Fazil Iskander

{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}}{{Short description|Soviet and Russian writer (1929–2016)}} {{family name hatnote|Abdulovich|Iskander|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Fazil Iskander | image = Fazil_Iskander_in_2010.jpg | caption = Iskander being awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2010 | pseudonym = | birth_name = Искандер, Фазиль Абдулович<br/>Fazil Abdulovich Iskander | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1929|3|6}} | birth_place = Sukhumi, SSRA, TSFSR, USSR | death_date ={{Death date and age|2016|7|31|1929|3|6|df=y}} | death_place =Peredelkino, Russia | resting_place = | occupation = Novelist, essayist, poet | nationality = Russian | education = | period = | genre = memoirs, satire, parable, essays, aphorism | notableworks = ''Sandro of Chegem'' | spouse = | partner = | relatives = Abdul Ibragimovich Iskander (father);<br/> Leili Khasanovna Iskander (mother);<br/> Feredun Abdulovich Iskander (brother);<br/> Giuli Abdulovna Iskander (sister) | awards = {{Plainlist| * {{Awards|USSR State Prize|1989}} * {{Awards|Alfred Toepfer foundation's Pushkin Prize|1992}} * {{Awards|State Prize of the Russian Federation|1993, 2013}} * {{Awards|Triumph Prize (Russia)|1999}} * {{Awards|Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"|1999, 2004, 2010}} * {{Awards|Order of Honour and Glory, 1st class (Abkhazia)|2002}} * {{Awards|Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award|2011}} * {{Awards|Ivan Bunin literary award|2013}} }} | signature = Автограф Фазиля Искандера.png | imagesize = 250px }} [[File:Abkhazia 10 apsar Ag 2009 Iskander b.jpg|thumb|right|249px|Reverse side of a 10 apsar commemorative coin minted on 6 May 2009 to celebrate Fazil Iskander's 80th birthday.]] '''Fazil Abdulovich Iskander'''{{efn|{{langx|ru|Фази́ль Абду́лович Исканде́р}}; {{langx|ab|Фазиль Абдул-иԥа Искандер|Fazil Abdul-ipa Isk’ander}}}} (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian<ref name="rg">"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who praised Abkhazia a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't written anything in the Abkhaz language. The choice of Russian culture was principal to me." ''[https://rg.ru/2011/03/04/iskander.html It is stifling to live without conscience] interview in Rossiyskaya Gazeta'', March 4, 2011 (in Russian)</ref> writer and poet known in the former Soviet Union for his descriptions of Caucasian life. He authored various stories, including "Zashchita Chika", which features a crafty and likeable young boy named "Chik", but is probably best known for the picaresque novel ''Sandro of Chegem'' and its sequel ''The Gospel According to Chegem''.

==Biography==

===Early life=== Fazil Abdulovich Iskander was born in 1929 in the cosmopolitan port city of Sukhumi, Georgia (then part of the USSR) to an Iranian father (Abdul Ibragimovich Iskander) and an Abkhazian mother (Leili Khasanovna Iskander).<ref name="Christine Rydel p 122">Christine Rydel. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vs0UAQAAIAAJ&q=Leili+Khasanovna ''Russian Prose Writers After World War II, Volume 302'']. p 122. Thomson Gale, 2005 {{ISBN|0787668397}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-fazil-iskander-remembrance/27893385.html |title= A Remembrance Of Fazil Iskander: 'We Have All Lost A Close Relative' |newspaper= Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date= August 2016 |publisher= RFERL |access-date= 2023-07-20 |last1= Coalson |first1= Robert }}</ref> His father was deported to Iran in 1938 and sent to a penal camp where he died in 1957.<ref name="books.google.nl">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JBuQRtfmFxAC&pg=PA62 |title=The Myth of the Non-Russian: Iskander and Aitmatov's Magical Universe|isbn=9780739105313|accessdate=24 October 2014|last1=Haber|first1=Erika|year=2003|publisher=Lexington Books }}</ref> His father was the victim of Joseph Stalin's deportation policies of the national minorities of the Caucasus.<ref name="Christine Rydel p 122" /> As a result, Fazil and his brother Feredun and his sister Giuli were raised by his mother's Abkhazian family.<ref name="Christine Rydel p 122" /><ref name="books.google.nl" /> Fazil was only nine years old at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IM8YAAAAYAAJ&q=fazil+iskander+iran+father|title=Soviet Literature and Art: Almanac|year=1990|accessdate=11 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA635069283&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=0307661X&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ed5d9f410 |title= On rabbits and boa constrictors: Fazil Iskander: the 'bard of Abkhazia' who produced tragicomic chronicles of Soviet bureaucracy |publisher= NI Syndication Limited}}</ref>

