Mirza Fatali Akhundov
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Mirza Fatali Akhundov (Azeri: Mirzə Fətəli Axundov) (1812-1878) was the great Azerbaijani prose writer, dramatist, philosopher, founder of the modern realist school and literary criticism. M.F. Akhundzade singlehandedly opened a new stage in the literary history of Azerbaijan.
[edit] Life
Akhundzade was born in 1812 in Shaki in the family of wealthy landowners originally from Southern Azerbaijan. His parents, and especially his uncle Haji Alaskar, who was Fatali’s first teacher prepared young Fatali for a career in Shi'a clergy, but the young man was attracted to the literature. Akhudzade’s encounter in Ganja in 1832 with Mirza Shafi Vazeh, a famous Azerbaijanian lyric poet and philosopher influenced the writer profoundly. It was Vazeh, who inspired him with "enlightened ideas, removing from [his] eyes the veil of ignorance". Later in 1834 Akhundov moved to Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia), where he worked as a translator of Oriental languages. In Tiflis his acquaintance and friendship with the exiled Russian Decembrists A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, A. Odoevsky, poet Ja. Polonsky and others played a large part in formation of Akhundzade’s europeanized outlook.
Akhundzade’s first published work was the "Oriental Poem" (1837) written on the death of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin. But the rise of Akhundzade’s literary activity comes to 50s of XIX c. In the first half of the 50s Akhundov wrote six comedies – the first comedies in the Azerbaijanian literature as well as the first samples of the national dramaturgy. The comedies by Akhundzade are unique in their critical pathos, analysis of the realities in Azerbaijan of the first half of XIX c. These comedies found numerous responses in the Russian other foreign periodical press. The German "Magazine of Foreign Literature" called Akhundzade "dramatic genius", "an Azerbaijanian Moliere" 1. Akhundzade’s sharp pen was directed against everything that hindered the way of progress, freedom and enlightement, and at the same time his comedies were imbued with the feeling of faith in the bright future of the Azerbaijani people.
In 1859 Akhundov published his short but famous novel "The Deceived Stars". In this novel he laid the foundation of Azerbaijani realistic historical prose, giving the models of a new genre in Azerbaijanian literature. By his comedies and dramas Akhundzade established realism as the leading trend in Azerbaijani literature.
[edit] Alphabet Reform
Well ahead of his time Akhundov was a keen advocate for alphabet reform, recognizing deficiencies of Arabic script with regards to Turkic sounds. He and began his work regarding alphabet reform in 1850. His first efforts focused on modifying the Arabic script so that it would more adequately satisfy the phonetic requirements of the Azeri language. First, he insisted that each sound be represented by a separate symbol - no duplications or omissions. The Arabic script expresses only three vowel sounds, whereas Azeri needs to identify nine vowels. Later, he openly advocated the change from Arabic to a modified Latin alphabet.
