Photographs
Plates
Ten photographs, recovered from the Foundation’s own website of 2004–2006 after the site went offline. They are small — the largest is 625 pixels across — and they are all the pictures of him we have in hand.
Two of them we cannot caption honestly.
One is a sepia studio portrait of a young man in a striped chapan holding a long-necked lute. It is either the young Ziyodullo or his father Muqaddaskhon in the years of the salon. We do not know which, and the difference matters, so the caption says what it is and not who.
The other shows Shahidi beside a white-haired man who looks like Aram Khachaturian. A resemblance is not an identification. Until someone who was there tells us, the caption says “unidentified”.
Where a photographer is unknown the plate says so rather than saying nothing.
If the family holds prints, negatives, concert programmes or scores that have never been scanned — of him, of the house, of the instruments, of performances — those would change this page completely.
29 images in all: the 10 plates of the Foundation's own gallery, and 19 more carried elsewhere on its site. The widest of them is 625 pixels across and prints 312 pixels wide. Every plate is printed at no more than half the width it was recovered at, which is why they are all different sizes and why none of them is soft.
What has been done to them, in full. Nothing has been upscaled, sharpened, cropped, colourised or reconstructed, and nothing here was generated.
- Size
- floor(native ÷ 2), never more. At least two image pixels to the screen pixel, so the plate is sharp instead of enlarged.
- Ink
- The 17 images measured as monochrome or sepia are printed in two inks, their brightness mapped onto the range between this page's darkest and lightest colours, so a plate shares the page's colour rather than sitting on it.
- Colour
- The 12 images that carry colour of their own are printed as recovered. Most are 2000s snapshots of the museum and the conservatory, taken around the time the site was built — not archival prints. Flattening them into the archival palette would dress a holiday photograph up as a document.
- Grain
- A tile of neutral noise is laid over each plate at screen resolution and stays inside its frame. The photograph's own grain sits at the file's resolution and the two merge. It is a printing reference. It touches no other part of this site.
- Measured
- Every pixel dimension, byte size and saturation figure below was measured from the file by
scripts/media-derive.mjs— including the monochrome / sepia / colour reading that decides the ink. None of it was transcribed, and no one decided by eye.
The plates
Ziyodullo Shahidi
PLATE I · 314 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Ziyodullo Shahidi
PLATE II · 564 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Studio portrait of a young man in a striped chapan with a long-necked lute
PLATE III · 252 × 277 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
The Foundation's own page named the sitter. Two men in this family fit the photograph and no source settles which, so the plate says what it is and not who.
The same bytes were published earlier at /shahiditanbur.jpg (captured 2001-11-28) — identical SHA-256, identical size. One photograph, one record. A smaller crop of the same portrait was also served as images/ZS2.jpg. Reads as high-saturation because the print is sepia-toned, not because it is a colour photograph.
Ziyodullo Shahidi
PLATE IV · 341 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Ziyodullo Shahidi and Mirsaid Mirshakar
PLATE V · 625 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Two men at a gathering, neither identified here
PLATE VI · 495 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
The Foundation's own page named both. The second man resembles someone other than the man it named, and a resemblance is not an identification. Rejecting half a caption while keeping the other half would be a choice about which name we liked, so the plate names neither. Both names are in the record.
Ziyodullo Shahidi and Tihon Khrennikov
PLATE VII · 598 × 432 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Ziyodullo Shahidi with his son Tolib and Dmitryi Shostakovitch
PLATE VIII · 611 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Also shown: Tolib Shahidi, son
Ziyodullo Shahidi with his granddaughter Nargis and daughter Munira
PLATE IX · 616 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Also shown: Munira Shahidi, daughter
The only recovered image naming Nargis. She shares the surname Nurulla-Khoja with Farangis in the Foundation's own 2001 contact list, but no recovered source states their relationship.
Ziyodullo Shahidi and his daughter Farangis
PLATE X · 298 × 444 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Also shown: Farangis Nurulla-Khoja, Displayed as granddaughter. The contrary caption is kept because an archive that quietly deletes its own contradictions is worth less than one that shows them. granddaughterBiography: Farangis Nurulla-Khoja (part 1) read 'Farangis Nurulla-Khoja is a granddaughter of Ziyodullo Shahidi' — the Foundation's own biography of her. granddaughterThree generations of Tajik composers of the 20th century (part III) read The 2001 essay says the same, in the same words. granddaughterМузыка Зиёдулло Шахиди на Великом шёлковом пути inferred Munira Shahidi calls her «моей дочери Фарангис Нурулла-Ходжа» — my daughter. Munira is Ziyodullo's daughter, so granddaughter follows. The source states the parent, not the grandparent; the step is ours, which is why this claim is marked inferred. daughterPhoto archive read The caption on photo page ph10 reads 'Ziyodullo Shahidi and his daughter Farangis'. Against four other readings including her mother's, this looks like a caption written in haste — but it is the Foundation's own page and is not deleted.granddaughter— sources disagree; show all 4 claims
The caption on this page calls Farangis his daughter. Every other Foundation page — biof.htm, essay1, essay3 — calls her his granddaughter, and Munira Shahidi called her «моей дочери» in 2026. The caption is recorded as a claim beside her name below, and is not silently corrected here.
