Osman Nuri-Asanovich Akchokrakly (January 3, 1879, Bakhchisarai, Taurida province or Van, Van — April 17, 1938, Simferopol) was a figure of the Crimean Tatar cultural revival. Poet, writer, journalist, historian-archaeologist, orientalist, linguist-polyglot, ethnographer, literary critic, teacher. He became a victim of Stalin's repressions.
He was born on January 3, 1878 in Bakhchisarai, in the family of a calligrapher who was famous for his excellent Arabic writing and passed on his skill to his son. He received his primary education in the Bakhchisarai Zyndzhirly madrasah. In 1894-1896 he studied in Constantinople at the gymnasium "Daoud Pasha". In 1908, for the purpose of self-education, he visited Cairo, where he took private lessons from the sheikhs of Al-Azhar on the history of the East, Arabic literature and archaeology. In the questionnaires, he modestly indicated his own education as "incomplete secondary". This, however, did not prevent universities from inviting him as a teacher.
He started his career in St. Petersburg. He taught calligraphy at the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University (including I. Y. Krachkovsky), decorated some mosques of St. Petersburg and Bakhchisarai with ornaments and quotations from the Koran. In 1896-1900 he worked as a proofreader and typesetter in the publishing house of his teacher I. Boragansky. The same publishing house published translations of works of classical Russian literature made by Akchokrakly into the Crimean Tatar language ("The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" by A. S. Pushkin, "The Marriage" by N. V. Gogol, Krylov's fables). In 1901-1905 he served in the army. Since 1906 he has worked in various newspapers and magazines, including Ulfet (St. Petersburg), Vakt and Shura (Orenburg)
As a scientist, he was formed under the influence of the Crimean Tatar educator Ismail Gasprinsky. He worked in the editorial office of the first Crimean Tatar newspaper "Terjiman" (in 1906 and 1910-1916), combining journalism with teaching at the famous Zyndzhirly madrasah. He was one of the two directors of the Bakhchisarai Mutual Credit Society and treasurer of the Bakhchisarai Library Society. In 1913-1916 he completed a full course of Russian calligraphy at the Kossodo Institute in Odessa. Later, in the spring of 1921, on his initiative and with his direct participation, the House-Museum of Ismail Gasprinsky was opened in the house where Terjiman was printed.
