AZERBAIJAN
x. Azeri Turkish Literature in Iran
The language spoken today in Azerbaijan is one of the branches of Oghuz Turkic. It was introduced into Iran by Turks entering the area in the 11th and 12th centuries and underwent a gradual development before assuming its present form. For two centuries after their appearance in Iran, the Oghuz Turks seem to have had only an oral literature. The origins of the stories attributed to Dädä Qorqut, which are about the heroic age of the Oghuz Turks, probably lie back in this period. The accepted text, however, was compiled only in the 15th century. A written, classical Azeri Turkish literature began after the Mongol invasion, and developed strongly in the 16th century after the Safavid dynasty established its dominance in Iran. From the beginning it was under the strong impact of Persian letters. Many poets produced works in both Persian and Azeri and due to bilingualism among the educated Turkic-speaking people of the area the use of Azeri prose was widespread until the reign of Reżā Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925-41), when publishing in Azeri was banned.
The history of the Azeri Turkish literature can be divided into four main periods:
1) From the 13th century to 1828 when, as a result of the defeat suffered by Iran in the Perso-Russian wars, a number of regions north of the province of Azerbaijan, where Azeri Turkish was spoken, were occupied by Tsarist Russia (now Republic of Azerbaijan).
2) From 1828 to the 1920s, when the Soviets and the Pahlavi dynasty came to power in Russia and Iran. This includes the Constitutional era (1906-25).
3) The Pahlavi era (1925-79) when, except for a brief period from 1941 to 1946 while the country was occupied by the Allied forces, the ban on Azeri Turkish publications was in effect and the official use of the language discouraged in Iran. Furthermore, because of the change of alphabet in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and due to that region’s being in the Soviet bloc, communication between the Iranian province of Azerbaijan and the occupied territories north of it became more difficult. Only a few audacious poets managed to get some of their works secretly printed.
4) From the advent of the revolution of 1979 to the present. Though the desire of some fervent Azerbaijanis to make Azeri Turkish their educational language has not been fulfilled, there is no longer a ban on Azeri Turkish publications in Iran, and more than 200 works in Azeri Turkish have appeared.
It was in the 13th and 14th centuries that a stylized poetry began to develop, partly due to Eastern Turkic traditions brought from Khorasan during the Mongol occupation. An early example is a couple of verses of Turkish and Persian poetry attributed to the late-13th-century minor poet Sheikh ʿEzz-al-Din Esfarāʾini, known as Ḥasanoḡlu or Pur-e Ḥasan (cf. Heyʾat, 1979, p. 26). Two poets of the 14th century, Qāżi Aḥmad Borhān al-Din (an East Anatolian) and the Ḥorufi demagogue ʿEmād-al-Din Nasimi played significant roles in the development of the Azeri Turkish poetry. Having arrived in Tabriz, the latter met Fażlallāh Naʿimi who converted him to Ḥorufism. He was put to death in Aleppo around 1407 because of his fervent propagation of the Ḥorufi beliefs. The influence of Persian poets such as Rumi, Neẓāmi Ganjavi, and ʿAṭṭār is noticeable in his poetry, and he mentions Ḥāfeẓ in his Persian Divān. Another bilingual Turkish-speaking poet from Azerbaijan, one whose Persian poetry takes precedence over his Azeri Turkish, is Moʿin-al-Din ʿAli Shah Qāsem-e Anwār (b. 1356 in Sarāb, educated in Tabriz). He was a pupil of Sheikh Ṣadr-al-Din Musa b. Sheikh Ṣafi-al-Din Ardabili and established the latter’s Sufi order in Herat under the Timurid Šāhroḵ. Shah Qāsem-e Anwār wrote ḡazals, molammaʿs, and tuyuḡs in a simple Azeri Turkish (Köprülü, s.v. “Azerî edebiyatının tekâmülü,” in İA). The 15th century saw the beginning of a more important period in the history of the Azeri Turkish literature. The position of the literary language was reinforced under the Qarāqoyunlu (r. 1400-68), who had their capital in Tabriz. Jahānšāh (r. 1438-68) himself wrote lyrical poems in Turkish using the pen name of “Ḥaqiqi.” He sent his Divān of Persian and Turkish poems to ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmi, who praised their form as well as their content (Heyʾat, 1979, p. 31).
