Nizami's legacy highlighted in Derbent

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan State Drama Theater has staged a play "Nizami Ganjavi. Khamsa" in Derbent, Day.Az reported, quoting the Russian media. 

The production tells about the poet and the young Afag who was presented to him by the ruler of Dagestan.

Afag played a significant role in the life of Nizami Ganjavi. She had an extraordinary mind, inner culture and knew many folk tales and legends. Afag also inspired Nizami  to create such female characters as Shirin, Nushabe and Nistandarjikhan. 

The author of the idea is Iftikhar. The play was staged by Honored Artist Sarvar Aliyev.

Speaking about the play, director of the Azerbaijan State Drama Theater Firdousi Asgarov stressed that the play was staged in occasion of the  880th anniversary of the Azerbaijan's poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi.

In Dagestan, in particular in Derbent, Nizami's legacy has been always accepted with special love. After all, his spouse was from Derbent. The poet often mentioned Derbent in his works.

The play was presented in the Lezgin Theater and aroused great interest among spectators.

Nizami's legacy is of great importance for Azerbaijani culture. The poet, who started his creative activity with lyrical poems - gasidas, ghazals and rubais, has gained popularity all over the world. He dedicated his whole life to lyrical poems, and different philosophical problems.

The works of Nizami Ganjavi were translated into many languages. The rare manuscript copies of his works are kept and preserved like precious pearls in famous libraries, museums and literary foundations in cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Tashkent, Tabriz, Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, London, Paris and others.

In Khamsa (Quintet), the poet revealed the living pages of history. The attack of the Russians on Barda city, a fairy tale of the Russian Princess, the beautiful Shirin amazons, battles, described in various poems of Nizami - all this is historically and geographically related to medieval Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

Nizami Ganjavi passed away in 1209 in his native city of Ganja. A grandiose tomb was raised over his grave.