Talk:Nezami/Archive 4

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Contents 1 Some other mistakes by Mr. Baguirov 2 Some scholarly sources on Nizami in Russian that will be cited and added to the page showing Nizami as an Azerbaijani poet 3 Pope John Paul II recognized Nizami was Azerbaijani poet in 2002 4 Additional article by M.Shaginyan acknowledging Nizami being "great Azerbaijani of XII century" 5 Yet Another big mistake by Mr. Baguirov exposed clearly 6 What Pope John Paul II actually said about Armenians and why his affirmation of Nizami being Azerbaijani poet is correct 7 Western Scholars of Persian language have never called Nezami a Turk 8 Ali Doostzadeh's preference of non-scholars, non-specialists: example of M.Kapustin 9 On the Pressure on Turkic poets to write in Persian even 3 centuries after Nizami 10 Again the same lies and forgery from Baguirov 10.1 Some scholars 10.2 Ali Sher Navaii considers Nizami amongst Persian Poets 10.3 Nizami and Zoroastrianism fables 10.4 Interesting info from Nezami about himself and his mother

Some other mistakes by Mr. Baguirov

Folks I will fix any spelling or grammatical mistakes tomorrow, but the logic of this essay is sufficient. Specially see the part about Qatran Tabrizi where Mr. Baguirov makes a big blunder (point 8). Thanks to Mr. Baguirov I have written a lot of good work on Pan-turkism(close to 100 pages now) and indeed in an appropriate time, I will edit it into a good solid manuscript. Also see my point 4 about Nizami and his son and why Nizami was definitely not Turkic. (well we already know he was at least half Iranian for sure, but the other half is proven easily in point 4). Also the discussion was harsh sometimes (And Mr. Baguirov threw in more than his share of insults), but I am glad it is taking a friendlier tone.

It is good that Mr. Baguirov responded, and it is good that this time he didn’t diverge into too many issues not related to Nizami. But most of his comments were repetitive with the exception of some comments on Qatran Tabrizi. And once again with his comments on Qatran Tabrizi he showed a lack of reading on the historical materials. Again let us go over some of the mistakes of Mr. Baguirov just to show that his mistakes were plenty large. And I will quote again: Falsification 1) Thankfully the book of Ibn Azraq is available in both English and Arabic. Indeed it has been translated into English. Under the name A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times. The Early Artuqid State, Carole HILLENBRAND, 1990 (PIHANS, 66) , XIII, 260 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-066-1. Thankfully there is a glossary as well and I looked under Ganja. On page 38 we read: Sultan Toghril Beg, son of Sultan Muhammad, who was the ruler of Ganja and Arran and he sent a shihna to them.. As the readers notice, this is totally different than what Mr. Baguirov claimed! Indeed the Seljuqs controlled all of Khorasan, Esfahan, Kerman, Iraq (Both Persian Iraq and Arab Iraq).. and etc. Indeed another Seljuq king by the name of Toghan Arsalan is called the lord of Arzan and Bitlis. The immorality of falsification not withstanding, it is like arguing that since the British controlled India and Hong King, then all Chinese and Indian scholars during their time of control were British!! The next mention of Ganja is on pg 43: In the year 515 (1121-2) there as an earthquake in the city of Janza, which is Ganja. Again nothing as Mr. Adil Baguirov claims! The final time Ganja comes up in this text is on pg 58: As for Sultan Toghril Beg, he sired Arsalan-Shah whose mother was the wife of the amir Eldiguz. He is now the Sultan from Isfahan, Hamadan, Azerbaijan and Arran up to the city of Ganja and Shamkur. (My Note: like overwhelming majority of old sources Azerbaijan and Arran were two separate lands.). So as you folks can see the first part of Mr. Baguirovs claim was a lie and no such statement was found in this historically important text. Also note the hundreds of Iranian poets and writers from all over Iran under Seljuqid administration! The absurdity of this argument was already rejected. It is as absurd as saying that Greek scholars under the Persian empire of the Achaemenids were Persian!

Falsification 2) This falsification has to do with another big lie. Mr. Baguirov claimed that: For his knowledge, the following writings in Azerbaijani Turki have been preserved from BEFORE the Ilkanid ear: historian Masud ibn-Namdar (12th century). Indeed I not only did a Google search, but I checked couple of major University Libraries. For example see here: For example see here: [1].. As you can see, the book is in Arabic and it has been translated to Russian. And the title of the book is: Majmūaat qisas wa-rasāiil wa-ash'ār (The complete collection of stories, articles and poems) and the long title is completely Arabic. Note again the book is in Arabic and has nothing to do with Azerbaijani Turkic language!