===Career=== The most famous intellectual of Abkhazia,{{citation needed|date=July 2016}} he first became well known in the mid-1960s along with other representatives of the "young prose" movement like Yury Kazakov and Vasily Aksyonov, especially for what is perhaps his best story,<ref>Edward J. Brown, ''Russian Literature Since the Revolution'' (Harvard University Press, 1982: {{ISBN|0-674-78204-6}}), p. 331.</ref> ''Sozvezdie kozlotura'' (1966), variously translated as "The Goatibex Constellation," "The Constellation of the Goat-Buffalo," and "Constellation of Capritaurus." It is written from the point of view of a young newspaperman who returns to his native Abkhazia, joins the staff of a local newspaper, and is caught up in the publicity campaign for a newly produced farm animal, a cross between a goat and a West Caucasian tur (''Capra caucasica''); a "remarkable satire of Lysenko's genetics and Khrushchev's agricultural campaigns, it was harshly criticized for showing the Soviet Union in a bad light."<ref>Karen L. Ryan-Hayes, ''Contemporary Russian Satire: A Genre Study'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006: {{ISBN|0-521-02626-1}}), p. 15.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A460804243/ITOF?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=9c667c64 | title= Iranian-Russian author Iskander dies at 88 | publisher = Iran Daily }}</ref>

He is probably best known in the English speaking world for ''Sandro of Chegem'', a picaresque novel that recounts life in a fictional Abkhaz village from the early years of the 20th century until the 1970s, which evoked praise for the author as "an Abkhazian Mark Twain."<ref name = "S. Jacoby">Jacoby, Susan. [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/books/an-abkhazian-mark-twain.html "An Abkhazian Mark Twain".] ''The New York Times''. 15 May 1983. Retrieved 24 June 2009.</ref> Mr. Iskander's humor, like Mark Twain's, has a tendency to sneak up on you instead of hitting you over the head.<ref name="S. Jacoby"/> This rambling, amusing and ironic work has been considered as an example of magic realism, although Iskander himself said he "did not care for Latin American magic realism in general".<ref name=haber>{{cite book |title= The Myth of the Non-Russian|last= Haber|first= Erika|year= 2003|publisher= Lexington Books|isbn= 0-7391-0531-0|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JBuQRtfmFxAC&pg=PA69 }}</ref> Five films were made based upon parts of the novel.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2016/08/01/writer-fazil-iskander-dies-aged-87-a54809 |title= Fazil Iskander: A Colorful, Lyrical and Deeply Funny Writer |date= August 2016 |publisher= The Moscow Times |access-date= 2023-07-20}}</ref>

Iskander distanced himself from the Abkhaz secessionist strivings in the late 1980s and criticised both Georgian and Abkhaz communities of Abkhazia for their ethnic prejudices. {{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} He warned that Abkhazia could become a new Nagorno-Karabakh. {{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} Later Iskander resided in Moscow and was a writer for the newspaper ''Kultura''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.swarthmore.edu/muslim-russia/fazil-iskander-forbidden-fruit |title= Fazil' Iskander, "Forbidden Fruit" |date= 8 July 2014 |publisher= Swarthmore College |access-date= 2023-07-20}}</ref>

On 3 September 2011, a statue of Iskander's literary character ''Chik'' was unveiled on Sukhumi's Muhajir Quay.<ref name=regnum1441828>{{cite news|title=В Абхазии появился первый памятник литературному герою|url=http://www.regnum.ru/news/tourism/1441828.html|accessdate=23 September 2011|newspaper=Regnum|date=4 September 2011}}</ref>

==Family== Iskander had been married to a Russian poet Antonina Mikhailovna Khlebnikova since 1960. In 2011 the couple published a book of poems entitled ''Snow and Grapes'' to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.<ref name='rg' /> They had one son and one daughter.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

