Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Born	12 July 1812; Nukha, Shaki Khanate, Qajar Iran
Died	9 March 1878 (aged 65); Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Occupation	Playwright, philosopher
Language	Azerbaijani, Persian, Russian

Mirza Fatali Akhundov (Azerbaijani: Mirzə Fətəli Axundov; Persian: میرزا فتحعلی آخوندزاده), also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Iranian Azerbaijani^[2] author, playwright, atheist,^[2] philosopher, and founder of Azerbaijani modern literary criticism,^[3] "who acquired fame primarily as the writer of European-inspired plays in the Azeri Turkic language".^[4]

Akhundzade singlehandedly opened a new stage of development of Azerbaijani literature. He was also the founder of the materialism and atheism movement in the Republic of Azerbaijan^[5] and one of forerunners of modern Iranian nationalism.^[6] He also advocated switching the Azerbaijani writing system from the Perso-Arabic script to the Latin alphabet.

According to the historian and political scientist Zaur Gasimov, the entirety of Akhundzadeh's intellectual landscape was "densely entangled with Persian thought".^[7] Akhundzadeh defined his kinsmen as Turki, but at the same time considered Iran his fatherland.^[8]

^ Heß, Michael R. (2015). "Axundzadə, Mirzə Fətəli". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_2482. ISSN 1873-9830.
^ ^a ^b
*ĀḴŪNDZĀDA ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812–78), Azerbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest and most outspoken atheists to appear in the Islamic world. According to his own autobiographical account (first published in Kaškūl, Baku, 1887, nos. 43–45, and reprinted in M.F. Akhundov, Alefbā-ye ǰadīd va maktūbāt, ed. H. Moḥammadzāda and Ḥ. Ārāslī, Baku, 1963, pp. 349–55), Āḵūndzāda was born in 1812 (other documents give 1811 and 1814) in the town of Nūḵa, in the part of Azerbaijan that was annexed by Russia in 1828. His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad-Taqī, had been kadḵodā of Ḵāmena, a small town about fifty kilometers to the west of Tabrīz, but he later turned to trade and, crossing the Aras river, settled in Nūḵa, where in 1811 he took a second wife. One year later, she gave birth to Mīrzā Fatḥ-ʿAlī. Āḵūndzāda’s mother was descended from an African who had been in the service of Nāder Shah, and consciousness of this African element in his ancestry served to give Āḵūndzāda a feeling of affinity with his great Russian contemporary, Pushkin.
- "Nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals, such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (...)" -- Aghaie, Kamran Scot; Marashi, Afshin (2014). Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity. University of Texas Press
- "(...) exemplifies the centrality of the ideal of improving on existing institutions for Akhundzadeh and other nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals. (...) As a native speaker of Azeri who published both in Persian and Azeri." -- Litvak, Meir, ed. (2017) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic. Routledge. p. 43
- Russian Azerbaijan (1905–1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge University Press, Boston, 1985.
For example, Mirza Fath Ali Akhundov, the Azerbaijani best known in the West, will be referred to as Akhundzada, the form of his name that has been used for a century in publications outside of Russia.
- "Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, mīrzā fatḥ ʿalī (181–78) was the first writer of original plays in a Turkish idiom. The son of a trader who hailed from Persian Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he was born in 1811 (according to Caferoǧlu) or 1812 (according to the Soviet Encyclopaedia, 1950) in S̲h̲ēkī, the present-day Nūk̲h̲ā. -- Brands, H.W., Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs
- "This was no doubt also the reason why Fath'ali Akhundzadeh (d. 1878), the Azerbaijani Iranian who was a subject of the Russian Empire and lived in Georgia, launched an attack on Sa'adi in his general onslaught on Persian poetry. He was perhaps, the first nationalist and modernist Iranian intellectual, and he rejected virtually the whole of post-Islamic Iranian culture, romantically glorified the legacy of ancient Persia, and wished to turn Iran into a Western-European style country overnight. -- Katouzian, Homa (2006). Saʿdī: The Poet of Life, Love and Compassion. One world Publications. p. 3
- " The intellectual forerunners of romantic nationalism included Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿAli Āḵundzāda, Jalāl-al-Din Mirzā Qājār, and Mirzā Āqā Khan Kermāni (qq.v.). They introduced the basic ideals of the autonomy, the unity, and the prosperity of the Iranian nation with patriotic devotion." -- Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 522–530
- Kolarz W. Russian and Her Colonies. London. 1953. pp. 244–245
^ Parsinejad, Iraj. A History of Literary Criticism in Iran (1866–1951). He lived in the Russian Empire. Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 2003. p. 44.
^ Millar, James R. (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History. MacMillan Reference USA. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-02-865694-6.
^ M. Iovchuk (ed.) et el. [The Philosophical and Sociological Thought of the Peoples of the USSR in the 19th Century http://www.biografia.ru/about/filosofia46.html]. Moscow: Mysl, 1971.
^ Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press), 1995, pp. 27–28:
^ Gasimov, Zaur (2022). "Observing Iran from Baku: Iranian Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan". Iranian Studies. 55 (1): 38. doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1865136. S2CID 233889871.
^ Yilmaz, Harun (2013). "The Soviet Union and the Construction of Azerbaijani National Identity in the 1930s". Iranian Studies. 46 (4): 513. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.784521. S2CID 144322861.

