,
Ivanov,
Mamin-Sibiriak,
Maksim Gorky,
Alexander Blok,
Goethe,
Heine and other poets into
Arabic,
Kazakh,
Turkish, and
Persian. After finishing his higher education in 1927, he returned to his hometown in
Kazakhstan to work as teacher.
Arrest Because of the unfair accusation of being a
Pan-Turkist member of Alaş Orda and a Japanese spy, Jumabayev was arrested in
Petropavl and convicted for the 10-year deprivation of liberty. Until his court date he had been staying in
Butyrka prison, and later was sent to
Karelia and
Arkhangelsk Oblast. In 1934,
Maksim Gorky and
Peshkova received a letter from him and due to their intervention Magjan Jumabayev was emancipated before the appointed time. However, just half a year later he was arrested in
Almaty again and executed by shooting of
NKVD on 19 March 1938. ==Legacy==