Kayum Nasyri

Kayum Nasyri (birth name Nasyrov Gabdelkayum Gabdennasyrovich) was a Tatar scholar and enlightener, linguist, writer, historian, ethnographer, and educator. He received his first education in his father's maktab and studied at the Qasimiya Madrasa in Kazan from 1841 to 1855, while learning Russian independently. From 1855 to 1871 he taught Tatar at the Kazan Theological School and later at the Kazan Theological Seminary. In 1871 he opened a Russo-Tatar school for Tatar pupils in Kazan; in 1876 he left the school and concentrated on literary and scholarly work. In 1885 he was elected a full member of the Society of Archaeology, History and Ethnography at Kazan University. Nasyri made major contributions to Tatar lexicography, grammar, ethnography, history, education, and the development of the modern Tatar literary language. His works include the Russian-Tatar dictionary “Lögät kitaby” (1892), the first explanatory dictionary of Tatar “Lähcäi tatari” (1895–1896), “Fäwäkih el-cöläsä fil ädäbiyat” (1884), and textbooks on arithmetic, geometry, and geography. From 1871 to 1897, with interruptions, he published the annual “Kazan Calendar”, combining calendar, scholarly, and literary materials.