The above two falsifications is a major breach of Academic honesty (there are much more: 1) where is Turan mentioned in the story of Khusraw o Shirin 2) Where is Afrasiyaab mentioned in this story on the same verse as Jamshid? And much more…. One can safely say the same thing about the other wild theories of Mr. Adil Baguirov. Indeed he does not know Persian and yet he wants to claim himself as a great scholar and makes condemnations about scholars. Indeed the character assassination of the Russian scholar that said Nizami had nothing to do with Azerbaijani Oghuz Turkic speaker is indeed tragic. Surely, Mr. Baguirov does not have the reputation of Iranian studies scholars in top Russian universities. Falsification 3) While I am at it, let me just add another point or two about one of the other false statements of Mr. Baguirov. Mr Baguirov said: Of course the fact that there are such great Turkic eposes as Dede Korkut and Oghuz Nameh, which are oral stories from at least 1300 ago, and oldest manuscript of which was written in 1053. And this claim is very big lie. There is only two manuscripts of dede Korkut work (compare it to say Shahnameh with 1000+ manuscripts). Dede-Qorqod contains about 150 Persian words and 300 Arabic words. It talks about Iranians (tats) with beards (Oghuz Turks at that time were mainly mongloid like Turkomens) doing Azzan while Iranians were not Islamified yet 1300 years ago. It talks about the land of Rum, while at that time it was not even at the hands of Muslims! Dede Korkut (the culture of Oghuz Turks) is totally from the Oghuz culture. [16]. Indeed to show that is not as old as Mr. Baguirov and other ultra-nationalists claim, the word "istanbul" is found in this book. And I quote[17]: The merchants set out on their long journey and traveled steadily for many days and nights. They came at last to the city of Istanbul. These were all major falsifications which Mr. baguirov chose to ignore in his latest message. Now lets see what new stuff Mr. Baguirov has falsified a new since a week ago. As per Mr. Adbil Baguirov lets remember he chose to use insults many times and now he asks for respect. I have a PhD in an unrelated field like Mr. Baguirov but I will not call him Dr. and He can call me Mr. But I am willing to keep tone free from any rhetoric and irrelevant comments as much as possible. All the mumbo-jumbo about the UN and etc. is not related to the issue of Nizami’s father. So I won’t even get sidestepped. But here is are some new false comments by Mr. Baguirov. Falsification 4) Another false claim of Mr. Baguirov: Ferdowsi was ordered Shahnameh by a Turk, as was the case with many other non-Turkic poets. . This statement is false today (had Mr. Baguirov read any of the recent scholarship of Ferdowsi including that by Dr. Khaleghi Motlaq). Indeed Ferdowsi started his work during the Samanid era. How many unsubstantiated claims is Mr. Baguirov going to make? He then continues: It was a Turk who ordered the poem, it was him who, despite the not very favorable language, paid for it, and it was him who ordered to transcribe it on many manuscripts and thus save it for the future generations Again repeateding the same statement without doing any research! Indeed Ferdowsi as shown by his biographers started the Shahnameh before Mahmud came to power! . (I can act like Mr. Baguirov and make tons of insults after correcting him on this issue, but lets just proceed). Falsification 5). And indeed Mr. Baguirov falsifies another quote from the panj-Ganj and claims: Look at this verse from Khosrov and Shirin: “My Kipchak idol! My sensual fragile crop (herb, plant)! Died, like Shirin, you too, my Afak (Appaq). The fact is such a verse does not exist! Else Mr. Baguirov show us the original verse if you are truthful. The original verse is this Mr. Baguirov! درین افسانه شرطست اشک راندن گلابی تلخ بر شیرین فشاندن بحکم آنکه آن کم زندگانی چو گل بر باد شد روز جوانی سبک رو چون بت قبچاق من بود گمان افتاد خود کافاق من بود Indeed I am not sure what educated person would translate the last two verses: Sabok roo chon bot-e-Qabchaq man bood – Gomaan oftaad khob ke-Afaaq man bood into:My Kipchak idol! My sensual fragile crop (herb, plant)! Died, like Shirin, you too, my Afak (Appaq) Indeed the word shirin is not even in the same like as the idol of Qifchaq! This is a major falsification. You see there is a big difference here! FROM now on we should demand Mr. Baguirov to use the original Persian verse as Nizami Ganjavi did not write in Turkic or Russian! What has happened here is that line 2 and line 5 have been mixed. Whereas line 1 and line 2 which are the full couplet have nothing to do with bote-e- Qapchaq. As per the absolute majority of sources, again on this matter of interpretation of this verse, if such a false translation of the Persian was made by the USSR scholar, then their opinion really has no value. Indeed Nizami Ganjavi does not use the word Apaq even once whereas Persian has p. Indeed Nizami Ganjavi uses the word Afaq as 46 times in his poetry to mean horizon! Indeed no ancient source has mentioned that Nizami Ganjavi had a wife named Afaq. So in this matter Mr. Baguirov needs to prove his point by the original Persian and not just quote some scholar. There is no verse where Shirin and Bot-e-Qapchaq are used in the same couplet. Indeed Said Nafisi who is a native speaker of the language is more authotarative than the translator who madeup such a false verse! MR. Baguirov by using verses that does not exist has shown that he completely lacks any credibility to discuss issues about Nizami’s wife. He is only copying polemic materials and indeed he has no choice since he can not read Nizami in its original language. His verse did not exist. But the above Persians verses can be taken as metaphor and there is no reason for me to take side on this issue, since we will never know for 100%. All we know is that even if she was a Turkic slave given by the ruler of Darband, this does not make Nizami’s father a Turk! And furthermore we know that there is no manuscript with Apaq and Nizami uses the term Afaq about 46 as meaning horizon and it would be rare for a poet to suddenly mean a different thing by using this word! And also at the same time, call other rulers, the ruler of Afaq!, which would be lewd! So about Nizami’s first wife which was given to him as a servant/slave by the ruler of darband as a gift, we simply do not have much information to make anything clear Said Nafisi on page 12 in his 1982 version of his book on Nizami Ganjavi has totally shown that “Gomaan oftaad khod ke-afaagh man bood” means that Nizami Ganjavi considered her to be all of his horizon. Which makes much more sense. Now I will make some comments and the they will show more falsification of history and verses by Mr. Baguirov. Falsification 5) Mr. Baguirov makes the absurd claim: It should be noted, that in the text of the Assyrian king Sargon II, the “mighty Midians (Medes)” are mentioned not as Aryan people and thus are separated from Iranians. Again this shows he is cut & pasting some material without thinking and proper reading. Neither are the Persians called Aryans by Assyrian king Sargon II! Indeed the Persians are called Aryans only in their own inscription during the Achaemenid era.

And much much more. The mistake about Afaq being Nizami’s third wife was indeed insignificant. Indeed I meant to say she was one of Nizami’s three wives. In the main article which I did much editing, I have confirmed this fact and never changed it and directly took the information from Dr. Bashiri’s website. That is it. The mistakes of Mr. Baguirov were significant and indeed the article on his own webpage even if it is from 10 years ago and written by someone else (whom?), is a mistake that he put on his webpage. So although both sides can make mistakes (specially I have written about 100 pages in the last two weeks or so), Mr. Baguirovs mistakes were much greater in scope. He for example mistook Keykhusraw for Jamshid, which are two different mythical characters. He claimed the word Turan is someone in Haft Paykar but did not bring the relevant verse.

