Today is the birthday of Seyid Azim Shirvani

Today marks the birthday of the outstanding 19th-century Azerbaijani poet, pedagogue, and enlightener Seyid Azim Shirvani.

BAKU.WS reminds that Shirvani was born on July 9, 1835, in the Galabazar quarter of Shamakhi, into the family of the renowned religious figure Seyid Muhammad.

The boy was not yet seven years old when he lost his father. His maternal grandfather, molla Huseyn, who lived in the village of Yakhsay in Dagestan, took his daughter and grandson to live with him. He personally undertook the upbringing and education of his grandson. Over the course of 11 years, Seyid Azim mastered Arabic and Persian languages to perfection and fully learned the Quran. In 1853, at the age of 18, he returned to Shamakhi together with his mother. Three years later, the 21-year-old young man set off for Iraq, first to Najaf and Baghdad, and then to the city of Sham in Syria, to receive a religious education.

In 1857, he visited Mecca, Medina, Egypt, and Syria, and returned to his homeland at the end of the 1850s. However, young Seyid Azim, who showed great interest in secular sciences, changed his attitude toward religion. He renounced the spiritual title of akhund that he had received in Damascus and became a school teacher.

The poet, who joyfully welcomed the publication of the newspaper "Ekinchi," published some of his poems in it. After the publication was shut down, he collaborated with the newspapers "Ziya" and "Ziyayi-Gafgaziyya."

In 1877, Seyid Azim began teaching the Azerbaijani language and sharia at the Shamakhi school, where he worked with brief interruptions until the end of his life. In 1878, he completed his book "Rabiul-atfal" ("Spring of Children").

Toward the end of the 19th century, Seyid Azim opened a new school in Shamakhi called "Mejlis." In this educational institution, unlike the old mollakhanas (schools attached to mosques — ed.), students were taught Azerbaijani, Russian, and Persian languages, as well as introductory knowledge of modern sciences.

Among his school's students were the prominent satirical poet Mirza Alekber Sabir, the enlightener-writer and playwright Sultan Mejid Ganizade, and a number of other writers.

The poet's creative legacy consists of two major collections in the Azerbaijani and Persian languages. The bulk of his work comprises ghazals, rubais, qasidas, marsiyyas, as well as verse narratives, fables, parables, and epistles reflecting noble and admirable deeds such as honesty, bravery, strength of spirit, helping the oppressed, and others, as well as literary criticism works. Satirical works of social orientation also occupy an important place in Shirvani's oeuvre. His satires "The Mad Devil," "Mekri-zenan," "Complaint to the Heavens," "A Scholar Without Science," and others established his fame as a great realist poet of his time.

In 1887, he was awarded the medal "For Diligence" for his contributions to education. Living in poverty, the poet received the medal just 10 days before his death, in May 1888. The poet, who passed away on May 20, was buried, in accordance with his will, at the Shakhanadan cemetery in Shamakhi.