Another poet-ruler of great significance is Esmāʿil I (r. 1487-1524), founder of the Safavid dynasty, who established Shiʿism as the state religion of Iran. The strong adherence of the Turkish population of the province of Azerbaijan to Shiʿism was among the factors that were to weaken their ties with the rest of the Turkic world, giving Azeri Turkish literature a local identity and restricting it to Azerbaijan and the area just north of it (now Republic of Azerbaijan). Writing with the pen name of Ḵaṭāʾi, Esmāʿil I declared his own devotion to ʿAli and his family in passionately ecstatic ḡazals. The Divān attributed to him also includes robāʿis and maṯnawis and a didactic “Naṣiḥat-nāma.” His Dah-nāma (Ten letters; composed in 1506), a maṯnawi of more than 1,400 distiches, contains ten love letters exchanged between the lover (i.e., the poet) and his beloved (see Gandjeï). The poetry of Esmāʿil I shows the influence of folk poetry and the ʿāšeq style.
Among the Azeri poets of the 15th century mention should be made of Ḵaṭāʾi Tabrizi. He wrote a maṯnawi entitled Yusof wa Zoleyḵā, and dedicated it to the Aqqoyunlu Sultan Yaʿqub (r. 1478-90), who himself wrote poetry in Azeri Turkish. The most important poet of this period is Ḥabibi Bargošādi, the poet laureate at the court of Esmāʿil I, who in 1514, when the Ottoman army occupied Tabriz, went to Turkey and died in Istanbul in 1519. Another Sufi poet is Sheikh Alvān of Shiraz who translated the Golšan-e rāz of Sheikh Maḥmud Šabestari into Azeri verse.
The reigns of Esmāʿil I and his son Ṭahmāsb I (r. 1524-76) are considered the most brilliant period in the history of the Azeri Turkish language and literature at this stage of its development. The great poet Moḥammad b. Solaymān Fożuli of Baghdad (1480-1556), who wrote in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, played an important role in the development of Azeri Turkish poetry in Iran. As M. F. Köprülü has pointed out (s.v. “Fuzûlî,” in İA), very few Turkish poets had the far-reaching influence that Fożuli had on later generations. One of his followers was Moḥammad Amāni (d. ca. 1544), whose work is also a useful historical source, as he took an active part in Safavid campaigns. He wrote poems in both the classical and popular ʿāšeq style and provided the first examples of Azeri Turkish narrative verse with a religious content like Ḥātam va Ḡarib, ʿAli va Šir; (Caferoğlu, 1964, p. 645). Another disciple of the Fożuli school is Ṣādeqi Beg Afšār (b. 1532), the author of a taḏkera entitled Majmaʿ al-ḵawāṣṣ, which was modeled on Amir ʿAli Šir Navāʾi’s Mājāles al-nafāʾes and written in Čaḡatāi Turkish. In this work, Ṣādeqi deals not only with Azeri poets, but also with Čaḡatāi and Ottoman poets and writers.
There was also considerable development in the popular literature, especially bayātis (four-lined poems) and long narrative poems. The best-known folk poem of the period, Korōglï Dästanï, reflects the resentment of the people against the tyrannical rulers of the time. Other ballad-like compositions such as Šāh Esmāʿil, ʿĀšeq Ḡarib, and Aṣli va Karam are accounts of romantic love and heroic deeds. Qorbāni is considered the foremost ʿāšeq of this century (Caferoğlu, 1964, pp. 646f.). Finally, an interesting document related to folk literature in this period is a short work by Ruḥi Anārjāni (from a village near Tabriz). The writer gives a humorous account of conversations between various common people in Tabriz. These are not in Turkish, but in the Old Persian dialect of Azerbaijan, showing that during the reign of ʿAbbās I (1587-1629) bilingualism was prevalent in Azerbaijan (see above, AZERBAIJAN VII.).
In the 17th century, although the transfer of the capital to Isfahan favored Persian at the court, Azeri poetry in the style of Fożuli and the Čaḡatāi poet Navāʾi still flourished. ʿAlijān Esmāʿiloḡlu Qawsi Tabrizi (born in Tabriz and educated in Isfahan) was an important poet who combined classical refinement with the candor of popular poetry. Rokn-al-Din Masʿud Masiḥi (d. 1656) was a musician and poet who wrote three romantic maṯnawis—Dām va Dāna, Zanbur-e ʿasal, and Varqa va Golšāh. The last was modeled on a Persian work of the same name by ʿAyyuqi. In addition to his Persian works, the great poet of the period Mirzā Moḥammad-ʿAli Ṣāʾeb Tabrizi (d. 1670) wrote 17 ḡazals and molammaʿs in his native Turkish (Yazıcı, s.v. “Sâib,” in İA X).
