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Laman Ismayilova

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Azerbaijan National Library has opened a book exhibition called "Abbas Sahhat - 150", Azernews reports. The event is dedicated to Azerbaijani poet and dramatist Abbas Sahhat.

The exhibition displays the poet's works, translations, musical notes composed of his words, books about his life and creativity in Azerbaijani and different languages. The exhibition will last one week.

Abbas Sahhat translated works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nadson, Krylov, Hugo, Musset, Prudhomme, Amir Khusro as well as a number of German poets into Azeribaijani.

In 1912, he published his first collection of poems entitled Sinig saz (Broken Saz), his narrative poem Ahmadin shujaati and his translations of Western European literature under the name Garb gunashi (The Sun of the West).

In 1916, his romantic poem Shah, muza va shaharli was published. In his literary style, influence of classical poets such as Nizami, Hafez and Saadi, and modern poets such as Tevfik Fikret, is seen.

Among his dramatic pieces, Neft fontani (1912) and Yoxsullug ayib deyil (1913) are noteworthy. There are accounts of a novel written by Sahhat and entitled Ali and Aisha. It was never published and its manuscript is believed to have perished during the Dashnak occupation of Shamakhi in April 1918, when Sahhat's house was ravaged and burned. The poet himself managed to escape the town with his family, fleeing first to Kurdamir and later to Ganja, where he died some months later of a stroke.

Notably, the Azerbaijan National Library is a treasure trove of knowledge for bookworms.

With over 5 million books, manuscripts, and maps, the Azerbaijan National Library is considered one of the largest libraries in the Caucasus region. Since 1939, the library has borne the name of the eminent playwright Mirza Fatali Akhundov.

The library has an extensive collection of literature in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, and other languages. It has collected and preserved national editions, works of Azerbaijani and foreign authors about Azerbaijan published abroad.

The National Leader, Heydar Aliyev, visited the National Library four times in 1995-1997 and donated nearly 300 books from his personal library.

In 2004, the Mirza Fatali Akhundov Library was granted the status of a national library by the decision of Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers.

The building of the library is no less impressive. The library's faсade is decorated with the statues of eminent poets and writers like Nizami Ganjavi, Mahsati Ganjavi, Uzeyir Hajibayli, Shota Rustaveli, Alexander Pushkin and many others.

The scope of the library's activities is constantly expanding. In 2005, on the basis of legal copies received from publishing houses and printing companies, the library published the yearbook "Books of Azerbaijan" for 1990, 1991, 2000, and 2001.

Over the past years, the National Library has signed a memorandum on bilateral mutual cooperation with about 80 libraries.

In 2021, the Culture Ministry and Mirza Fatali Akhundov Library launched a joint campaign, "Let's go to Garabagh with a book", to restore libraries in the Garabagh region.

A large number of books were donated to the Garabagh Book Fund by a number of international organisations working in the field of culture, Turkic-speaking countries, famous foreign and local authors, publishers, and print houses.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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