Books

Azeris have a high level of education and love and know their literature, both poetry and prose. Azeri literature is represented by such luminaries as Nizami Ganjavi, the peak of whose creative activity "Khamsa" is included in the treasure-house of world literature, Afzalladin Khagani, Samad Vurgun, Mehseti Ganjavi, Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh, Mohammed Fizuli, Molla Panah Vagif, Khur-shud-banu Natavan - their lyrics have acquired world acknowledgement, dramatist and thinker Mirza Fatali Akhundov, and satirists Sabir, Jalil Mammadkuluzade.

During Stalin's reign, like elsewhere in the Soviet Union, many of the country's writers and artists were victims of the great purge, either exiled or executed.

Historically the poet Nizami Ganjavi dominates Azeri literature (born in Ganca, although the Iranians claim him as being a Persian author). Among his works one should mention: the didactic poem "The Treasure house of Mysteries" written in 1173 and containing twenty chapters and "talks," with preaching and parables woven into the fabric of the narrative; his historico-philosophical poem "Iskandar-Nama" (Alexander the Great), his lyric poems that glorify the purifying and ennobling love of "Khosrow and Shirin" (1181) "Seven Beauties" (1197), and "Layla and Majnun" (1188).

The story of "Layla and Majnun" is one of the best known legends of the Orient, both a touching love story and a profound spiritual allegory. The two lovers of this classic tale are remembered to this day in the poems and songs from the Caucasus to the interior of Africa, and from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

Nizami collected a number of folk versions and shaped them into a single  narrative poem of some 4,000 stanzas near the end of the twelfth century. Compared for its beauty and genius to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", the Sufis consider Nizami's "Layla and Majnun" an important parable of religious experience. Majnun, through his great love for Layla, is able to transcend individual identity and becomes the Beloved.

"Ali and Nino": is the quintessential Baku historical love story, is an adventure romance published under the pseudonym Kurban Said, the pen name of Baku-born Jewish author Lev Nussimbaum. The novel is set shortly before and after the Russian revolution. Ali Khan Shirvanshir, descendant of a noble Muslim family, is educated in a Russian boy's college. While his father is still completely a part of Asia, Ali is exposed to Western values in school and through his love for Georgian Christian girl, Nino, who belongs to the European world.  The book describes the love of Ali for Nino, as well as the Ali Khan Shirvanshir's travels to Daghestan, Karabakh, Georgia and Iran.

Should you become interested in deepening your knowledge of Azeri literature, only the classic works are available in Western European languages, e.g.:

Bookshops in Baku