ʿAbbās II (r. 1642-66) was himself a poet, writing Turkish verse with the pen name of “Ṯāni.” In the same century Ṭarzi Afšār, who was originally from Ray, wrote a small Divān of humorous poems in a mixture of Persian and Azeri Turkish. This type of poetry, known as Tarzilik, became quite popular at the Isfahan court for a while. The poets Daruni and Mirzā Moḥsen Taʾṯir were both natives of Tabriz, their families having migrated to Isfahan in the reign of ʿAbbās I. Moḥsen Taʾṯir became a notable courtier and poet at the courts of Solaymān (r. 1667-94) and Solṭān Ḥoseyn (r. 1694-1722), devoting most of his Turkish and Persian poetry to eulogy of the imams. This was a practice greatly encouraged by the Safavid kings. Other Turkish poets of the period include Reżā-Qoli Khan, the governor of Bandar-e ʿAbbāsi, Mirzā Jalāl Šahrestāni, Mirzā Ṣāleḥ, the Šayḵ-al-eslām of Tabriz, Moḥammad Ṭāher Vaḥid Qazvini, the historian of ʿAbbās II, and lastly Mālek Beg “Awji,” who was influenced by Fożuli and Ṣāʾeb.
Due to political events, the 18th century was a period of decline in the Turkish literature of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. In the north, however, the forerunners of modern Turkish literature of Azerbaijan, Mollā Panāh Vāqef (1717-97) and Vedādi (1709-1809), were active. In fact, a contrast is seen in this period in that whereas bilingualism continues to be practiced in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan, writing is almost exclusively in Azeri Turkish in the urban centers located north of it. In general the time from the fall of the Safavids in 1722 to the end of the century is a period of stagnation in Azerbaijan. However, there is an abundant Shiʿite literature, especially elegies and Taʿzia poems. Well-known authors of such dirges are Neẓām-al-Din Moḥammad Dehḵāraqāni (d. 1756), Seyyed Fattāḥ Ešrāq Marāḡi (d. 1761-62), and Ḥāji Ḵodāverdi Tāʾeb Ḵoʾi (d. 1786). Other poets of this period include Mirzā ʿAbd-al-Razzāq Našʾa Tabrizi (d. 1745), who was greatly influenced by Ṣāʾeb, Morteżā-Qoli Khan Nāmi, who went as an envoy to Istanbul in 1721, and the famous Loṭf-ʿAli Beg Āḏar, the author of the Ātaškada, the well-known Persian taḏkera (Köprülü, s.v. “Azerî edebiyatının tekâmülü,” in İA; Heʾyat, 1979, pp. 67-68).
In the 19th century under the Qajars, when Turkish was used at court once again, literary activity was intensified. A revival of interest in Ottoman and Čaḡatāi poetry and philology is evidenced by such works as Behjat al-loḡāt by Fatḥ-ʿAli Qajar Qazvini and Āl tamḡā-ye nāṣeri by Moḥammad Ṣāleḥ Eṣfahāni, a work dedicated to the Qajar Shah Nāṣer-al-Din. From among the Turkish poets of the period mention should be made of Mirzā Moḥammad Rażi Tabrizi, with the pen name of “Banda,” who was a calligrapher and poet at the court of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar, Ḥoseyn-Qoli Khan Čāker Ḵamsaʾi, and Ḵalifa Moḥammad ʿĀjez Sarābi whose Divān was published in Tabriz in 1856. Others are Mollā Mehr-ʿAli from Ḵoy, Ātaši Marāḡaʾi, Mollā Ṣādeq Čertāb Tabrizi, and the poetess Ḥeyrān Ḵānom Donboli (d. 1753).
There was also a significant crop of elegy (marṯia) literature, the most outstanding poets in this respect being Āḵund Mollā Ḥoseyn Daḵil Marāḡaʾi, Mirzā Abu’l-Ḥasan Rāji Tabrizi (1831-76), and Moḥammad Amin Delsuz Tabrizi whose Turkish Divān was printed in Tabriz.
