Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Queen Sofia of Spain has presented ancient miniatures of great Azerbaijani female poet Mahsati Ganjavi to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in Azerbaijan over the poet's 900th anniversary, an official of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences told the local press.

Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs of the Academy's Ganja department, Samir Pishnamazzadeh, said the Queen provided eight miniatures and an illustration. The miniatures include ancient manuscripts.

"Some of the miniatures are works of art taken to Spain from the Library of Ardabil by the Russians in the past. Some of them belong to Spain. As Spain had been a Muslim country for a long period of time, there are many ancient Eastern, Arab-Persian manuscripts there," Pishnamazzadeh said.

The presented miniatures date back to the 14th and 15th centuries.

Mahsati Ganjavi was a 12th century poet, born in Ganja, and a famous rubai writer, with her most productive period spent in the palace of Sultan Mahmud Seldjuk and that of his uncle Sanjar Seldjuk. Mahsati Ganjavi commonly wrote rubai in Persian, with love as a key theme, and her work is distinguished by its humanism, epicurism and optimism.

The Nizami Ganjavi International Center hosts a global book forum and literature festival in May 2013 to widely celebrate the poet's anniversary. The Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literature Festival 2013 takes place on May 3-5 at the Ganja-based center, and will be opened by Roza Otunbayeva, ex-President of the Kyrgyz Republic, and fellow distinguished members of the Center's Council of Patrons and Board Members.

The event will bring together international, regional and local authors, publishing companies, government agencies, educational institutions, retailers, and readers, to help further develop the Azerbaijani and Central Asian publishing industries.

The event follows on from the first Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literature Festival, which took place on November 24-25, 2012 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with a total of 1,300 attendees. It featured appearances by international literary stars including Janusz Leon Wisniewski (Poland), Hamid Ismailov (UK and Uzbekistan), and Elchin Safarli (Azerbaijan).

Nizami Ganjavi International Center, based in Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city, was established in September 2012 in order to increase awareness of the great works of poet Nizami Ganjavi, to help return his masterpieces back to his homeland, to serve as a depository for Nizami's works, and to further develop the values embodied in his works through community engagement.