== Death == Iskander died in his home on 31 July 2016 in Peredelkino, aged 87.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.euronews.com/2016/07/31/abkhaz-writer-fazil-iskander-dies-aged-87|title=Abkhaz writer Fazil Iskander dies, aged 87|date=July 31, 2016|website=euronews|access-date=2016-07-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/Fazil-Iskander-passes-away.html|title=Fazil Iskander passes away|date=July 31, 2016|website=vestnikkavkaza.net|access-date=2016-07-31|archive-date=2016-08-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801173157/http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/Fazil-Iskander-passes-away.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Awards and prizes== [[File:Abkhazia-Russia talk February 2010 08.jpg|thumb|Presentation of the Order "For Merit of the Fatherland", 4nd class with Dmitry Medvedev, 17 February 2010]] * USSR State Prize (1989) - for his novel "Sandro of Chegem"<ref>The Myth of the Non-Russian: Iskander and Aitmatov's Magical Universe, Erika Haber, Lexington Books, UK, 2003. (Page 65: "Iskander was awarded the USSR State Prize in November 1989")</ref><ref>Remaking Russia: Voices from Within, Edited by Heyward Isham, Intro by Richard Pipes, M.E. Sharp 1995. (Intro, page xviii, "USSR State Prize 1989")</ref> * Alfred Toepfer foundation's Pushkin Prize (1992)<ref name="toepfer">{{cite news|url=http://www.toepfer-stiftung.de/index.php?id=131&L=0|title=Puschkin-Preis 2005 für Boris Paramonow|date=2005-05-26|publisher=Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S.|language=de|accessdate=2009-10-03}}</ref> * State Prize of the Russian Federation in Literature and Arts (1993, 2013)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7_%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%A0%D0%A4_%D0%BE%D1%82_7.12.1993_%E2%84%96_2120|script-title=ru:Указ Президента РФ от 7.12.1993 № 2120|last=Yeltsin|first=Boris|author-link=Boris Yeltsin|date=2003-12-07|publisher=Официальный сайт Президента Российской Федерации|language=ru|accessdate=2009-10-03|location=Moscow}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rusemb.org.uk/press/1838|title=Winners of the 2013 Russian Federation National Awards announced|accessdate=29 October 2015}}</ref> * Triumph Prize (1999).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abkhaz.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=37|title=abkhaz.org|access-date=2010-12-11|archive-date=2011-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724214638/http://www.abkhaz.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=37|url-status=dead}}</ref> * Order of Honour and Glory, 1st class (Abkhazia, 18 June 2002) <ref name="vakfi">{{cite news|url=http://www.kafkas.org.tr/russian/Ajans/2002/haziran/20.06.2002_fazil_iskender_madalya.htm|script-title=ru:Фазиль Искандер награжден высшим орденом Абхазии|date=2002-06-20|publisher=Kafkas Vakfi|language=ru|access-date=2009-10-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217111843/http://www.kafkas.org.tr/russian/Ajans/2002/haziran/20.06.2002_fazil_iskender_madalya.htm|archive-date=2012-02-17}}</ref> * Order of Merit for the Fatherland;)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elkost.com/authors/iskander|title=Fazil Iskander|accessdate=29 October 2015}}</ref> **2nd class (29 September 2004) **3rd class (3 March 1999) **4th class (13 March 2009, presented on February 17, 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.kremlin.ru/news/6895|title=Дмитрий Медведев наградил писателя Фазиля Искандера орденом "За заслуги перед Отечеством" IV степени|date=17 February 2010 }}</ref>) * Honorary Member of Russian Academy of Arts * Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award (2011) - for the novel "Sandro of Chegem"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://novostiliteratury.ru/2011/10/novosti/fazilya-iskandera-nagradili-premiej-yasnaya-polyana/|title=Фазиля Искандера наградили премией "Ясная Поляна"}}</ref> * Ivan Bunin literary award (2013)

In 2009, Bank of Abkhazia issued a commemorative silver coin from the series "Outstanding Personalities of Abkhazia", dedicated to Fazil Iskander denomination of 10 apsaras. {{Citation needed|date=July 2016}}

Already after the writer's death, the Fazil Iskander International Literary Prize was established in Russia in three nominations: prose, poetry and screenplay based on the works of [https://abaza.org/en/fazil-iskander-wiseman-from-chegem#:~:text=Already%20after%20the%20writer's%20death,Russian%20Drama%20Theater%20in%20Sukhum. Iskander]. The Fazil Iskander International Literary Award is now in its sixth year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://god-literatury.ru/2022/06/11/winners-fazil-iskander-prize-longlist/|title=Fazil Iskander International Literary Prize}}</ref> was established on August 3, 2016 by the Russian branch of the International Russian PEN Center.