[1] Heß, Michael R. (2015). "Axundzadə, Mirzə Fətəli". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_2482. ISSN 1873-9830.

[:1-2] *ĀḴŪNDZĀDA ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812–78), Azerbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest and most outspoken atheists to appear in the Islamic world. According to his own autobiographical account (first published in Kaškūl, Baku, 1887, nos. 43–45, and reprinted in M.F. Akhundov, Alefbā-ye ǰadīd va maktūbāt, ed. H. Moḥammadzāda and Ḥ. Ārāslī, Baku, 1963, pp. 349–55), Āḵūndzāda was born in 1812 (other documents give 1811 and 1814) in the town of Nūḵa, in the part of Azerbaijan that was annexed by Russia in 1828. His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad-Taqī, had been kadḵodā of Ḵāmena, a small town about fifty kilometers to the west of Tabrīz, but he later turned to trade and, crossing the Aras river, settled in Nūḵa, where in 1811 he took a second wife. One year later, she gave birth to Mīrzā Fatḥ-ʿAlī. Āḵūndzāda’s mother was descended from an African who had been in the service of Nāder Shah, and consciousness of this African element in his ancestry served to give Āḵūndzāda a feeling of affinity with his great Russian contemporary, Pushkin.
"Nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals, such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (...)" -- Aghaie, Kamran Scot; Marashi, Afshin (2014). Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity. University of Texas Press

"(...) exemplifies the centrality of the ideal of improving on existing institutions for Akhundzadeh and other nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals. (...) As a native speaker of Azeri who published both in Persian and Azeri." -- Litvak, Meir, ed. (2017) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic. Routledge. p. 43

Russian Azerbaijan (1905–1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge University Press, Boston, 1985.
For example, Mirza Fath Ali Akhundov, the Azerbaijani best known in the West, will be referred to as Akhundzada, the form of his name that has been used for a century in publications outside of Russia.
"Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, mīrzā fatḥ ʿalī (181–78) was the first writer of original plays in a Turkish idiom. The son of a trader who hailed from Persian Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he was born in 1811 (according to Caferoǧlu) or 1812 (according to the Soviet Encyclopaedia, 1950) in S̲h̲ēkī, the present-day Nūk̲h̲ā. -- Brands, H.W., Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs

