Introduction to Azerbaijani Literature
An introductory crash course on the literature of Azerbaijan, authors, and resources.
Azerbaijan has a rich literary history influenced by its neighbors and the sphere of empires it fell within.
I will admit, until recent months, I literally knew nothing about Azerbaijan and its people. I knew that Azeri people were a minority in the country that I am ethnically attached to (Iran) and that Armenia and Azerbaijan had a conflict in fall of 2020, where Armenia allowed part of its land to be annexed to Azerbaijan, leading to outrage and devastation from the people who were now refugees. But it wasn’t until I signed up for a Turkish class with the Yunus Emre Institute did I begin to realize the magnitude of the Turkic languages and people, leading me to start studying Azerbaijani.
I also work at a theatre, and something that kept catching my eye as I was doing research for our database of historical women playwrights were the female playwrights and poets coming out of this little nation that I knew nothing about. And suddenly this entirely new world of literature was opened up, one inspired by Russia, Iran, and Arab nations all influencing the sociocultural and political spheres. Azerbaijani literature is extremely fascinating, a unique breed of national literature, and is definitely worth checking out even if you have no interest in the country itself.
Let’s break down what makes this national literature so compelling.
A Brief History of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is one of the oldest places where human history is contained within. When the Soviets were excavating the region, they found a jawbone that was roughly 300,000 years old, the oldest discovery within the USSR. There are many artifacts that suggest nomadic culture going back hundreds of thousands of years ago, but for our purposes, Azerbaijani history is beginning in the era of Alexander the Great.
In periods of migration, we see the Turks and Eurasian nomads settling in the region. The area was under Parthian rule, which was in the century of 200 AD, for quite a bit of time, and the area would soon come to adopt Christianity as its religion. The region would then be under the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire until Alexander the Great conquered the region. The area was then fought over by empires such as the Romans and the Parthians, until it was finally conquered by the Muslims, completely Islamizing the region.
This began a tug of war between Persian and Arab influence, and then the Safavid Dynasty began to dominate its influence. In a Sunni Islam nation, the Persians began to impose an order of Shia Islam, leading to discontent in the area now known as Azerbaijan. However, by the 1800s, this began to turn over to Russian influence.
The 1826–1828 Russo-Persian war made it so that Azerbaijan was now divided between Russia and Iran. The Russians ruled their portion with an iron rule, with a military-run government. The discovery of oil in the area allowed it to become wealthier than it already was and more valuable in the eyes of the Russian, but religious conflict, tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and the disparity between genders became more critical issues entering the forefront of the public consciousness.
With the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, Azerbaijanis briefly enjoyed freedom, and founded the world’s first Islamic democratic republic. This, however, didn’t last long. The Red Army of the Russian Bolsheviks invaded in 1920 and the newborn republic fell to the invaders. Azerbaijan was now a part of the Soviet Union.
Oil became less important for the Russians as the USSR shifted focus to drilling in different areas of their little empire, and so Azerbaijan fell to less importance on the totem pole. You can go into extreme detail about the Central Asian countries and their politics and struggles under the USSR influence, but some important topics to note are that the Soviets tried to erase religion and make the region one homogeneous culture, which is disastrous. Azerbaijan declared independence in 1991 and would become the independent country we know today.
A Brief History Azerbaijani Literature
Azerbaijan is a really unique case for its literature due to the many different influences it has come across throughout the years. Similarly to many Middle Eastern traditions, there is a strong history of folklore and poetry being bigger forms of expression for everyday people. Some of the most famous individuals from the nation have come from the early history of it, especially when it was still under Persian and Arabic influence.
Ashik poetry became very famous in the 1500s with the bards. Many writers during this era would be multilingual, writing not only in Azerbaijani but also Persian and Arabic. Persian and Arabic were the dominating literature forms during the era, and so, by writing in these languages, Azerbaijani writers were able to enter the international conversations about poetry and prose.
However, by the time the Russians entered the region, literature shifted towards more Russian schools of thought. Censorship in the Soviet Union was almost smothering for creatives; essentially, you had to write propaganda or faced the risk of being executed or imprisoned for the rest of your life. Creativity was dangerous in this era, as anything you could write would be used against you by the system.
Nowadays, while Azerbaijani writers aren’t on the global consciousness, they are still quite celebrated and acclaimed within their own countries. It’s a bit harder to find translations of these books, but trust me it’s worth it if you can get your hands on a good translation.
Notable Authors of Prose (Fiction/Nonfiction)
Ilyas Mahammad oglu Afandiyev was a well-known playwright.
Natig Rasulzadeh is a contemporary writer.
Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi was a writer from the Iranian side of Azerbaijan.
Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli was a writer targeted by the USSR during the crackdown of writers and creatives.
Nariman Karbalayi Najaf oglu Narimanov was both a writer and Bolshevik.
Notable Poets
Nizami Ganjavi was a poet from the 1100s that was a well-known poet in the entirety of the Middle East.
Gasim bey Zakir is an 1800s poet known for his satire and comical poetry.
Khurshidbanu Natavan is one of the most well-known female poets from the area.
Ahmad Javad was prosecuted by the USSR for his work, as he advocated for independence and nationalism for Azerbaijan.
Vagif Samadoghlu was both a playwright and poet active during the USSR era.
Mammad Araz was a prominent contemporary poet.
Traditional Azerbaijani Literature
Language has been a key point to distinguishing aspects of Azerbaijani literature: Persian, Azerbaijani, and Arabic were the key languages of the time, and so by sorting through them, you can understand the line between traditional and non-traditional. Traditional Azerbaijani folklore is free of Persian and Arabic influence.
The true folklore would be from oral tradition, as nomadic societies tend to be. This article seems to show a struggle about that: “However, in its themes, Azerbaijani folk literature reflects the problems peculiar to a settling (or settled) people who have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle. One example of this is the series of folktales surrounding the figure of Keloglan, a young boy beset with the difficulties of finding a wife, helping his mother to keep the family house intact, and dealing with the problems caused by his neighbors. Another example is the rather mysterious figure of Nasreddin, a trickster who often plays jokes, of a sort, on his neighbors.”
Additional Resources
This website has a compilation.
This site has another compilation, but about Azeri/Azerbaijani language resources.
