Kamal Qazi (1885-?) was a famous scholar in Turkestan. He was the chairman of the “Mahkamai Sharia” office of Muslims of Turkestan established in Tashkent.
Kamoliddin Rakhmonberdiyev was born in 1885 in Tashkent in a family of scholars. In other archival documents, he is mentioned several times as a Kokand priest [1]. His influence was high in Tashkent and Kokand. As a great scholar, he gained great fame in the entire Fergana Valley, except Kokand and Tashkent.
In November 1917, Kamal Rahmonberdiyev (Kamal Qazi) was elected a member of the Turkestan National Assembly. After the end of the autonomous government, he came to Tashkent from Kokand and engaged in prayer and imamat in the mosque. He served in many mosques in Tashkent and Fergana Valley until he was imprisoned by the Chekists.
On February 22, 1936, the NKVD of the Uzbek SSR imprisoned Kamal Qazi [Kamoliddin Rahmonberdiyev] and the former chairman of the Department of Muslims of the country Zakhriddin A’lam [Zuhriddin A’lam Kasim Khojayev] and others among the famous Uzbek scholars in Tashkent. They were falsely accused of “creating a group of counter-revolutionary pan-Islamist Muslim clerics, actively organizing anti-Soviet activities, and disseminating anti-Soviet-terrorist documents”.
With this “Muslim clerics” (Musdukhovenstvo) case, the Soviet regime resumed the policy of mass repression against clerics in Uzbekistan. At the hearing of the special collegium of the Supreme Court of the Uzbek SSR on May 31 - June 3, 1936, Zahriddin A’lam and Tarpi were sentenced to 8 years, Abdusaid Shahidov 6 years, Shorasul Zunnunov 4 years, and Kamal Qazi 3 years to a labor camp. However, later only Sh. Zunnunov returned to Tashkent from prison [2]. I hope that the full biography of Kamal Qazi will be recovered in further research.
[1] Oʻzbekiston milliy xavfsizlik xizmati arxivi, P-24082, b jildlik. Tom 6.49-varaq.
[2] Oʻzbekiston tarixi (1917-1991-yillar). Ikkita kitob. Birinchi kitob. 1917-1939-yillar. Masʼul muharrirlar: R.Abdullayev, M.Raximov, Q.Rajabov. - Toshkent: “0ʻzbekiston”, 2019. - B.468.
