By Vestnik Kavkaza
A new book of Azerbaijani writer Yunus Oguz headlined “Amir Timur: the lord of the world” was presented in Moscow. This is the second novel by Oguz on Tamerlane, which is translated into Russian by Ali Saidov.
“I have been translating for a long time. There were some books, but regarding serious novels, I translated only Yunus Oguz. He immediately grabbed me and threw to the depth of a historic novel. It was a very serious challenge. They say Internet ruined books. It is not true. People love books and read them,” Ali Saidov thinks.
“In general I wrote 14 books. My books are published in New York, London, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran. People ordered. I try to work with sources, I love historic sources. For instance, if I cannot find a source about Tamerlane, I don’t write,” Oguz told Vestnik Kavkaza.
Oguz wrote and published such books as “Attila,” “Nadir Shah,” “Tahmasib Shah,” “Ancient Turks,” “The theory of passionarity in L.N. Gumilev’s studies,” “Fresh view on the Turk history,” “Ancient Anatolia and Azerbaijani Turks.” The second book of the historic novel narrates about the second half of Tamerlane’s life, his victory over Bayezid, conquering a half of the world, and establishing of Timurids’ empire. In the novel the author used rich ethnographic materials, facts from historic sources on Tamerlane of the 14-15th cemtunries.
Answering Vestnik Kavkaza’s question on mysteries and secrets of Tamerlane’s life, Oguz said: “They exist. For example, his tomb is a mystery. Where he was buried, there is no his corpse. I tell you. Gerasimov found it in a different place in 1941. He actually conquered the whole world. For 35 years of his ruling he wasn’t defeated in a minor conflict. Nobody can do it. For 35 years of ruling he didn’t lose any war. It is a mystery.”
Speaking about his future plans, Oguz said: “I have ended the book in Azerbaijani “Shah’s Wife and the Wizard.” It is a mystic novel, but in general it is historic. It is half mystic and half historic. It is based on sources on Shah Abbas’s mother who ruled for 18 months with the aid of a wizard. I believe next year it will be published in Russian. Now we are preparing it for publishing in Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Uzbek in April – it is easier to translate in these languages. Translation in Russian takes a lot of time: a translation, editing, fiction editing. It is too long. At the moment I would like to rest for a month… Why do I write? The majority of us were raised and studied in the Soviet Union where history was depraved. Now I want to present true history. This is our common past. Without past we will have no future. This is our history, common history, and we have no right to reject it.”
“The most dangerous disease is a loss of historic memory,” Ramiz Abutalybov, Soviet and Azerbaijani diplomat, supports Oguz. “If we look at biography of Yunus Oguz, we will see that he has done all his best for we not to forget our past, for our generation to know its history.”
