LANGUAGE AND NATION ISSUES IN THE WORKS OF MAHMUDKHOJA BEHBUDI

This article examines the conceptual intersection of linguistic reform and national identity in the literary and journalistic corpus of Mahmudkhoja Behbudi (1875–1919), a foundational figure of the Jadidist movement in Central Asia. By analyzing his seminal drama Padarkush (The Patricide), his pedagogical textbooks, and numerous articles published in Oyna and Samarqand, this study elucidates Behbudi’s vision of "nationhood" as a construct inextricably linked to literacy, linguistic polyphony, and educational modernization. Behbudi argued that the survival of the Turkestani people in the face of colonial encroachment and internal stagnation depended on the synthesis of traditional Islamic values with modern European administrative and scientific knowledge. Central to this was his "four languages" doctrine, which positioned linguistic proficiency as both a defensive mechanism against cultural erosion and a tool for socio-political liberation. The article employs a socio-historical and philological analysis to argue that Behbudi used language not merely as a medium of communication, but as a primary site for the construction of a modern, enlightened national consciousness.