House-museum of Azerbaijani writer opened in Tbilisi
By Sabina Idayatova
The renovated house-museum of Azerbaijani writer Mirza Fatali
Akhundov was opened in old part of Tbilisi on May 8.
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Minister of
Culture Guram Odisharia, his Azerbaijani counterpart Abulfaz
Garayev, SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev, Azerbaijani ambassador
to Georgia Azer Huseyn, and others attended the opening
ceremony.
The building was renovated with SOCAR's assistance.
Georgia and Azerbaijan have great cultural ties rooted in history, Ivanishvili said at the opening ceremony.
"Mirza Fatali Akhundov wrote his world-famous plays in Tbilisi
and they were staged here," Ivanishvili said.
According to Ivanishvili, Tbilisi was the center of the Caucasus in
that period.
"The rapid growth of the cultural life was observed here. Our
fraternal Azerbaijan was actively involved in it."
Minister of Culture Odisharia, in turn, said that Akhundov moved to
Tbilisi when he was 21 and spent his adult life here, by creating
his immortal works.
Before visiting the house-museum, the representatives of the
Azerbaijani and Georgian culture ministries honored the memory of
Mirza Fatali Akhundov in the Tbilisi Botanical Garden, where he was
buried.
Realistic-enlightener view of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, who lived in 1812-1878, plays a particular role in development of Azerbaijan literature, and created a stable basis for development the genres of modern western literature such as drama, novel, tale, short story, narrative, epic poem and so on in Azerbaijan literature.
His first six dramas created in 1850-1855 formed a literary school in literature of the Near and the Middle East after him. Deep ethic begining, the motives of humanism, love of justice, sincerity and honesty, generally characterized Azerbaijani literature is again worked over and developed in Akhundov's creativity and is suggested to future generation.
Akhundov was not only a writer, a poet, but also a philosopher, a social figure, who saw the purpose of his creativity in supporting the happiness of his people. He was creator of drama works in the East. His six comedies under the name 'Namsilat' ("Hekayeti-Molla Ibrahimkhalil kimyager", "Hekayeti-Misyo Jordan hekimi-nebatat and Dervish Mestelishah jadukuni-meshur", "Hekayeti-khirs guldurbasan", Serguzeshti-veziri-khani-Lenkeran", "Serguzeshti-merdi-khesis (Haji Gara)", "Murafie vekillerinin hekayeti") was published in Tiflis (today's Tbilisi) in 1859.
Akhundov was also an exquisite supporter for alphabet reform. He was the first intellectual mentioning the necessity to substitute Arabic script with the Latin script and called for a change of the Arabic script.
National Library of Azerbaijan and State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre as well as couple of streets, parks and libraries are named after Akhundov in Azerbaijan.