Elsewhere on the site
CD cover: Ziyadullo Shakhidi — Sitorai Man
/images/CD2.jpg · 105 × 105 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgno higher resolution is held
Also shown: Ziyodullo Shahidi
105x105 px. The sleeve carries a portrait and the lines 'Sitorai Man / SONGS and ROMANCES / MAQOMS' SYMPHONY - Opera KOMDE va MADAN'. This is the disc the audio filenames abbreviate to SM. The cover spells his name Ziyadullo Shakhidi, a third romanisation.
CD cover: Ziyodullo Shahidi — Rethinking Maqam and Symphony
/images/CD.jpg · 105 × 105 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgprinted as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
105x105 px, the only image of this sleeve recovered. Cover text reads over a waterfall photograph. This is the disc the audio filenames abbreviate to RMAS.
Courtyard with a carved wooden daybed under fruit treesinferred
/pic4.jpg · 294 × 447 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
A 2002 colour snapshot on the announcements page, where volunteers were invited to Dushanbe. Uncaptioned; the caption here describes only what is in the frame.
Farangis Nurulla-Khojainferred
/images/F.jpg · 103 × 117 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
Uncaptioned. Identified from the filename and its place in the site's biography section.
Interior hung with a suzani, with tanbur, dutar and frame drum on a benchinferred
/picture1B.jpg · 434 × 294 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
A colour snapshot from the 2001-02 site. No recovered page references or captions it; the room is very probably the Shahidi museum, but no source says so, so the caption describes only what is visible.
Manuscript score overlaid with a suzani embroidery patterninferred
/shahidiscoremerge.jpg · 278 × 278 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgartist unnamed · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
A montage made for the 2001-02 site, not a photograph of an object. The score beneath the embroidery has not been identified.
Manuscript score overlaid with a suzani embroidery pattern (small)inferred
/images/18.jpg · 150 × 150 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgartist unnamed · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
The same montage as shahidiscoremerge.jpg, cropped square for the 2004 site.
Moscow Conservatory
/moscowconservatory2.jpg · 313 × 214 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
A colour snapshot of the Conservatory building and the Tchaikovsky monument in winter, taken around the time the site was built. It illustrates his 1946-57 studies; it does not date from them.
Moscow Conservatoryinferred
/images/mosconserv.jpg · 170 × 116 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
The same view as moscowconservatory2.jpg at a smaller size, uncaptioned and unreferenced by any recovered page.
Munira Shahidiinferred
/images/MS.jpg · 120 × 117 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
Uncaptioned on every recovered page. The identification rests on the filename initials and on the image sitting alongside her biography in the site's structure.
Outline map of Tajikistan and its neighboursinferred
/uzbekistan.jpg · 356 × 226 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgno higher resolution is held
Filed on the Foundation's server as uzbekistan.jpg, but the map is of Tajikistan — Dushanbe, Khujand, Kulob, Khorugh, the Pamirs and the Fergana valley are labelled, with Uzbekistan named only as a neighbour. The filename is wrong and is left alone; the caption describes the image.
Painting: a tree rooted in a hand above a mountain landscape, with musicians seated in its branchesinferred
/images/main.jpg · 364 × 500 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgartist unnamed · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
The 2004 site's main illustration. The painter is not named anywhere on the recovered site.
Suzani panel with a dutar and a frame drum below itinferred
/pic2.jpg · 423 × 265 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
A closer view of the same wall as picture1B.jpg. Uncaptioned and unreferenced; a 2000s snapshot, not an archival photograph.
Tolib Shahidi
/tolibconcert.jpg · 300 × 186 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
A concert photograph; the hall, the date and the performers are not named on the page.
Tolib Shahidi (b. 1946)
/tolib.jpg · 200 × 271 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · printed as recovered, in colour · no higher resolution is held
Ziodullo Shahidi (1914-1985)
/ziodullo.gif · 200 × 271 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Also shown: Ziyodullo Shahidi
The 2001 site's spelling of his name, kept as published.
Ziyodullo Shahidiinferred
/ziodullo2.gif · 148 × 200 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
The same sitting as images/ziodullo.gif, rendered smaller and in a cooler tone. Uncaptioned.
Ziyodullo Shahidi in later lifeinferred
/images/ZS.jpg · 120 × 153 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
Served as site furniture with no caption on any recovered page. The identification is ours, made from the portrait itself, which is the same sitting as images/ziodullo.gif.
The same sitting, cropped to the head and the instrument
/images/ZS2.jpg · 146 × 150 px · recovered from a capture of shahidifoundation.orgphotographer unknown · no higher resolution is held
The Foundation's own page named the sitter. Two men in this family fit the photograph and no source settles which, so the plate says what it is and not who.
A smaller, tighter crop of the sepia tanbur portrait. Not byte-identical to photos/03b.jpg, so it is a separate file rather than a duplicate, and it carries no caption of its own.