The second half of the 19th century brought a period of transition in Azerbaijan, both in social and political thinking and in literature. The literary movements in the occupied parts of the Azerbaijan in the Russian Empire (as well as those occurring in the Ottoman Empire) are reflected to some extent in the province of Azerbaijan in Iran. Publications from Russian conquests in Azerbaijan, namely, the more realistic works of Qāsem Beg Ḏāker (1784-1857), ʿAbbās-Qoli Āqā Qodsi Bakiḵānov (1794-1847), Mirzā Šafiʿ Wāẓeḥ (1794-1852), Esmāʿil Beg Gotgašinli (Gutgašïnlï; 1806-61), Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿAli Āḵundzāda (1812-78), and others, have some influence on the works written in the south. Several authors celebrate—in a noticeably simpler language and style—the values of enlightenment, liberty, and patriotism. At the same time, one of the most outstanding poets of Azerbaijan in this period is Seyyed Abu’l-Qāsem Nabāti (1812-73), a Sufi who wrote in both Persian and Azeri Turkish. Influenced by Nasimi, Jalāl-al-Din Rumi, and Ḥāfeẓ, he produced a famous Sāqi-nāma on the model of that of Ḥāfeẓ. He also has numerous poems in the ʿāšeq style.
Another important poet is Mirzā ʿAli Khan Laʿli, who was born in Erevan in 1845, and came to Tabriz as a young man. After completing his medical studies in Istanbul, he worked as a doctor in Tabriz where he died in 1907. Known as Ḥakim Laʿli, he wrote satirical poetry in the traditional style (see Introduction to Divān-e Ḥakim Laʿli by Moḥammad-ʿAli Ṣafwat, Tabriz, n.d.). Ḥāji Reżā Ṣarrāf (1854-1907) and Ḥāji Mahdi Šokuhi (d. 1896) are mostly known for their poetical elegies. Moḥammad-Kāẓem ʿAlišāh Asrār Tabrizi (b. 1848-49) was a Neʿmatallāhi Sufi and poet, who compiled two anthologies of Azeri Turkish poets: Behjat al-šoʿarāʾ and Ḥadiqat al-šoʿarāʾ, both composed in 1881. The latter is a selection made from the former and is mostly devoted to satirical and humorous poetry. The former includes the works of 86 poets (Heyʾat, 1979, p. 137). Another poet of some significance is Mirzā Moḥammad-Bāqer Ḵalḵāli, who was a mojtahed and wrote a well-known maṯnawi called Ṯaʿlabiyʾa and dated 1893. The style and the structure of this work somewhat resemble the Maṯnawi of Rumi, and within the framework of a main story Ḵalḵāli brings in many folkloric stories, always trying to present a moralistic view (Ṣādeq pp. 142-98).
In the 20th century the Azeri Turkish literature of Iran has continued to reflect the political and social development of the country as a whole, but has been influenced especially by official attitudes and policies toward the use of Turkish as a literary language. In contrast to the flourishing of Turkish literature in Soviet Azerbaijan, therefore, Azeri Turkish literature in Iran has had a limited development. Many Azeri Turkish writers are better known for their contributions to Persian literature than to Azeri Turkish.
The Constitutional period, with its background of liberal and democratic ideas, proved a productive one for Azeri Turkish, both as a vehicle for poetry and in journalism. Of eight newspapers published in Tabriz and Urmia at that time, five were in Azeri Turkish, three bilingual (Berengian, p. 38). A number of journals also were published, the most outstanding and influential being Mollā Naṣr-al-Din (first appeared in 1906). Although published in Tiflis, Mollā Naṣr-al-Din counted many poets from the Iranian province of Azerbaijan among its contributors, including the great satirist Mirzā ʿAli-Akbar Ṭāherzāda Ṣāber (1862-1911). Ṣāber had a strong influence not only on other Azeri Turkish-speaking poets but also on Persian poets such as Abu’l-Qāsem Lāhuti (1887-1957), Ašraf Gilāni (1870-1934), and ʿAli-Akbar Dehḵodā (1879-1956). In spite of the ban imposed by the government of Moḥammad-ʿAli Shah, which aimed at stopping the journal from entering Iran, Mollā Naṣr-al-Din and the poetry of Ṣāber in particular were extremely popular in Azerbaijan. The Constitutionalists fighting the Royalist forces in Tabriz would recite the poems of Ṣāber to keep up their morale, and his poems touching on Iranian affairs would occasionally be answered by the journal Āḏarbāyjān, published in Tabriz in Azeri Turkish and Persian during 1906 and 1907. Jalil Moḥammad-Qolizāda (Mämmäd-guluzade; 1869-1932), who like Ṣāber had deep-rooted associations with Iran, went to Tabriz in 1921 and published eight issues of Mollā Naṣr-al-Din there. Due to police interference, however, he returned to Baku, where he continued to publish the journal until 1929. In a letter dated April 26, 1906, Moḥammad-Qolizāda states that half of Mollā Naṣr-al-din’s 15 thousand readers were in Iran (Sardariniā, p. 110).
