Author: VK
The publishing house of Rudomino Center published the collected volume by Mirza Fatali Akhundov "The Human Mind, This Divine Gift ..." in Russian and Azerbaijani languages. Publishers have tried to show as fully as possible the multifaceted and diverse literary and social activities of Akhundov, to represent him as a novelist, poet, philosopher, thinker and scientist-orientalist. The volume includes some little known or previously unpublished texts.
Speaking at the presentation of the book in the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature named after Rudomino, Polad Bulbuloglu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Russia, said: “When you read the poems of Mirza Fatali Akhundov in memory of Pushkin, you realize that, perhaps, he was very fond of Russian poetry, the Russian language, Russia itself, and that’s why he wrote such poems, because an ordinary man could not respond to this event with such feelings”.
“This book was created by joint efforts of the Institute of Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and the Russian side”, Farid Alekberli, Doctor of Historical Sciences of the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS, said. “Most sources were manuscripts and documents stored in the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS. The Institute of Manuscripts contains so-called personal funds of outstanding scientists and cultural figures of Azerbaijan, including the personal foundation of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, which includes a large number of his manuscripts, letters, photographs and other materials related to his life and work. Of course, Akhundov’s works have been studied by more than one generation, but every time we find something new, every time we take a new look at the known facts, to re-emphasize the importance of this man to the culture of Azerbaijan, to the world of culture and the relationship between the cultures of Azerbaijan and Russia. Indeed, Mirza Fatali Akhundov played a huge role in the development of Azerbaijani culture and more. He had an enormous influence on philosophical thought and modern ideas, a new view of the surrounding reality, a new look at the world, not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the Muslim East. His works were copied by hand, distributed and published in Iran, Turkey, in Central Asia, they were considered a model for progressive thought of the time, because Mirza Fatali Akhundov was, above all, an extraordinary man, who realized that it was necessary to break with the past, with traditions, so that his people and the peoples of the region could meet the requirements of the day, so that they could step into the future, so that they could break with the conservatism, traditionalism, religious fanaticism that stifled the development of the region, did not give the opportunities to Azerbaijan and the Muslim East in general to be on the same level as the advanced countries of the time.
But how did he come to this idea? Of course, thanks to the influence of Russian progressive thought, with which he was familiar - the works of Russian writers, Russian poets, as well as European sources, both the original ones, as he spoke French and German, and Russian translations. This man challenged his present, because he was not understood by the representatives of eastern orthodox scientific thought and philosophy or even in the West, and Russia did not always perceive and understand him, because his projects of the reform of the alphabet did not enjoy the support of either the East or the Russian government, which said: "We cannot forbid Muslims to use their traditional alphabet, it could be considered as pressure on them." And yet he pushed his ideas, he wrote letters. There are his letters to numerous cultural figures of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and in this collection, too, letters to Krusenstern and others were published. In every way he promoted this idea. He realized that the people must develop, and to do this, it was necessary to remove all restrictions and all the obstacles that do not give an opportunity to step into the future. These barriers also included the alphabet.
The alphabet plays a huge role in the development of nations. The Arabic alphabet, which was used in Azerbaijan since the early centuries of Islam, that is, actually since the seventh century, when Azerbaijan joined the Arab Caliphate, the Arabic alphabet was mainly used. With all its good qualities, it did not meet the standards of the Azerbaijani language, as the Azerbaijani language has nine vowels, and the Arabic language has only three vowels. With specific vocalizations there can be six ones, but it is not enough for the basic vowels of the Turkic languages, including the Azerbaijani language. Therefore, learning to read and write it was very difficult, and this prevented the spread of literacy among huge masses of people.
And at that time Akhundov suggested that it was necessary to change the alphabet, but at that time it was a seditious idea, because it was believed that the Arabic alphabet is the alphabet of the Koran, and so in any case it cannot be changed - it is sacrilege. He was anathematized by religious leaders and some traditionalists in society, and it was even forbidden to bury him in a Muslim cemetery after his death.