Now lets get to the new comments of Mr. Baguirov and where to start is a good question. But thank you Mr. Baguirov for not mentioning unrelated issues. As per the Queen Tomyris that Herodotus mentions, let me add that she was a Masssagate and from Central Asia and not Azerbaijan. Mass-Sagate were again Iranian Scythian tries and her name thahmaris has a clear Iranian etymology and it is from the same as Tahmurath in the Shahnameh. This is mentioned by Walter Henning, one of the Iranologist. Also the death of the Cyrus the Great is legendary and three different accounts are available. But lets move on.

0) First as Per Akhundov, I quoted his own auto-biography. He says his father was a Persian from Rasht and he said people mistake him for an Azerbaijani Turk. That is another issue, but the direct quote was from his own auto-biography. Akhunzadeh in his biography says: although some think I am a Turk from Azerbaijan, but my father was actually a Persian from Rasht (Gilan). [2]. Here is his actual words: من اگرچه علي الظاهر ترکم اما نژادم از پارسيانست. جدم حاجي احمد از رشت آمده در آذربايجان توطن اختيار کرده است. پدرم ميرزا محمد تقي و من خودم در آذربايجان تولد و پرورش يافته‏ام Transliteration: Man agarcheh ala' al-zaaher torkam amaa nezhaadam az paarsiyaanast. Jadam Haji Ahmad az Rash Amadeh dar Azarbaijan Tavaton Ekhtiyaar kardeh ast. Pedaram Mirza Mohammad Taghi o Man khodam Azarbaijan tavalod o parvaresh yaafteh-am". This is his own biography and some people are not aware it. I would sent the link above to someone that knows Persian in the republic of Azerbaijan and that might shed new information on his life.

1) As per Shirin being an Armenian I already mentioned some Persian verses from throughout Persian poetry. As per her being a Christian, I would recommend Mr. Baguirov read the materials I have brought from Cambridge History of Iran (Sassanid volumes 3a and 3b). We already mentioned the Encyclopedia Iranica and Cambridge history of Iran all quotes by non-Iranians. So that issue is finished. The case of Shirin being a Christian and Armenian is affirmed by all scholars and there is no serious doubt. Even the Turkish-Joghtai poet Alisher Navai in his Farhad and Shirin mentions her as an Armenian. So Shirin was certainly a Christian. No debate here and I have all the newest available references to prove she was a Christian and Iranica metnions her as Armenian. Indeed the fact is that she is a real historical person and a Christian. Just like Khusraw is a real person.

2) Mr. Baguirov claims Stalin had nothing to do with Nizami’s appropriation by the republic of Azerbaijan. Again I quote Stalin:Stalin referred to Nizami 'as the great poet of our brotherly Azerbaijan people' who must not be surrendered to Iranian literature, despite having written most of his poems in Persian. . Mr. Baguirov is repeating the same thing! [3] It is a well known fact that in the USSR, the criticism of Stalin in such matters was a big mistakes. Millions died in Siberia because of criticizing Stalin or not being along his party line. Indeed what is interesting is that Tajiks after the break up of the USSR now have correctly claimed Nizami Ganjavi as a Tajik (Iranian). Indeed my Tajikistan friend told me , that their literature teacher during the time of USSR would teach them that Nizami Ganjavi was not a Turk, but it was not politically correct to state this opinion at that time. This is an important point to bear in mind. No matter how much duplicity one plays with, this is a fact that when Stalin takes sides on a measure issue, then virtually all scholars were reluctant to criticize them. So USSR era scholarship can not be taken seriously when it comes to Nizami’s ethnic background. In the west at that time, nobody talked about Nizami being Turkic (Rpyka, Wilson, Gelpke, Mattin, Hill, Brown, Darab..) and hosts of other scholars. Indeed today no major Enyclopedia or Western author has claimed any Turkishness for Nizami Ganjavi, but many sources have mentioned him as a “Persian poet”. None of these Western scholars were cowards. Indeed Mr. Baguirov uses the worst character assasiniation on a Russian scholar who said:

The scholar Mr. Baguirov quotes was a leading women communist of the communist era. She did not major in Persian literature (note majoring in Persian literature and being the chair of the Persian literature like some of the scholars I mentioned is different than being able to read Persian). Indeed for advanced training in Persian, some Western scholars had spent a good portion of their time in Iran. So the words of someone like Rypka (whose last article was published in 1968 in the Cambridge of History) has much more weight than someone who is not a specialist in Persian literature and Iranian studies. Indeed one can not understand Nizami without understanding Sanaii, Ferdowsi.. and etc. They are related.

But let me just quote some serious Azerbaijani scholars who mention Stalin and his influence on Nizami studies. Academician Mirza Ibrahimov, who was a member of the Azerbaijan academy of Sciences, writes: The history of the middle east and the east of the USSR must be rewritten from the perspective of Marxism and leninism. Again mr. Ibrahimov continues: The research from all the different aspects of Nizami started when the great leader of the nations, comrade Stalin, the great historian of the people, specially the people of the USSR, and also the great scientist on issues of nation studies, (Geez look all these praises!), in an interview talked about Nizami and recited some of his poetry. Our scholars then started their precise research into the life of Nizami’’. Ibrahimov continues: The preparation of the celebration of Nizami’s 800 year anniversary has to do directly with Stalin. His words were new beginning in the history of the nations of the east and were the main points for the identity of Azerbaijanis, and helped much in the knowledge of middle-eastern history.. ((Nizami Ganjavi, Research and sources of the conference, 1947, Baku, pg 134).

These facts show the great influence of Stalin on the matter of ethnicity. Indeed ethnic manipulation is nothing new and another Person that was claimed to be an ethnic Turk was Babak Khorramdin the leader of Khorramdin who Arab historians have clearly mentioned as an Iranian. Another one was Qatran Tabrizi, which soon we will talk about.

3) Mr. Baguirov again comments about Dr. Talattof quotes about ‘’ideological’’ research in Iran. Here he is twisting and playing with words. This is what Dr. Talattof wrote: ‘’As mentioned in the introduction to this volume, the rise of Islam to state ideology after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 effected culture in Iran, lead to the production of a body of Islamic-oriented literary criticism’’. So the issue is totally Islamic ideology and after the revolution much has been written and exposed on the Islamic nature of Persian poets and their biographies and life and work were examined from an Islamic religious point of view. That’s it. As per Mr. Baguirov’s other comment with bogus quotes coming from marr( see the Encyclopedia Iranica for Marrs many Bizarre theories at the end of his life) [4]. Indeed the Encyclopedia Iranica article written by Prof. Yakubovich continues: ‘’ This collection of selected papers mostly contains Marr's later works of rather dubious scholarly value, but it can be consulted for his complete bibliography up to 1933’’. Indeed Mr. Baguirov consistently quotes dubious materials!

