Bal-Jawadi

Abdullah Almaz Nasham Bal-Jawadi, commonly known as Bal-Jawadi, was a political activist and Akhadic ideologist during the 15th century, particularly in today Kyrzbekistan and Zargistan. He was born in Urë, today southeastern Kyrzbekistan, and he was a member of the Jawadi tribe. One of the founders of Akhadic Modernism and an advocate of Pan-Akhadic unity, he has been described as being less interested in minor differences in Akhadic jurisprudence than he was in organizing an Akhadic response to the modern world.

Life

He was educated first at home and then taken by his father for further education to Dashkek, to Askhabad, and finally, while he was still a youth, to the Akhadic city of Ashar. It is thought that moderate Kuzhe Salah Suleiman had an influence on him.

At the age of 18, Bal-Jamadi travelled to the Angirisian Empire and spent a number of years there studying religions and history. In 1422, an Angirisian spy reported that Bal-Jamadi was a possible Zargistani agent. Their teachers reported to the police that he wore traditional cloths of Northern Zargistan and spoke Mestran, Angirisian, Ashked, Ga'bathi, Kyrzbek, and Arberësh fluently.

He reportedly travelled to Eastern Kyrzbekistan, then part of the Kingdom of Arbërë, in 1426 and spent time in Tabul, Kalkyr, and Magan. After the Kyrzbek Revolt of 1429, he left the country.

He travelled to Ashar again, passing through Takar, Ga'bath, on his way here. He stayed in Takar long enough to meet a young student who would become a devoted disciple of him, Sadik Namir.

In 1438, Bal-Jawadi moved to Zargistan and began preaching his ideas of political reform. His ideas were considered radical, and he was exiled in 1442. He then travelled to different Ostaran and non-Ostaran cities: Gall, Datium, Cias, Ishtanbal, Wadiyin, Westmarch, Athenne, Halvadag.

In 1449, once established in Ga'bath, he began publishing a Ashked language newspaper entitled “The Unbreakable Faith”, with Sadik Namir. The newspaper called for a return to the original principles and ideals of Akhadism, and for greater unity among Akhadic peoples. He argued that this would allow the Akhadic community to regain its former strength which it had once in the past.

After the death of Kreshnik I, Bal-Jamadi was allowed to return to the Arbërian monarchy. After eleven months of preaching to admirers in Eastern Kyrzbekistan, he was arrested in 1456, transported to the Northern border, and evicted from the country. Although Bal-Jamadi had rarely pleasant words for most of the rulers of the region, it is said he “reserved his strongest hatred for the Arbërian King", whom he denounced as an infidel and of trying to destroy Akhadism in the country. His agitation against the Arbërian monarchy is thought to have been one of the “fountain-heads” of the failed Second Kyrzbek Revolt.

Political philosophy

Bal-Jawadi's ideology has been described as a transition from traditional religious Akhadism to “a modern critique of secular rule and an appeal for the unity of the Akhadic communities”, urging the adoption of Western techniques and institution that might strengthen Akhadism, but under the strong influence of Zokuk, or Akhadic law.

Although called a liberal by some contemporary Arbërian writers, Bal-Jamadi did not advocate constitutional government. He simply evisioned “the overthrow of non-Akhadic rulers and those Akhadic individuals who were lax or subservient to foreigners, and their replacement by strong religious and patriotic men”.

He believed that Akhadism and its revealed law were compatible with rationality and, thus, Akhadic believers could become politically unified while still maintaining their faith based on a religious social morality. These beliefs had a profound effect on Salah Hattab, who went to expand on the notion of using rationality in the human relations aspect of Akhadism.

In 1461, he published a collection of polemics titled “On Akhadic Rule”, agitating for pan-Akhadic unity against non-Akhadic and secular rulers.

Last years

He moved to Wadyiah in 1463. Bal-Jawadi died of lung cancer on 18 Dein 1466 in Altairah and was buried there. In late 1498, due to the request of the Ashar government, his remains were taken to Ashar and laid inside the Asadi Akhadic University, where a mausoleum was erected for him there.

During the existence of the Akhadic Republic of Kyrzbekistan (1562-1568), many places like streets, hospitals, schools, temples, parks, and roads were named after him. Most of them were changed following the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan, but a few remains.