Campaign on granting Nizami the status of the national poet of Azerbaijan (the term Azerbaijanization Регнум. 17:05 18.03.2006. Иран против азербайджанизации поэта Низами (Iran against the Azerbaijanization of Poet Nizami). «Все написанное бывшим президентом Ирана Мухаммедом Хатами о том, что Низами Гянджеви является иранским поэтом, истинная правда. Низами писал и творил на фарси, у него нет ни одного произведения на азербайджанском языке». Об этом в беседе с журналистами заявил посол Исламской Республики Иран в Азербайджане Афшар Сулеймани" (Translation: 'The ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Azerbaijan Afshar Suleiman in the meeting with journalists declared, "All that was written by the former president of Iran Mohammad Khatami, on Nizami Ganjavi being an Iranian poet, is an absolute truth. Nizami wrote and composed in Persian, and he doesn't have a single work written in Azerbaijani"'). is also used) is a politically and ideologically motivated distortion of the historical record of the national-cultural origin of one of the classics of Persian poetry, Nizami Ganjavi, which began in the USSR in the late 1930sDr. Paola Orsatti (Associate Professor of Persian language and literature, Sapienza University of Rome). Back Cover Comments // Siavash Lornejad, Ali Doostzadeh. On the Modern Politicization of the Persian Poet Nezami Ganjavi. Edited by Victoria Arakelova. YEREVAN SERIES FOR ORIENTAL STUDIES, Yerevan 2012This book provides a full survey of the distortions – dictated by nationalistic purposes – which have been pervading the field of the studies on the Persian poet Nezami of Ganje since the Soviet campaign for Nezami's 800th birthday anniversary. The authors discuss, with critical accuracy, the arguments put forward by Soviet scholars, and more recently by scholars from the Republic of Azerbaijan, which term Nezami as an "Azerbaijani poet" and his work as pertaining to an alleged "Azerbaijani literature;" and show the historic unsoundness of such theses. and was arranged to coincide with the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the poet. The campaign was crowned with jubilee celebrations in 1947 but its effects continue up to this day: on one hand this process was beneficial for many cultures of the multi-cultural Soviet Union and for the Azerbaijani culture in the first place; on the other hand this brought to an extreme politicization of the question on Nizami's cultural-national identity in the USSR and in modern Azerbaijan.
The reasons and the background of the campaign Claims that Nizami was ethnically Turkic before the late 1930s In 1903 Azerbaijani publicist and writer Firidun Kocharlinski in his book "Literature of Azerbaijani Tatars" called the poet a 'Tatar from Elizavetpol' (up until the 1930s the Azerbaijanis were called 'Tatars'Victor Schnirelmann. The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 2001.).F. Kocharlinski. Literature of the Azerbaijani Tatars. Tbilisi 1903, p. 3-5, 15:«Знаменитый Низами, написавший на персидском языке свои чудные и проникнутые возвышенным чувством любви поэмы, был татарин родом из Елисаветполя. (…) Вакиф считается основателем татарской литературы» (translation: "Famous Nizami, who wrote in Persian his amazing poems filled with sublime feelings of love, was a Tatar born in Elizavetpol (…) Vaqif is considered to be the founder of Tatar literature."). According to Soviet orientalist A. E. Krimsky Kocharlinski's theses were based on Jóhannes Sherr's assumptions on that Nizami's mother was an Azerbaijani from Gyanja, contrary to the testimony of the poet himself according to which his mother was Kurdish.Крымский А. Е. Низами и его изучение. — 1947. «К промахам приходится отнести также замечание автора (стр. 27), что дух тюркизма должна была воспитывать в мальчике Низами его мать. Очевидно, взята эта догадка из Кочарлинского, который привел дилетантское соображение Шерра, что, если отец Низами, был пришлый человек из Кума, то его мать была гянджинка родом, "гянджяли бир гыз" (т. 1, 1925, стр. 65); полагаем, что ясное заявление самого Низами о благородном курдском происхождении его матери должно было бы предохранить Мик. Paфили от повторения несостоятельной гипотезы Шерра и Кочарлинского». (Translation: Another mistake is the note of the author (p. 27) saying the spirit of Turkism must have been instilled in the young Nizami by his mother. This assumption is most probably taken from Kocharlinski who referred to an amateur depiction by Cher that while Nizami's father was a newcomer from Qom his mother was a Gyanjevi "гянджяли бир гыз" (т. 1, 1925, стр. 65); we consider that Nizami's clear statement about the noble Kurdish origin of his mother was supposed to guard M. Rafili against repeating an unsupported hypothesis).
Kocharlinski brings Nizami as an example of a Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani) poet who wrote in Persian language in the light of a general trend of borrowing religion, language and literature from Persians by the Tatars (i.e. Azerbaijanis). At the same time Konchalovski, referring to an accepted opinion, ascribes Tatar (i.e. Azerbaijani) literature to the first famous poet of those times Vaqif who wrote in Tatar (i.e. Azerbaijani) language (18th century).
American historian Yuri Slezkine also mentions that in 1934 on the First Congress of Soviet Writers the representative of the Azerbaijani delegation called Nizami a Turk from Gyanja.