I it must be said that I have in position Persian text books from both the Shah’s era and Islamic revolution era. They all have many excerpts from both Khaghani and Nizami in their original language and they are praised heavily. Also I mentioned at least 6 major works before Marr that deal with the biographies of Nizami and mention him as an excellent poet in the Iranian land. From Bahrestaan to Atashkadeh. Indeed the first complete edition of all of Nizami’s work was done by Dr. Dastgardi and today the most complete edition of all the 5 jewels have been produced in Iran by Dr. Zanjani. Dr. Zanjani has shown some very basic errors that the USSR scholars have made due to their lack of understanding of Persian language. Indeed some of the verses of the USSR scholars does not make any sense (see the Lalyi and Majnoon for example edited by Dr. Zanjani with the most available manuscripts and using all previous manuscripts)

4) Tork-taaz means plunderer. In Persian poetry and not just Nizami, a lover is also a plunderer of the heart. So sometimes when a lover plunders the beloved’s heart, the act is compared to Turks plundering a city. Again the different shades of meaning for the word Turk is too numerous to emphasize in Persian symbolic poetry, but there is a good reference on this manner. Let me just quote some verses that Nizami clearly uses this word to mean plunder. When talking about Eskandar and Russians: سوی روسی آورد یک ترکتاز چو تند اژدهائی دهن کرده باز Towards the Russian he did Turktaaz (attack, plunder) Like a fast dragon opening his mouth

Here is one from Attar: ترکتازی کن بتا بر جان و دل تا ز جان و دل شوم هندوی تو Translation: Do Tork-taazi o idol on the heart and soul So that from the heart and soul I may become your Hindu.

So the concept of plunder is also used symbolically as a plunderer of the heart. Indeed Nizami mentions about the character Turk-taaz (plunderer, attacker) and I quote from Mr. Baguirovs own webpage: ‘’ The Turk-eyed doe of Indian descent opened her little purse of musk.’’

So Mr. Baguirov again by being selective on Nizami’s use of Turkitaz, shows his lack of knowledge. Different Persian poets have compared their state to Hindu, Turk, Roman, Black and etc. Let me quote Attar again: بوسه چو داد ترک من هندوی او شد جان من Translation: Since my Turk gave me a kiss, I became from the bottom of my heart his Hindu.

When poets talk about Turk,India, Rome, Ethiopia one needs to take consideration of symbolic state of the poets feeling. When actual characters are in play, then that is different (for example Khaghan of Turks). For a short introduction to this wide topic, people should the article by Professor Annemarie Schimmel, Turk and Hindu, A literary Symbol. Indeed in Lili o Majnoon, many times Lili is compared to a “Turk” and sometimes characters would be compared to Hindu. Again I will confirm that these Turks were the Cheshm-Tang, Mongolian Turks you see in Central Asia. Not the Azerbaijani/Anatolian Turkic speakers who by modern genetic evidences are strongly predominantly non-Turkic in DNA. The problem is that Mr. Baguirov is confined in a small ethno-centric viewpoint and thus he can not grasp the symbolic meanings in Persian poetry. I have about 10 pages on how the word Turk is used in Persian materials. Specially when it compares to Ethipioa/India. For Iranian poets, Blacks/Indians were considered ugly, dark and Turks were considered light-skin and sun-like and pretty. Indeed had the people in the republic of Azerbaijan considered the fact that Nizami uses symbolic language many times, they would not be making such big mistakes and not view poetry from ethno-centric concept.

Also lets remember that Nizami uses the term Tork-zaad(a term used in classical Persian poetry meaning a son of Iranian who had a Turkic wife) for his son from his wife that was given to him by the ruler of Darband.

The first time such a word is used is by Ferdowsi (which Nizami was an avid reader of) when referring to Hormozd the Sassanid king whose father was the Sassanid king Anoshiravan and whose mother was from the Gok-Turks, sent by the Khaghan of Turks as a present to Anoshiravan.:

Ferdowsi says:

سخن بس کن از هرمزد ترکزاد که اندر زمانه مباد آن نژاد

Sokhan Bas kon az Hormozd-e Torkzaad Keh andar zamaaneh mabaad aan nezhaad

The translation is:

End all this talk about Hormozd the Tork-Zaad, May such a race (Nezhad) never exist in time

Indeed the difference between Tork-zaad and Tork is key here.

And again Ferdowsi says about Hormozd:

که این ترکزاده سزاوار نیست کسی او را به شاهی خریدار نیست.

Keh in Torkzaadeh sezaavaar nist kasi raa beh shaahi kharidaar nist

This Tork-zaadeh is very incompetent, No one supports his kingship

Note Hormozd father was a pure Iranian king by the name of Anoshiravan.

This is a sufficient proof that Nizami was not a Turk. Indeed lets re-examine that section again:

تو کز عبرت بدین افسانه مانی چه پنداری مگر افسانه خوانی درین افسانه شرطست اشک راندن گلابی تلخ بر شیرین فشاندن بحکم آنکه آن کم زندگانی چو گل بر باد شد روز جوانی سبک رو چون بت قبچاق من بود گمان افتاد خود کافاق من بود همایون پیکری نغز و خردمند فرستاده به من دارای در بند پرندش درع و از درع آهنین‌تر قباش از پیرهن تنگ آستین‌تر سران را گوش بر مالش نهاده مرا در همسری بالش نهاده چو ترکان گشته سوی کوچ محتاج به ترکی داده رختم را به تارج اگر شد ترکم از خرگه نهانی خدایا ترک زادم را تو دانی

The last two line after mentioning his wife as an idol of Qifqach (and symbolism can not be ruled out). Nevertheless, Nizami says in the last two lines about the gift given to him from the ruler of Darband (and note he uses the term Daraayeh Darband which means the Darius of Darband again showing Persian and Iranian mythology/history): Cho Torkaan gashteh sooyeh kooch mohtaaj - beh Torki daadeh rakhtam raa beh taraaj - agar shod torkam az khargah nahaani - khwudaayaa tork-zaadam raa to daani" First line: Since the Torkaan (turks) are in need of migration (using the word Kuch which means nomadic migration), Second line: Beh Torki (In Turkis way) daadeh Rakhtam raa beh taaraaj (In Turkish manner has plundered my belongings) Third line: Agar shod torkam az khargah Nahaani (If(Agar) happened(Shod) torkam (my Turk) from (az) khargah (tent) Nahaani (disappeared) = If my torkam disappeared from her tent) Fourth line: O god you know best about my Tork-zaad.