The most outstanding Turkish-speaking poet of Azerbaijan to be influenced by Ṣāber was Mirzā ʿAli Moʿjez (1873-1934). One of the few Azeri poets to come close to the greatness of Ṣāber as a satirist, Moʿjez went to Istanbul at the age of sixteen and spent fourteen years there working as a bookseller and becoming acquainted with the literary and social currents in the Ottoman empire at that time. When he was thirty he returned to his native Šabestar and began to write biting satires in criticism of the absolutist rule in Iran and the backwardness of his countrymen. Prominent themes of his satires, which are written in a simple poetic language, include the abject condition of women and religious hypocrisy and fanaticism.
The case of Moʿjez, who ended his days in self-exile in Šāhrud, serves as a good example of the restrictions imposed upon Azeri poets and writers under Pahlavi rule. Pursuing a policy of national unification, Reżā Shah aimed at suppressing the use of Azeri Turkish as a literary medium. Thus, although the poems of Moʿjez were very popular, permission for the publication of his Divān was withheld until after the abdication of Reżā Shah in 1941. Between then and 1946 it went through several editions. These years correspond to a period of weak central government and the Soviet occupation of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. With the active support of Soviet military forces, a separatist government was established in 1945 under Seyyed Jaʿfar Pišehvari, only to be overthrown following the central government’s military intervention in December 1946. Short though it was, the period was a significant one for the cultural and literary life of the area. Azeri Turkish was recognized as the official language of the province and a number of newspapers and journals appeared in that language. New collections of poetry were published and many old ones reissued. The nature of the literature produced was a combination of basic Persian literary conventions, Azeri Turkish folk and popular traditions, and Soviet-inspired socialist realism (Berengian, pp. vi-vii). One interesting development was the revival of syllabic meters. Many Azeri Turkish poets, including Ṣāber and Moʿjez, had used prosodic meters. Now, under the influence of folk poetry and ʿāšeq compositions in particular, some modern poets experimented with the syllabic tradition. Of the poets of this period, Ḥaddād and Karim Marāḡaʾi are very much followers of Ṣāber and Moʿjez. Authors under Soviet influence include Bālaš Āḏaroḡli of Ardabil (b. 1921), Madineh Golgun (Gülgün; b. 1926), Ḥokuma Buluri of Zanjān (b. 1926), ʿAli Javāndāda “Tudeh” (b. 1924; spent the years 1938-46 in the Soviet-occupied territories north of the province of Azerbaijan), and the political publicist Fereydun Ebrāhimi of Āstārā (1919-47). Many older writers also became active, including the satirical poet Ebrāhim Ḏāker of Ardabil (b. 1891), ʿAli Feṭrat of Tabriz (1890-1948), the poet and educator Mir Mahdi Eʿtemād of Tabriz (1900-1981), and ʿĀšeq Ḥoseyn Javān (b. 1916).