Situation in the late 1930s In world Orientalism the dominant view was to consider Nizami as a representative of Persian literature. Soviet Orientalists also held the same view till the late 1930s. According to encyclopedic dictionaries published in RussiaKrimsky repeats the characteristic of Nizami as a Persian poet in his work Persia and its Literature of 1900, second edition of 1906 and also in the third edition of 1912.The emergence of the first statements in the USSR about Nizami's Azerbaijani identity is directly expressed in the following quotes: Victor Schnirelmann. The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. Tamazishvili, A.O. (2004), "Iz istorii izučenija v SSSR tvorčestva Nizami Gjandževi: vokrug jubileja — E. È. Bertels, I. V. Stalin i drugie" : «Главным, революционным для отечественной науки результатом этой кампании стало отнесение Низами к поэтам азербайджанским, а его творчества к достижениям азербайджанской литературы, в то время как в мировом востоковедении (а ранее и в советском) доминировал взгляд на него как представителя литературы персидской» (translation: "Main, revolutionary result of this campaign for our native scholarship became attributing Nezami as an Azerbaijani poet, and his works as achievements of the Azerbaijani literature, while in the realm of the world Oriental Studies (and prior to this in the Soviet as well), the viewpoint of him as a representative of Persian literature"). «Ю. Н. Марр еще в 1929 г. утверждал: "Низами является своим для Кавказа, в частности для той этнической группировки, которая до последнего времени сохранила персидскую традицию в своей литературе, то есть для Азербайджана, где гянджинский поэт все-таки более в почете, чем в Персии". Конечно, "свой для Азербайджана" — это не то же, что "азербайджанский", но в середине 1937 г. скончавшийся в 1935 г. Ю. Н. Марр был единственным из советских востоковедов, на чьи исследования могли опереться сторонники взгляда на Низами как поэта азербайджанского» (translation: " Back in 1929, Yu.N. Marr asserted that "Nezami is its own for Caucasus, especially for the ethnic group that has kept the Persian tradition in its literature until recently, i.e. for Azerbaijan, where the Ganjian poet is more respected than in Persia." Of course, "its own for Azerbaijan" is not the same as "Azerbaijani," but in the middle of 1937, Marr who had died in 1935, was the only Soviet Orientalist on whose research could the proponents of the view of Nezami as an Azerbaijani poet lean"). V. M. Sisoev in "Начальный Очерк Истории Азербайджана (Северного)" for the schools of the USSR (Archaeological Committee of Azerbaijan, 1925) calls Nizami a poet of both Persia and Azerbaijan and considers him a representative of Persian literature.Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, author of the article — Agafangel Krimsky: «Низамий (шейх Низамоддин Абу-Мохеммед Ильяс ибн-Юсоф) — лучший романтический персидский поэт (1141—1203).»Бартольд. Сочинения. Том 2, часть 2. Москва, 1963. Статья «Могила поэта Низами»: «…другого персидского поэта, умершего в самом начале XIII века, Низами…» (translation: Poet Nizami's grave": "… another Persian poet who died in the beginning of the 13th century, Nizami…). ,Евгений Бертельс, «Очерки истории персидской литературы», 1928: «Психологический анализ — отличительная черта Низами, отделяющая его от всех других поэтов Персии и сближающая его с европейской литературой» (translation: "Psychological analysis – the unique feature of Nizami distinguishing him from all the other "poets of Persia" and bringing him closer to the European literature"). Nizami was a Persian poet and a descendant of city of Qom in central Iran (this fact was subsequently questioned and the contemporary scientists tend to consider Gyanja as his birthplace) .«Nizami Ganja'i, whose personal name was Ilyas, is the most celebrated native poet of the Persians after Firdausi… His nisbah designates him as a native of Ganja (Elizavetpol, Kirovabad) in Azerbaijan, then still a country with an Iranian population, and he spent the whole of his life in Transcaucasia; the verse in some of his poetic works which makes him a native of the hinterland of Qom is a spurious interpolation.» Thus, the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary states (the author of the article is Agafangel Krimsky):
The best Persian romantic poet (1141–1203) is a descendant of Qom but has a nickname 'Gyanjevi' (from Gyanja) because he spent most of his life in Gyanja (now Elizavetpol) where he died.// Низамий//Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона: В 86 томах (82 т. и 4 доп.). — СПб., 1890—1907.
Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) also characterises the poet in a similar way:
Persian poet born in 535 in Hidżra (1141 A.D.). His motherland, or at least the place where his father lived, was in the highlands of Qom, but as he lived almost all his days in Gyanja in Arran (present-day Elizavetpol) he is known as Nizami from Gyanja or Gyanjevi.. Nizam-uddin Abu Mahommed Ilyas bin Yusuf, Persian poet, was born 535 A.H. (1141 A.D.). His native place, or at any rate the abode of his father, was in the hills of Kum, but as he spent almost all his days in Ganja in Arran (the present Elizavettpol) he is generally known as Nizami of Ganja or Ganjawi
Reasons for the historical distortion of Nizami's status Ideological needs of Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1930s According to Faik Goulamov after the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1936 the newly formed Azerbaijani SSR needed a special history which would on one hand allow distancing the republic from Shiite Iran for avoid suspicions in the counterrevolutionary pan-Islamism and on the other hand to separate the Azerbaijanis from other Turkic people (in the light of the official struggle against pan-Turkism). At the same time the Azerbaijanis desperately needed proofs of their own autochthony, since being considered as a 'nation of newcomers' created a direct threat of deportations. As a result, a Chair of Azerbaijani history was established in the Faculty of History of the State University of Azerbaijan and rapid Azerbaijanization of historical heroes and preceding historical-political entities on the territory of Azerbaijan was launched.