Note Nizami uses the term Torkam for his wife, but Tork-zaad for his son. Tork-zaad is defined as race by Ferdowsi, Dekhoda (quoting Habib al-Sayar) and classical literature and it means a child from an Iranian father and Turkic mother. Indeed that is why there is a distinction between Tork (his wife) and Tork-zaad (his son). Indeed if Nizami was a Turk, he wouldn't need to point out a particular term like Tork-zaad! There is no way of going around this, as we already know Nizami read Ferdowsi thoroughly and knew what this term exactly meant. Also the way Nizami talks about Taraaj, Kooch and etc. makes it definite he was not a Turk. But his direct and explicit used of the term Tork-zaad in such a particular manner is sufficient to show he wasn't Turkic or else assuming 0.00000...1% chance he was, there would be no need to point out the obvious!. (although we already knew he wasn't Turk because his mother was Kurdish and so at most acording to our friends he would be a Kurd-Turk.).

5) When talking about Iranian or Azerbaijani nationality, as Mr. Baguirov said, such nationality did not exist. Indeed during the time of Nizami, what mattered was two nationalities (Mellats). There existed a Muslim state which was called Dar-e-al-Eslam ruled by Muslims and non-Muslim state called Dar-e-Al-Harb. So when we are talking about Nizami being Azerbaijani or Persian or Kurdish or whatever, we are clearly indicating ethnicity. Since the nation states did not exist. Although I might add this that the geographical entity called Iran did exist as Nizami has mentioned it. Also Mr. Baguirov mentions that the Armenian poetess Shaghniyan (who was shown not be have major in Persian literature and did not chair Persian studies), called Nizami an Azerbaijani poet. An Azerbaijani poet could simply mean someone from the republic of Azerbaijan and does not denote oghuz ethnicity. Indeed calling Nizami Azerbaijani from ethnic point of view is wrong since he was at least half Iranic (Kurdish). He was not an Azerbaijani poet either since he didn’t write anything in Azerbaijani Turkish. So he was just a poet from the Atabak controlled state of Ganja. So the term Azerbaijani does not apply in any way. The case of Shahriyar can not be compared to Nizami. Shahriyar has Iranian citizenship and birth certificate. At the time of Nizami, there was no such thing as a country of “Azerbaijan” with a national border identity and birth certificate. So lets not compare apples and oranges. Shahriyar again was an ethnic Azerbaijani with Iranian nationality. But at the time of Nizami, there was no concept of citizenship here and we are speaking purely in ethnic terms. Here lets compare apples to apples. Rudaki one of the first Persian poets was from the modern country of Uzbekistan. But in no way or form he was an Uzbek and he was ethnically an Iranian. Nizami Ganjavi is similar and he was ethnically Iranian and even our fiends agree that he was at least half ethnically Iranian! So since Rudaki can not be considered an Uzbek, Nizami Ganjavi can not be an Azarbaijani Turk. So let us get something straight here. In this discussion , when I use the term Iranian , Kurd, Persian,.. I mean ethnicity. The term Turkic is also used since the current people of the republic of Azerbaijan mainly consider themselves descendants of Oghuz Turks. (Although this is only linguistically true and the Turkmens of Iran are the real Oghuz, nevertheless..). Sometimes it is even difficult to judge for example the case of Akhundov who was of Persian ancestry but his descendants surely are now Turks. As per Iranians and not ethnic Persian claiming Pahlavi and Avesta. Firstly because modern Persian is a continuation of Khorasani dialect of Pahlavi. And although Pahlavi script is hard, many of the actual Pahlavi remnants are not hard to understand for Persian speakers that had no training in the language. I will bring for example a sample and Mr. Baguirov can examine it on a random Persian speaker: Dārom andarz-ē az dānāgān Az guft-ī pēšēnīgān Ō šmāh bē wizārom Pad rāstīh andar gēhān Agar ēn az man padīrēd Bavēd sūd-ī dō gēhān برگردان فارسی: «دارم اندرزی از دانایان از گفته ی پیشینیان به شما بگزارم (= گزارش دهم) به راستی اندر جهان اگر این از من پذیرید بُوَد سود دو جهان».

Indeed Just like a Turk can be proud of say Kashgari, an Iranian can be proud of Avesta. Zoroaster even calls himself Aryan and virtually 90% of Pahlavi words have survivred in modern Persian. So just like a modern Greek is proud of ancient Greek and a modern Armenian is proud of Grabar(old Armenian), an Iranian is proud of its older languages. But Nizami Ganjavi wrote in Persian and modern Persian did not evolve into Azerbaijani Turkish. So I hope the connection is clear. As per Mr. Baguirov's question: By the way, what is your response to Tajikistan, which has less history of independence than Azerbaijan yet shares so many great figures with Iranian (Persian) culture, such as Ferdowsi? The issue is that Tajiks consider themselves Iranic people, so there is no contradiction. If the people of Azerbaijani republic considered themselves Iranic instead of Turkic, then I would have no problem as well. Note if Azarbaijani's of the republic of Azerbaijan did not forget their Iranian, Median and Zoroastrian heritage and did not blindly call themselves Turks (it is like the Irish who speak English calling themselves Anglo-saxon), I would not even have an issue.