With the fall of Pišehvāri’s separatist government, the ban against the public use of the Azeri Turkish was renewed, a ban that was in force for more than half a century overall. Even when, on rare occasions, a publication was allowed, the authorities had to be appeased. For instance, when ʿAli-Aṣḡar Mojtahedi (1905-72) published his collection of Azeri Turkish proverbs with their Persian translations, he was not allowed to use the word “Azeri” on the title page. The book thus appeared as Amṯāl wa ḥekam dar lahja-ye maḥalli-e Āḏarbāyjān (2nd ed. by Ḥ. Javādi, Piedmont, California, 1984). Between 1947 and the 1979 Revolution, publications in Azeri Turkish were extremely rare in Iran. The most important poet of this period is Seyyed Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Šahriār (1908-88). Known earlier for his Persian ḡazals, mainly written in the tradition of Ḥāfeẓ, in the 1940s he began to develop his colloquial Azeri Turkish idiom into a masterful literary language. His long lyric poem Ḥeydar Bābāya salām (“Greetings to Ḥaydar Bābā,” published in two parts: I, 2nd ed., Tabriz, 1954; II, Tabriz, 1966) quickly became famous not only in Azerbaijan but across the rest of the Turkic world (Ergin, p. 293; Ateş). Written in a lively, stanzaic form, the poem recalls memories from the poet’s childhood in a mountain village of the Tabriz region. Bolud Qarāčorli Sahand (1926-1979) is known for his excellent verse adaptation of the Book of Dädä Qorqut (4 vols.). Ḥabib Sāḥer (1903-83) began to publish his poems in the 1940s and continued his literary activities until the end of his life. Classified as one of the Heydar Bābā School, he was educated in Istanbul, and the influence of both classical and modern Turkish poetry is noticeable in his poetry. Under the influence of the 1945-46 upheavals in the province of Azerbaijan, his subsequent works became considerably more political. Other poets and writers of this period include Moḥammad-ʿAli Maḥzun, who joined the ranks of those writing in praise of events in the Pišehvāri period, Moḥammad Biriā (b. 1918) who was a minister in the Democratic Party government, Ṣamad Behrangi, who occasionally wrote poems, ʿAbbās Bārez, Jabbār Bāḡčehbān, and Noṣratallāh Fatḥi (see Farzāneh).
Since 1978 there has been much literary activity again, especially in Tabriz. A few periodicals in Azeri Turkish began to appear just after the revolution, such as Mollā Naṣr-al-din (a satirical weekly published in Tabriz in 1979) and Saṭṭār Ḵān Bāyrāqi (a political monthly, Tabriz, 1979; originally published in West Germany). None of them, however, lasted very long. An important journal now is Vārleq (Varlïḡ), currently in its seventh year of publication in Tehran. This serves as a forum for leading Turkish-speaking intellectuals and writers from the province of Azerbaijan such as Ḥāmed Noṭqi, M. ʿA. Farzāneh, Javād Ḥayʾat (its editor), Moḥammad Payfun (author of a recent Azeri Turkish-Persian dictionary) and many others. Contemporary literature mainly consists of poetry, written in both ʿaruż and the syllabic meter. It is influenced by the poetry of both the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and modern Turkey, and concentrates thematically upon social and cultural questions.
Many Azeri Turkish-speaking Soviet authors (some of whom originate from the Iranian province of Azerbaijan) have dealt with Iranian Azerbaijan in their works. Jalil Moḥammad-qolizāded (Mämmädguluzade) was proud of the fact that his forefathers were from Iran, and he considered himself an Iranian (Sardariniā, p. 109). Moḥammad Saʿid Ordubādi (1872-1950) described Tabriz in Bädbäxt milyonču (The unlucky millionaire; 1907) and the revolutionary movement of 1906-9, which he himself witnessed, in Dumanlı Täbriz (Misty Tabriz). Bāyrām-ʿAli ʿAbbāszādeh (1859-1926), who participated in the Constitutional Revolution, later wrote satirical poems in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan that treated Iranian themes. Many works by the Baku-based author ʿAli Naẓmi (1878-1946) also deal with the revolutionary movements in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. The novel Gün gäläjäk (The day will come) by Mirzā Ebrāhimov (b. 1911), originally from the city of Sarāb, is also about events during the Constitutional period. It was published in 1948 and has been translated into several languages. The poetry of Osman Sarïvelli (b. 1905) contains personal impressions of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan during the war, for example İki sahil (Two shores; 1950), which contrasts Iranian province of Azerbaijan and the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. Moḥammad Raḥim (b. 1907) describes the Iranian province of Azerbaijan in a poetic cycle Täbrizdä (In Tabriz). Anvar Moḥammad-ḵānli (Mämmädxanlï; b. 1913), who also served with the Soviet army during the military occupation of Tabriz, deals with similar matters in short stories from Tabriz and in the drama Od ičindä (In the fire; 1951).
