Literature Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) has conducted several researches in order to eliminate the facts of presenting Nizami Ganjavi in some sources as an Iranian poet and significant results have been achieved in this work.

“Throughout the history there have been facts when due to certain objective and subjective reasons several figures of art had to write not in their native language, but in that language, which was the working language in the region where they lived,” Literature Institute’s Deputy Director on Research, Teymur Kerimli said on Jan. 15 at a meeting of the ANAS Board.

“So it is absolutely wrong to call Nizami and other representatives of the medieval Azerbaijani poetry school, Iranian or Persian poets simply because they wrote in Persian,” the institute’s deputy director said.

Teymur Kerimli also said the poet himself, and medieval sources, which wrote about him, explicitly confirm that he was born in 1141 in Ganja – one of Azerbaijan’s ancient cultural centres and the capital of Atabeys’ state, and lived and worked on the territory of Azerbaijan.

“Nizami’s language contains many Turkic words. In the poem ‘Leyli and Majnun’ Nizami said that his mother was a Kurd and in the poem ‘Khosrov and Shirin’ he named himself with a purely Turkic word ‘ikdish’ i.e. a person who has a mixed parentage,” Kerimli said.

During the meeting it was noted that Nizami’s creativity included a strong Azerbaijanianship ideology and reflected the love to his country and people.

In line with the ANAS Board’s decision the research results were accepted as important scientific achievements. The importance of a continued research in this area was also stressed at the meeting.

According to the decision, the images associated with Azerbaijan in Nizami’s works will be studied more extensively. To this end scientific trips will be made to the oriental study centres of Russia, Europe and the U.S.