Today is the birthday of the first children's writer of Azerbaijan, Abdulla Shaig

Today is the birthday of the outstanding Azerbaijani poet, prose writer, playwright, translator and educator, Honored Artist Abdullah Shaig.

BAKU.WS reminds that Abdullah Mustafa oglu Shaig (real surname Talybzade) was born on February 25, 1881 in Tiflis in a family of a clergyman. He received his primary education at the Tiflis city school. After graduating, Abdullah Shaig and his family moved to Khorasan (Iran), where he continued his education. During this time, Shaig studied Persian and Arabic languages and works of Eastern literature. After living in Iran for about eight years, Abdullah Shaig returned to Tiflis and some time later moved to Baku with his family.

After moving to the capital, he independently studied the Russian language and passed the examination for the position of teacher in Russian-Azerbaijani schools. Shaig combined his teaching activities with literary work. In the early period of his career, Abdullah Shaig created stories and poems that truthfully reflected the life of workers and peasants. For example, his story "The Letter Did Not Arrive" tells about the hopeless life of a Baku worker who came from Iran to Baku to earn money and died in the owner's oil well.

Shaig is also known as the first children's writer in Azerbaijan. His verse fairy tales ("Tig-tig Khanum", "Good Friend", "Kolobok" and others), dramatic scenes ("Good Spring", "Shepherd" and others) are favorite works of Azerbaijani schoolchildren.

He began publishing in 1906. During this time, he wrote plays, stories, poems and epic poems. In the early 1920s, Shaig taught in schools, wrote poems and stories, and published the play "Ildirim" ("Lightning"). During these same years, he completed writing a new play "Deceived Stars" based on the story of the same name by Mirza Fatali Akhundov. Later, Abdullah Shaig created his famous poems "Goch-Polad", "Grandfather Tapdig", "Labor and Beauty", the novel "Araz", children's fairy tales, the drama "Nushabe" and other works that reflected the real era.

In Shaig's translations, the first, but bold, translation experiments of Hasanaliaga khan Garadagsky are clearly visible. Shaig's interest in poetry and literature appeared at the age of seven, when he began studying at a Tiflis school. He memorized poems in Azerbaijani, Russian and Persian languages. His first textbook was "Veten dili" ("Native Language"), which included fables by Ivan Krylov translated by Hasanaliaga khan Garadagsky (Garadagi).

Beginning in 1938, the plays of Abdullah Shaig "Khasay", "El-oglu" and others were successfully performed on the stage of the Young Spectator's Theater. In the same year, a book by Abdullah Shaig was published, which included translations of 97 fables by Krylov. In 1946, Abdullah Shaig's play "Nushabe" was staged at the Azerbaijan Drama Theater.

Works by Abdullah Shaig were repeatedly published in Azerbaijani language, translated into Russian, Georgian, Uzbek and other languages. He himself also translated many works into Azerbaijani language by Nizami Ganjavi, Firdausi, Saadi, Rumi, Shakespeare, Swift, Defoe, Krylov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Chekhov, Gorky and others.

In 1941, the poet was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, and in 1956 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Abdullah Shaig died on July 24, 1959 at the age of 78 in Baku. The Azerbaijan State Puppet Theater, created in 1931, has borne his name since 1974. In 1990, the Abdullah Shaig House-Museum opened in Baku. The museum is located in one of the apartments of the building where the poet-playwright and his family once lived.