And yet this man struggled all his life. He was not afraid to challenge the social thought of the time, he was not afraid to challenge the present. He sacrificed himself to some extent for the future of his people. And in his mission, relations with Russia played a large role, as well as the impact of the best representatives of Russian society - Russian intellectuals, Russian scientists and philosophers. He seemed to bring together all the best that was in Azerbaijan, in the East, in terms of philosophy, our traditions, and that was in the West, and created a new and original direction, which in the future, of course, was continued. People came who appreciated his activity. It happened later, after his death, but the contribution that he made served to further develop the Azerbaijani people and influenced the development of good ideas in the East.
The book itself promotes the activities of our great political figure - I would not call him so much a philosopher, a scientist, a writer or a playwright, he was a public figure, because he did it all with a single purpose - the patriotic purpose to help his people to stand up and step into the future. This was his citizenship. He was a poet-citizen, like in the well-known phrase. He was not only a philosopher, not only a poet, not just a translator. He was above all a decent citizen of Azerbaijan.
According to Ilham Mammadzade, director of the Institute of Philosophy of ANAS, “in the history of all cultures and peoples, there are people who break through time and take a step forward, towards the future. I understand that Mirza Fatali Akhundov was one of them. First of all, he was a philosopher and a man who looked in a new way for the Muslim East at the problem of faith and reason. You know, it turned out that the Muslim East all the time somehow subdued mind to faith. It was difficult to agree with this. But Mirza Fatali Akhundov was able to look at the problem from the point of view of the greatness and supremacy of reason. This is important. We should remember him for this fact alone. And today, you know, there is a flowering of religious beliefs. Faith returns, we can say that. We can say that this transition is taking place in the post-Soviet space. Sometimes it makes us strike out our past that implied rationalism, materialism, and so on. I understand that faith is a significant part of the culture of any nation, including Islam for Azerbaijan. But at the same time, there is another trend that should not be forgotten, sometimes in Soviet times it was crudely called "materialism", and in fact it was the understanding that faith can be analyzed, and the right of dominance can be given to the human mind. Mirza Fatali Akhundov also thought so.
In addition, Mirza Fatali Akhundov broke through his epoch, because he did not like the closed East of the time and realized that the world in general is probably united. Today we are talking about the global world and globalization; Mirza Fatali Akhundov probably realized this. So it is especially the case for Russian culture, which for him was the springboard to the world – he probably saw the world as European culture. Since he is from the East, his homeland plus Russia and the West make the united world, the world in the 19th century, and Mirza Fatali Akhundov probably understood better than anyone that this world is quite limited.
He knew Arabic, Persian, Turkish perfectly, by the way, he grew up in a faithful family - probably nothing in it was not surprising. Perhaps surprisingly, he wrote a magnificent poem on the death of Pushkin. "Eastern poem on the death of Pushkin." paid tribute to the memory of Pushkin, while we all know that Russian literature, poetry, all is attributed to Pushkin, the Russian language starts with him. And, basically, this feeling was a visionary gift of Akhundov, who attributed these features to Pushkin.
I have to say that Mirza Fatali Akhundov brought irony and humour to the East, despite the fact that I myself deal with philosophy, I should probably speak about philosophy, faith and reason, perhaps, about "Three letters from Indian Prince Kemal-ud-Dovle to Persian prince
Jalal-ud-Dovle and respond to them," but still the most important thing is his satire, humour, his tragicomedy. This is a very difficult thing in the Muslim world. Today, not all Muslim cultures understand humour, irony, sometimes it is not a serious genre, I suppose. And Mirza Fatali Akhundov managed to write great tragicomedy. The brilliant irony of Akhundov today does not leave us indifferent.
“Akhundov is the Azerbaijani Pushkin, in the whole scope of the term, because Akhundov did to Azerbaijani literature what Pushkin did to Russian literature”, Chingiz Huseynov, Azerbaijani writer, says.
