Barno Iskhakova (12 May 1927 - 7 September 2001; , , , ) was a Soviet and Bukharian Jewish musician from

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

Early life

Iskhakova was born in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

,Uzbekistan
Da'at

Uzbek SSR The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Uzbek branch of the Soviet Communist P ...

to the traditional Bukharian Jewish family of Berakh and Rachel Iskhakov.

Career

From 1941 to 1943 she worked as a librarian at the Tashkent Secondary School No. 24, and between 1943 and 1945 as a singer for the choir of the Radio of the Uzbek SSR. She is the first woman to become a professional Shashmaqam singer. After World War 2, she and her husband moved to Stalinabad (Dushanbe) and made her career as a singer there, working since 1950 as a soloist at the Radio Department of the

Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Tajikistan, the Tajik SSR, TaSSR, or simply Tajikistan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1929 to 1991 in Central Asia. The Tajik Re ...

. Barno Iskhakova was considered one of the greatest modern female singers in the history of Central Asia and Tajikistan. She was married to singer Isroel Badalbayev, although she retained her original surname as a stage name. Her first song — "Allah" won an award in the National Review. She is considered a remarkable performer, in the same class as other Tajik stars as Seeno, Davlatmand Kholov, and Daler Nazarov. Iskhakova became was very famous for her rendition of traditional Shashmaqam songs in Tajik and Uzbek, and other songs in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, as well as her mother tongue of Bukhori. She was known as ''the Queen of the Shashmaqam'' tradition of Tajik music,Ellingham, Mark.
The Rough Guide to World Music
'.

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

she sang side by side on the radio and television with other famous performers of the Tajik Soviet Era such as Neriyo Aminov, Rafael Tolmasov, Shoista Mullojonova,

Hanifa Mavlianova Hanifa Muhiddinovna Mavlianova (, ; 30 January 1924 – 24 October 2010) was a Soviet and Tajik soprano opera and concert singer, born in Leninabad (today Khujand), Tajikistan. She graduated from the musical college in her home town in 1936. From ...

, Rena Galibova, Ahmad Boboqulov, and others. Her repertoire consisted of more than 100 songs.ברנו יצחקובה
. Bukharan Museum of Israel Since 1980, Iskhakova worked also as a senior teacher of the Oriental Music Department of the Tajik State Institute of Arts in

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

. Jurakhon Obidpur. Луғатномаи тафсирии мусиқӣ / зери назари Б.Қобилова. — Душанбе: Аржанг, 2019. — С.159-160. — 480 с. ISBN 978-999-47-43-90-2 When Soviet Tajik writer

Sadriddin Ayni Sadriddin Ayni (, , ; 15 April 1878 – 15 July 1954) was a Tajik intellectual who wrote poetry, fiction, journalism, history, and a dictionary. He is regarded by Tajiks as Tajikistan's national poet and one of the most important writers in the ...

heard her sing, he called her "Levicha among women" for Levi (Levicha) Babakhanov was a famous Bukharian Jewish traditional singer who performed for the last Emir of Bukhara in the early 20th century. The Tajik folk singer and rubab player Jurabek Nabiev has said he was inspired to pursue a professional career after listening to Iskhakova, who was his teacher.Ҷӯрабек Набиев: "Ҳоло шавқи сурудхонӣ дар дилам намурдааст
Radio Ozodi She took part in the recording of the entire series "Shashmaqam", which is stored in the National Music Archives of Tajikistan.

Awards and honors

She won the State Rudaki Prize of the Tajik SSR, the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

, and the

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

as well as Honored and People's Artist of the Tajik SSR.

Family

Barno Ishakova and Isroel Badalbayev had five children: Sofia, Olga, Tamara, Bertha, and Roman. Her daughter Sofia Badalbayeva lives in Israel and is also a Shashmaqam singer.Суҳбат бо София Бадалбоева, овозхони тоҷики исроилӣ

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Later life

She immigrated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

with her family in 1992 due to the

Civil War in Tajikistan The Tajikistani Civil War,, group=pron also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of Preside ...

, and the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism following the collapse of the USSR. She died on September 7th, 2001, in

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

. She, along with her husband Isroel, are buried at the Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Legacy

In May 2017, the city of

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

named a street for her.

References

* Broughton, Simon and Sultanova, Razia "Bards of the Golden Road" c. 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Itzhakova, Barno 1927 births 2001 deaths Musicians from Tashkent Bukharan Jews Soviet Jews 20th-century Israeli women singers 20th-century Tajikistani women singers 20th-century Uzbekistani women singers Russian-language singers of Uzbekistan Russian-language singers of Tajikistan Tajik-language singers Tajik-language singers of Uzbekistan Uzbek-language singers of Tajikistan Soviet women singers Tajikistani women singers People's Artists of the Tajik SSR Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Tajikistani emigrants to Israel Burials at Har HaMenuchot