"This was no doubt also the reason why Fath'ali Akhundzadeh (d. 1878), the Azerbaijani Iranian who was a subject of the Russian Empire and lived in Georgia, launched an attack on Sa'adi in his general onslaught on Persian poetry. He was perhaps, the first nationalist and modernist Iranian intellectual, and he rejected virtually the whole of post-Islamic Iranian culture, romantically glorified the legacy of ancient Persia, and wished to turn Iran into a Western-European style country overnight. -- Katouzian, Homa (2006). Saʿdī: The Poet of Life, Love and Compassion. One world Publications. p. 3

" The intellectual forerunners of romantic nationalism included Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿAli Āḵundzāda, Jalāl-al-Din Mirzā Qājār, and Mirzā Āqā Khan Kermāni (qq.v.). They introduced the basic ideals of the autonomy, the unity, and the prosperity of the Iranian nation with patriotic devotion." -- Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 522–530

Kolarz W. Russian and Her Colonies. London. 1953. pp. 244–245

[3] "Nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals, such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (...)" -- Aghaie, Kamran Scot; Marashi, Afshin (2014). Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity. University of Texas Press

[4] "(...) exemplifies the centrality of the ideal of improving on existing institutions for Akhundzadeh and other nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals. (...) As a native speaker of Azeri who published both in Persian and Azeri." -- Litvak, Meir, ed. (2017) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic. Routledge. p. 43

[5] Russian Azerbaijan (1905–1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge University Press, Boston, 1985.

[6] "Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, mīrzā fatḥ ʿalī (181–78) was the first writer of original plays in a Turkish idiom. The son of a trader who hailed from Persian Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he was born in 1811 (according to Caferoǧlu) or 1812 (according to the Soviet Encyclopaedia, 1950) in S̲h̲ēkī, the present-day Nūk̲h̲ā. -- Brands, H.W., Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs

[7] "This was no doubt also the reason why Fath'ali Akhundzadeh (d. 1878), the Azerbaijani Iranian who was a subject of the Russian Empire and lived in Georgia, launched an attack on Sa'adi in his general onslaught on Persian poetry. He was perhaps, the first nationalist and modernist Iranian intellectual, and he rejected virtually the whole of post-Islamic Iranian culture, romantically glorified the legacy of ancient Persia, and wished to turn Iran into a Western-European style country overnight. -- Katouzian, Homa (2006). Saʿdī: The Poet of Life, Love and Compassion. One world Publications. p. 3

[8] " The intellectual forerunners of romantic nationalism included Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿAli Āḵundzāda, Jalāl-al-Din Mirzā Qājār, and Mirzā Āqā Khan Kermāni (qq.v.). They introduced the basic ideals of the autonomy, the unity, and the prosperity of the Iranian nation with patriotic devotion." -- Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 522–530

[9] Kolarz W. Russian and Her Colonies. London. 1953. pp. 244–245

[3] Parsinejad, Iraj. A History of Literary Criticism in Iran (1866–1951). He lived in the Russian Empire. Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 2003. p. 44.

[4] Millar, James R. (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History. MacMillan Reference USA. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-02-865694-6.

[5] M. Iovchuk (ed.) et el. [The Philosophical and Sociological Thought of the Peoples of the USSR in the 19th Century http://www.biografia.ru/about/filosofia46.html]. Moscow: Mysl, 1971.

[Tadeusz-6] Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press), 1995, pp. 27–28:

[7] Gasimov, Zaur (2022). "Observing Iran from Baku: Iranian Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan". Iranian Studies. 55 (1): 38. doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1865136. S2CID 233889871.

[8] Yilmaz, Harun (2013). "The Soviet Union and the Construction of Azerbaijani National Identity in the 1930s". Iranian Studies. 46 (4): 513. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.784521. S2CID 144322861.

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Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Born	(1812-07-12)12 July 1812 Nukha, Shaki Khanate, Qajar Iran
Died	9 March 1878(1878-03-09) (aged 65) Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Occupation	Playwright, philosopher
Language	Azerbaijani, Persian, Russian^[1]

Mirza Fatali Akhundov

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