Nury Halmammedov

Nurmammet Halmammedovich Halmammedov (; ; 20 June 1938– 4 August 1983), also known as Nury Halmammedov (; ) or Nury Halmammet (; ), was a prominent Turkmen composer described as one of Turkmenistan’s “Greatest Sons”. His legacy has been commemorated with anniversary events in Turkmenistan and Russia. Early childhood and education Halmammedov was born on 20 June 1938 in Daýna village near Bäherden, Turkmenistan, to Halmammet Bayliyev and Hangul-Eje Mammedaliyeva. He had a cat, which died protecting Nury from a snake when he was an infant. Nury never forgot about him. Nury had a very difficult childhood. According to Jemile Gurbanova’s biography of Halmammedov, his mother died in 1944, and his father moved to Iran with two of the family’s four sons, Begmammet and Ashyrberdi, abandoning Nury, his 17-year-old brother, Bayly, and older sister, Artyk. Nury’s memories of this time were grim. He recounted at one point. : Since in my childhood I drank cloudy water from an irrigation ditch and lived off the grasses growing along its banks, by age 4 or 5 my belly swelled up and was elastic, like a ball. Because of my round stomach I couldn’t see my own feet. Bayly committed Nury to the Garryg