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A. Ibrahimov, Azärbayjan klassik ädäbiyyatï, Baku, I: Xalg ädäbiyyatï, 1982; II: Imadäddin Näsimi, 1985.
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Salāmallāh Jāvid, Dostlar görüšü, n.p., 1980 (interesting collection of poems by contemporary Azeri poets in Iran with a short account of their lives).
F. B. Köčärli, Azärbayjan ädäbiyyatï I, Baku, 1978.
M. F. Köprülü, “Azeri edebiyatina notlar,” Darülfünun Edebiyat Fakültesi Mecmuası 4, 1925, pp. 68-77.
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Mirzā ʿAli Moʿjez Šabestari, Taza tapïlan šiʿirlär, Tabriz, n.d.
B. R. Sahand, Sazmyn sözü, n.p., n.d.
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آذربایجان، در ادبیات ترکی | azarbayjan,dar adabiat turki | azarbaayjan,dar adabiat turki | azarbaijan,dar adabiat turki |
(H. Javadi and K. Burrill)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: May 24, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 3, pp. 251-255
As the work by Ruḥi Anārjāni is mentioned, mention should also be made of Sheikh Ṣafi-al-Din’s Fahlaviyat, important documents of its language and the subject of numerous studies (among them Kasravi, Henning, Yarshater and Sadeqi.)
One great literary figure of Azeri Turkish not mentioned here (perhaps because of his geographical separation from Iran proper) is Aliagha Vahid (1895-1965). He is acknowledged as the poet who revived ghazal in Soviet Azerbaijani poetry. His poetry is very famous and popular in the Iranian Azerbaijan too; not to mention its deep influences in Iran. He was a devoted communist and agitator for that cause. This phase of his poetry is relatively forgotten, in favor of his love poems of very considerable excellence.
Important figures of religious poetry too are worthy of mention: Abbasgholi Yahyavi (1901-1979), Beyza of Ardabil (ca. 1847-1922), Yadollah Mon’em (ca. 1928-2004) and a few lesser ones. Closely related to this tradition centered in Ardabil (i.e. oral religious poetry, still surviving) is the social romantic and at times unorthodoxly religious poetry of Asem of Ardabil (1942- ), a figure largely ignored by scholars, yet highly popular and innovative. Asem studied English in the university in Tehran in the 1970s and the influence of English Romantic masters is apparent, however largely unacknowledged by intellectuals, in his poetry. He has had numerous publications and his most famous poem, “Souri” or “Jahanamda Bitan Gul” (“The Hell-Grown flower,”) based on real circumstances, is highly valued as a bitter piece of love poetry in a land very much stranger to love. This figure deserves an entry, however brief, in Iranica.
There is one unnamed figure whose fame is beyond a brief allusion which is withheld in this entry: Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885 Agjabadi-1948 Baku) was not only a composer but also a skillful playwright among his other employments. He wrote and composed a number of highly acknowledged operas and some of his plays were turned into musical films, one of the most famous of which, O olmasın, bu olsun ("If Not That One, Then This One") or more commonly known as Mashdi Ibad, a musical comedy revealing the evils of society and the victory of love, is still very much popular all over Azerbaijan, in and out of Iran. Hajibeyov’s musical contributions and official honors have eclipsed his writing career to a great extent; though his Turkish writings have been translated into numerous languages. Attempts have been made to write drama in Turkish in the Iranian Azerbaijan in recent years, to no serious effect. One Turkish translation of a Persian play (Jamshid Khanian’s Dahani Por az Kalagh (“A Mouthful of Crows”) by Davar Farmani produced in Ardabil and staged in Baku might represent this order best.
Dede Korkut, the most significant surviving manifestation of Oghuz heroic mentality, although alluded to, is not fully explained in this entry. It is by far the most important piece of classical Turkish literature, subject of famous studies like those of Ergin, Beizai, Lewis, etc.
Some other men of letters like Baba Safari and Amīrḵīzī brothers (Esmail Amīrḵīzī already has an entry in Iranica written by Iraj Afshar), etc. are likely to have produced writings in Turkish worthy of mention. Baba Safari (1920-2003 Stockholm), a historian and researcher of importance and admired by Iraj Afshar among others, lacks an entry in Iranica.