5) As far as the name goes, Dr. Julia Scott Maysami does not sound Iranian. I have never heard an Iranian with the name Julie Scott. She was born in California. More importantly Dr. Maysami is a Professor of Oxford University. Dr. Talattof is a Professor of University of Arizona. So the academic credentials are taken into consideration. Indeed Mr. Baguirov can not show one Western Academician of Persian studies that would agree with him. I can say for example Jerome Clinton, Peter Chelkowski, Franklin Lewis and hosts of other Persian experts in the West and none of them have called Nezami Ganjavi Turk and they all use the term “Persian Poet”.

6) Mr. Baguirov plays a double game like all cunning ultranationalists. Let me show you why. First on the term Ajam, just like Mr. Baguirov quoted it also refers to non-Arab and a foreigner from an Arabs point of view. So if Layli’s father is talking about Ajam it means non-Arab or foreign. For example Ajami Turk means foreign Turk which is foreign to Arabian lands. And also let me add that unlike the Shirvanshah or Alexandar, Layli’s father is not a positive character in the story. Mr. Baguirov is in no position to judge about embarrassing quotes when his quotes simply did not exist and he mistook Jamshid for Freydoon. Or one of the false verses I brought: ‘’ My Kipchak idol! My sensual fragile crop (herb, plant)! Died, like Shirin, you too, my Afak’’ Let me say that Dr. Kazem Azary is also a researcher and he takes the interpretation of the terms Bukhari and Tabari as Iranian languages. There is nothing embarrassing or wrong with this intrepretation and it could be valid. Since Soghdian was spoken around Bukhara and Tabari has a rich folk literature like Marzuban Nama. So for Mr. Baguirov to dwell on this point, is indeed a waste of time. So indeed both translations can make sense. Many verses from Nizami and older Persian poets can be interpreted differently and there is nothing embarrassing about it. What is embarrassing is for someone not to know Persian and not be able to read Nizami and then claim that different translations of verses that may contain ambiguity is embarrassing. As per the verses in question, I brought them from Vahid Dastgerdi’s edition and there is no censorship. Also will double check with Zanjanis' edition. Indeed if Mr. Baguirov would like to know, there were some Mullahs that even cursed at Cyrus the great and Zoroaster and there is no ethnic pride in the Mullahs! One of them in the beginning of the revolution wanted to bulldoze all of Persepolis which is one of the greatest prides of all Iranian. If there is a part missing in Persian, bring it forth and lets judge.

The Vahid Dastgerdi edition has the verses I brought: کای در عرب از بزرگواری در خورد سری و تاجداری مجروحم و پیر و دل شکسته دور از تو به روز بد نشسته در سرزنش عرب فتاده خود را عجمی لقب نهاده این خون که ز شرح بیش بینم در کردن بخت خویش بینم خواهم که در این گناهکاری سیماب شوم ز شرمساری گر دخت مرا بیاوری پیش بخشی به کمینه بنده خویش راضی شوم و سپاس دارم وز حکم تو سر برون نیارم The verse in question from Layli's father (who is cruel and bad character unlike Shirvanshah and Alexandar) is: Dar sarzanesh Arab fetaadeh Khod raa Ajami laghab nahaadeh Which translates to: I came to give belittling advice to Arabs And have called myself Ajami (non-Arab) Then next line brought by Mr. Baguirov does not exist: ‘’for I’m still an Arab and scorn this cowardly sneer of bragging fools unused to the shield and spear.’’ So the difference between Layli’s father who is a negative character and Shirvanshah (who Nizami praises in 90 lines) and Alexandar (who Nizami praises) is well known. So I do not even need to defend such a quote since Layli’s father is not a positive character in the story. And to the Arabian world, Ajam’s first definition is still non-Arab. Let me just add that Sunni Kurds of Iran call Azarbaijanis Ajam. Also the Baluchis of Iran call Persians as “Qajars”. But just to show Mr. Baguirov is again not careful, I will quote him here: In fact, the Encyclopedia Iranica that Mr. Doostzadeh holds in high regard says the following in a relevant article of its most recent edition (Ajam, p. 700): “Ajam, the name given in medieval Arabic literature to the non-Arabs of the Islamic empire, but applied especially to the Persians”. Note that Nizami’s poetry was neither “Arabic literature”, nor did he live in an Arab “Islamic empire” (although Turk Seljuks did reside in Baghdad and ruled the caliphate, much like later did the Ottomans). Thus, even Arabs themselves “applied [Ajam] especially to the Persians”.’’

Mr. Baguirov how could you forget that Layli o Majnoon is an Arabic story!? And indeed Nizami is the first person to write about this story in Persian literature. Indeed the story of Layli and Majnun has been part of Arab folklore and literature way before Persian and Turkish. Also see the comment, by Iranica that it applies to non-Arabs. And yes Layli o Majnoon sources that Nizami used was Arabic literature.

7) Now lets examine Mr. Baguiros point IV. Firstly there is no proof Nizami spoke Turkish. And uneducated people can learn other languages. For example Mr. Baguirov himself claimed that Nizami’s mother who was a Kurd did not necessarily speak Kurdish and so Nizami’s mother tongue was not necessarily Turkic! So the hypocrisy of Mr. Baguirov is apparent. An uneducated Kurd speaks Turkish fluently according to him, but an uneducated Turk can not speak any other languages! Of course when it comes to proving a point, Mr. Baguirov does not care to even belittle Turks. Now as per the issue at hand on point IV. As per Nizami boasting about his research in Persian and Arabic manuscript, that is because an uneducated person or a non-researcher does not do research! Also Nizami was a humble fellow and does not boast about knowing languages! (Indeed here were see to the 100% ethno-centric viewpoint of Mr. Baguirov on every single matter related to Nizami, he fails to grasp the simples poinst). He boasts about gathering and researching.. He is just stating that he did research in these manuscripts to gather the story! Nothing about ethnicity of his father or many other weird extrapolations of Mr. Baguirov. For example an uneducated Arab can not boast about researching in Arab or Persian. Also Nizami’s particular stories were in certain books. Like for example Ferdowsi who mentions doing research in the work of other Persian works. This is nothing new. If I mention doing research in Persian books, it doesn’t mean I am not an Iranian! Such absurd logic does not even deserve a response. Indeed what matters is that Nizami never mentions doing research in any Turkish work. Indeed some Turkish work, especially Eastern Turkish work were available at the time of Nizami, but Nizami never mentions them. Indeed for example some of the Eastern Turkish works could have been useful when Nizami deals with the Khaghans, but he doesn’t mention them. Also funny thing is that Mr. Baguirov claimed that dede qorqud is 1300 years old (and this is one of the biggest lies of the Azerbaijani republic) and how come Nizami does not mention it?

