The Drama Patricide: Analysis of the First Edition and Its Adaptations

The article examines the original version of Mahmudkhoja Behbudi’s play Padarkush yoxud o‘qimagan bolaning holi (“Patricide, or the Fate of an Uneducated Son”), written in 1911 and published in 1913, comparing it with the editions released during the years of Uzbekistan’s independence. In Uzbek literary studies, Behbudi is regarded as one of the founders of modern Uzbek literature, and his drama Padarkush is recognized as the first Uzbek tragedy. The play vividly depicts the brutality of the khanate period in Turkestan, the tragic consequences of hatred toward one’s father, and the horrifying act of a son becoming his father’s murderer.The research analyzes not only the original text but also several later editions: the 1989 version published by Sherali Turdiev in the journal Sharq yulduzi (‘Eastern Star’); the 2006 and 2020 editions edited by Professor Begali Qosimov; and the 2018 adaptation prepared by the diligent scholar Sirojiddin Ahmedov. By comparing the first publication with the post-independence editions and adaptations, the researcher aims to introduce new and previously unaddressed insights into the scholarly discourse.Furthermore, the author pays particular attention to issues of textual scholarship such as accurate reading of texts, appropriate use of words, special consideration of borrowed vocabulary, and the identification and interpretation of archaic words through dictionaries. As a result, the study substantiates the linguistic and stylistic transformations found in the modern editions by drawing upon the original source. The research employs descriptive and comparative methods to achieve these objectives.