Oyina (fa|آینه, 'The Mirror') was a bilingual Turki-Persian newspaper published from Samarkand, Russian Turkestan 1913-1915.[1] The newspaper was published by Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy.[2] It functioned as an organ of the Jadid social reform movement.
Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy was a wealthy philanthropist and social reformer in Samarkand.[3] Out of nine pre-revolutionary newspapers in Turkestan were all short-lived and struggled with finances, Oyina was arguably the most successful.[1] The newspaper was launched in August 1913.[1] The newspaper played a significant role in spreading Enlightenment ideas.[2] It was the most important periodical of the Jadid movement in Turkestan.[3] In the pages of Oyina "the development of national education, language, and literature, in order to overcome the feudal-patriarchal backwardness of their peoples and to facilitate their liberation from colonial oppression".[4] In articles in Oyina Mahmudkhodja Behbudiy would attack religious impurity, sinning, pederasty and alcohol consumption, and would call for the development of a new generation of educated Islamic clergy.[5]
Whilst the newspaper was bilingual, different languages were assigned different roles. About two-thirds of the articles (such as news reporting, articles on science and editorials) were written in Turki.[2] The remaining third of the article (essays and texts on philosophical issues) were written in Persian.[2] Moreover, some advertisements in the newspaper were in Russian language.[2]
served as temporary editor of Oyina around 1914-1915.[2] [6] Many texts by Hoji Muin appeared in the pages of Oyina.[2]
Oyina was published more or less weekly for a period of twenty months.[7] Oyina closed down in June 1915 after 68 issues.[1] The publication struggled with its finances.[7] The economic difficulties of publishing in the midst of World War I further exacerbated this situation.[7] By the end of its first year of publishing Oyina had merely 234 paid subscribers.[7]