Now I will use again Smiths translation with the exception that Dari and not Persian will be used. In the comment about Qatran Tabrizi where Mr. Baguirov made a big mistake, I will show the difference between what is meant by Dari and what is meant by Persian.

(begin) I looked in the records of interesting histories.. For anything to help expand heart’s boundaries From all that the book of king (clear mention of Shahnameh) contains I chose what seemed good in my book combining In the first place I thought a plan, ingenious And then embodied in its number…harmonious When particles remained of this ruby-chipping Of every atom I contrived to make something… From those small fragments, like skilful jewler, I formed and polished a not worthless treasure.. So that great, who knows how to distinguish, To choose from the portraits if it was their wish What the King book had half-said, I said fully What jewels he had half-pieced I pierced wholly. Whatever I perceived to be right and be perfect, Not to disturb, as it stood at first, I did elect I made every effort that in the proper setting, To encase each choice and rare fragmentation. Again, I searched books through the world.. For what had been hidden, almost forgotten Whatever was written in Arabic and Dari Tales preserved by Tabari and Bokhari’s pen (note the reason I take Dr. Kazem Azari’s point of view is that Bokhari did not write any ‘tales’ and Hadeeth were not considered mere stories. Also Bokhari did not write anything about Bahram Gur. Indeed Nizami could have used Hadeeth’s from Bukhari in his work, but these were not tales like the book of Kings. Also Soghdian and Tabari had extensive literature and the are as different from Persian as Avesta is from Persian and in no way are they dialects.) And words through other volumes scattered And each pearl in a subtle fashion arranged. (end)

As you can see the poet talks about the beauty of his work and does not boast about KNOWING this or that particular language. The extraneously absurd extrapolations of Mr. Baguirov and his ethno-centric interpretation of simple manners is indeed astonishing. The reason Nizami uses Persian and Arabic firstly is because these were languages that he knew, and if he knew Turkic, he would mention it also. Since eastern Turkic had good amount of literature and at that time, the Turkic languages were still very close and Nizami could have easily picked up Turkic languages and read their manuscripts, had he knew Turkic. Also if someone today writes a book in Persian and then talks about research Persian, Arabic, German, Kurdish.. materials, it has no bearing on his ethnicity!

As per Mr. Baguirov comments: ‘’ Mr. Doostzadeh did an excellent job on several occasions in emphasizing that the ethnic Turkic rulers and nobility were culturally Persianizing.. thus leaving the common name “Turk” mostly for Oghuz Turks and few others…. Because of this, those Turkic rulers, like Ghaznavis or Atabeks or Seljuks, were not interested in Turkic history per se, they were interested in the “great kings”’’, Actually perhaps Mr. Baguirov should want to know that the Seljuqids were themselves originally a branch of Oghuz Turks and the seljuqids in Anatolia did not consider themselves Turks later on. So were many of the Atabeks. Neither did the Ottoman emperors who also had clear Oghuz roots. Indeed the Seljuqids were a very important branch of Oghuz Turks originally, but that is another story. Of course I will not insult Mr. Baguirov who did not know Seljuqids were Oghuz Turks too. Let me just add that though the nomdaic non-sedentary Turks were not capable of producing literature and people like Nizami Ganjavi at that time. As Mr. Baguirov said: This was all associated with “nomadic” Turkic culture which was deemed inferior to the “great” and “civilized” Iranian or Arab (semi-) sedentary cultures. . So even if Mr. Baguirov wants us to believe that Nizami's other half was Turkic, culturally he was part of the Iranian sedentary culture.

8) Mr. Baguirov makes another interesting comment!:’’It would be interesting to hear thoughts about Nizami’s usage of the “Torkan-e galam” term – that is, “writing Turks”, “Turkic authors/writers” – whom are briefly mentioned, as ethnic Turks did not dominate the writing guild at the time nor was there much literature in Turki using Arabic script.’’ The actual verse is this: به ترکان قلم بی نسخ تاراج یکی میمش کمر بخشد یکی تاج

Transliteration: Beh torkaan ghalam bi-naskh taraaj Now how Nizami uses Torkaan (Turks), Ghalam (which means both pen and also means cutting, breaking in half and many other meanings see dekhoda..) and the word Taraaj (plunder, mass) in the same sentence. Indeed the verse about does not necessarily mean writing Turk writes and can be translated variously It all depends how the word Ghalam is used by the word taraaj is very clear in meaning: plunder. 9) About Nasrani, Hebrew, Pahlavi. Interestingly enough, Mr. Paul smith translated Nasrani as Armenian based on G.H. Darab’s translation I am sure. So here Mr. Baguirov shows a kind of hypocrisy and I can easily quote Paul Smith and say G.H. Darab and Mr. Baguirov (who hates Armenians because of the recent war and such hatred between two warring countries is natural although unhealthy), will object. Let me say that firstly the word Nasrani in classical Persian generally means Christian. That is why I wrote various Greek/Syriac/Armenian and etc. But Mr. Baguirov who keeps mentioning Professional translations, now has come to disagee with G.H. Darab’s translation. As per Academic edition, I have the best academic edition, (Dr. Zanjani’s). And the translation of Prof. Beterls is the same pretty much. Because having Pahlavi manuscripts, means that Nizami could read Pahlavi books. Also Pahlavi could also mean Zoroastrian materials next to Christian and Jewish materials. Either way Zoroastrian materials were written in Pahlavi languages and not Dari-Persian. Here is what I wrote: The following verse from the Eskandar Nama again shows that Nizami was familiar with the history books and the languages of Hebrew, Nestorian(Syriac or Armenian) and Pahlavi (middle Persian). Also Turkish is not mentioned. سخنها که چون گنج آگنده بود به هر نسختی در پراکنده بود ز هر نسخه برداشتم مایه‌ها برو بستم از نظم پیرایه‌ها زیادت ز تاریخهای نوی یهودی و نصرانی و پهلوی Translation (non-poetic and accurate): The words that were like abundant jewls, were dispered in many different manuscripts, from each manuscript I took the main themes In form of poetry I decorated them many(of the manuscripts) from the recent history Yahudi (Hebrew) and Nasrani (Nestorian probably Syriac or Greek or Armenian) and Pahlavi (Middle Persian) So we are sure that Nizami was familiar with many languages and assuming that he knew Turkish (which is not proved), it doesn't make him Turkish. Just like him being familiar with Pahlavi (and Middle Persian dialects were still strong in the area for example the poetry of Baba Taher is in a Middle Persian dialect), it doesn't necessarily make his father a Pahlavi speaker.