==Works==

===Works in English translation=== *''Forbidden Fruit and Other Stories'', Central Books LTD, 1972. *''The Goatibex Constellation'', Ardis, 1975. * {{cite journal |last1=Lindsey |first1=Byron |last2=Iskander |first2=Fazil |last3=Burlingame |first3=Helen |title=The Goatibex Constellation |journal=Books Abroad |date=1976 |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=905 |doi=10.2307/40131179 |jstor=40131179 }} * ''Contemporary Russian Prose'' (English and Russian Edition), 1980 {{ISBN|978-0-882-33596-4}} *''Sandro of Chegem'', Vintage Books, 1983. {{ISBN|978-0-394-71516-2}} *''The Gospel According to Chegem'', Vintage Books, 1984.{{ISBN|978-0-394-72377-8}} *''Chik and His Friends'', Ardis 1985. * ''Bolshoi den bolshogo doma: Rasskazy'', 1986 * {{cite journal |last1=Iskander |first1=Fazil |title=Fooling with words |journal=Index on Censorship |date=May 1988 |volume=17 |issue=5 |pages=19–20 |doi=10.1080/03064228808534413 |s2cid=146216870 |doi-access=free }} *''Rabbits and Boa Constrictors'', Ardis, 1989. (Co-authored with Ronald E. Peterson) {{ISBN|978-0-882-33557-5}} *''The Old House Under the Cypress Tree'', Faber and Faber, 1996. *''The Thirteenth Labour of Hercules'', Raduga, 1997. * ''Rasskazy, povestʹ, skazka, dialog, ėsse, stikhi (Zerkalo)'' (Russian Edition), 1999 {{ISBN|978-5-891-78090-3}} * ''Parom'' (Russian Edition), 2004 {{ISBN|978-5-941-17138-5}} * ''Kozy i Shekspir: [Goats and Shakespear: ]'', Russian Edition, 2008 * ''Put' iz Variag v Greki'' (The Road from the Varangians to the Greeks), Russian Edition 2008 {{ISBN|978-5-969-10305-4}} * ''Zoloto Vil'gel'ma: Povesti, Rasskazy'' (Gold of Vilgel'm: Stories, tales), 2010. * ''L'energia della vergogna'' (Italian Edition), 2014. * ''The Mystery of Conscience'', 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-329-31637-9}} * ''Departures'', 2016 {{ISSN|1066-999X}} * ''Sandró de Cheguem (Narrativa)'' (Spanish Edition), 2017 {{ISBN|978-8-415-50938-7}} * ''Druzia-priiateli/Detstvo Chika'', Russian Edition 2018 {{ISBN|978-5-928-72977-6}} * ''Zvezdnyy kamen'' (Russian Edition), 2019 {{ISBN|978-5-969-11841-6}} * ''The Commonwealth Reconstructed'' {{ISBN|978-5-871-07810-5}} * {{Cite book |title= Les lapins et les boas (Littérature étrangère rivages) |last= Iskander |first= Fazil |authorlink= Fazil Iskander |year= 1990 |publisher= Rivages|isbn= 978-2-869-30408-6 |pages= |url= }} * {{Cite book |title= Kroliki i udavy |last= Iskander |first= Fazil |authorlink= Fazil Iskander |year= 1988 |publisher= Книжная палата|isbn= 978-5-700-00016-1 |pages= 288 |url= }}

===Online=== *[https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28Fazil%2A%20Iskander%29 Works by Fazil Iskander on Archive.org]

===Further reading=== *[http://www3.irna.ir/en/News/81536272/ Russian writer of Iranian origin hailed in Moscow.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082601/http://www3.irna.ir/en/News/81536272/ |date=2015-05-18 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Kriza |first1=Elisa |title=Blood Carnival and Its Variations in Mexican and Soviet Subversive Satires by René Avilés and Fazil Iskander |journal=Comparative Literature Studies |date=2021 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=397–430 |doi=10.5325/complitstudies.58.2.0397 |s2cid=238010747 |id={{Project MUSE|794578}} }} * {{cite journal |last1=Milne |first1=Lesley |title=Fazil' Iskander: From 'Petukh' to 'Pshada' |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |date=1996 |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=445–463 |jstor=4212146 }}

==See also== * {{portal-inline|Abkhazia}}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== * [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0411225/ Fazil Iskander IMDb] * [https://www.elkost.com/authors/iskander Author Biography: Fazil Iskander] at ''ELKOST International Literary Agency''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iskander, Fazil}} Category:1929 births Category:2016 deaths Category:People from Sukhumi Category:Abkhazian writers Category:Iranian writers Category:Iranian people of Abkhazian descent Category:Recipients of the USSR State Prize Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Category:Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Category:State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Category:Pushkin Prize winners Category:Russian male novelists Category:Soviet novelists Category:Soviet male writers Category:20th-century Russian male writers Category:Soviet short story writers Category:20th-century Russian short story writers Category:Honorary members of the Russian Academy of Arts Category:Russian humorists Category:Russian people of Abkhazian descent Category:Russian people of Iranian descent Category:Russian male short story writers Category:Soviet people of Iranian descent Category:Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni