"Evading Reality" analyzes the ideas and words of cAbdalrauf Fitrat, a leading liberal Central Asian intellectual in the early decades of the 20th century. His literary devices confused opponents, delighted adherents and provide a rich legacy for today's Tajik and Uzbek societies.

Edward A. Allworth, A.M. Chicago (1953), Ph.D. (1959) Columbia University, in Slavic and Turkic languages and literature, is Emeritus Professor of Turko-Soviet Studies, Columbia University. He has written fourteen books and published more than 100 articles about cultural or ethnic politics in Central Asia, the former USSR and the Middle East. The most recent of these books are The Preoccupations of ʿAbdalrauf Fitrat, Bukharan Nonconformist (2000) and Devolution in Central Asia, 1990-2000 (2002).