Now the term Rumi (Roman) was used for Greek language frequently. The term Yahudi also was used for language in Persian. But what is without doubt is the Pahlavi part. Pahlavi is a language and since Nizami mentions the other two religions, Nasrani and Yahudi, but does not mention Zardushti (Zoroastrian), then I have also taken Yahudi to mean language here. Either way the books of Jews are in Hebrew and those of Christians in a language used by Christrians of the area. But the term Pahlavi is unambiguous, and refers to middle Persian and sometimes modern Persian. But since Nizami mentions the other two faith, I assume he had access to Zoroastrian materials which were exclusively in Pahlavi. So we can strongly assume that Nizami Ganjavi was also familiar with Pahlavi, which virtually no Turk would be familiar with.

8) On the point V of Mr. Baguirov and on Ganja and its population. Again I mentioned that I did not say anything about huns or Sabirs settled exactly in Ganja, but I mentioned a material that mentions it in the vicinity of Ganja. (Huns article on Iranica). Furthermore these were incursions by few tribes and did not change the general characteristic of the people and were totally absorbed prior to Islam as Indeed all the Arab geographers who traveled to the area never mentioned Turkic from the beginning of Islam all the way down to the Seljuqid era.

Mr. Baguirov metnions: Thirdly, Arabic sources also mention the multitude of different people and languages that existed in the Caucasus at the time, especially among mountainous residents of Arran and Azerbaijan (Note: 50% of current Republic of Azerbaijan are mountainous).’’. But indeed none of them mention Turkic languages!

Indeed lets just go through some of these quotes and actual Arabic will provided with also references to Iranica. Let me for example quote Masoud again (original Arabic provided from al-waraq.com).

Let’s mention each of the Historians Mr. Baguirov and I mentioned previously and see none of them mention Turkish in the area. (Indeed if Turks were in the area for a long time, then they would have settled much earlier and developed the sedentary culture). According to the famous historian al-Masu'di, who lived in the 10th Century AD, the Persians are: a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azarbaijan up to Armenian and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz...All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language...although the language differed slightly. The language, however, is one, in that its letters are written the same way and used the same way in composition. There are, then, different languages such as Pahlavi, Dari, Azari, as well as other Persian languages. (Al Mas'udi, Kitab al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishraf, De Goeje, M.J. (ed.), Leiden, Brill, 1894, pp. 77-8)

Original Arabic: مسعودي در التنبيه و الاشراف مي‌نويسد: فالفرس أمة حد بلادها الجبال من الماهات وغيرها وآذربيجان إلى ما يلي بلاد أرمينية وأران والبيلقان إلى دربند وهو الباب والأبواب والري وطبرستن والمسقط والشابران وجرجان وابرشهر، وهي نيسابور، وهراة ومرو وغير ذلك من بلاد خراسان وسجستان وكرمان وفارس والأهواز، وما اتصل بذلك من أرض الأعاجم في هذا الوقت وكل هذه البلاد كانت مملكة واحدة ملكها ملك واحد ولسانها واحد، إلا أنهم كانوا يتباينون في شيء يسير من اللغات وذلك أن اللغة إنما تكون واحدة بأن تكون حروفها التي تكتب واحدة وتأليف حروفها تأليف واحد، وإن اختلفت بعد ذلك في سائر الأشياء الأخر كالفهلوية والدرية والآذرية وغيرها من لغات الفرس.

Prior to that, we quote Ibn-Nadeem: ابن نديم در الفهرست مي‌نويسد: فأما الفهلوية فمنسوب إلى فهله اسم يقع على خمسة بلدان وهي أصفهان والري وهمدان وماه نهاوند وأذربيجان وأما الدرية فلغة مدن المدائن وبها كان يتكلم من بباب الملك وهي منسوبة إلى حاضرة الباب والغالب عليها من لغة أهل خراسان والمشرق و اللغة أهل بلخ وأما الفارسية فتكلم بها الموابدة والعلماء وأشباههم وهي لغة أهل فارس وأما الخوزية فبها كان يتكلم الملوك والأشراف في الخلوة ومواضع اللعب واللذة ومع الحاشية وأما السريانية فكان يتكلم بها أهل السواد والمكاتبة في نوع من اللغة بالسرياني فارسي (= اما فهلوي منسوب است به فهله كه نام نهاده شده است بر پنج شهر: اصفهان و ري و همدان و ماه نهاوند و آذربايجان. و دري لغت شهرهاي مداين است و درباريان پادشاه بدان زبان سخن مي‌گفتند و منسوب است به مردم دربار و لغت اهل خراسان و مشرق و لغت مردم بلخ بر آن زبان غالب است. اما فارسي كلامي است كه موبدان و علما و مانند ايشان بدان سخن گويند و آن زبان مردم اهل فارس باشد. اما خوزي زباني است كه ملوك و اشراف در خلوت و مواضع لعب و لذت با نديمان و حاشيت خود گفت‌وگو كنند. اما سرياني آن است كه مردم سواد بدان سخن رانند). Translation in English: Ibn Nadeem quotes the scholar Ibn Moqaffa (759 A.D.) that the language of Azarbaijan, Esfahan, Rayy , Hamadan and Maah Nahavand is Pahlavi. The language of Mada’iin is Dari and this is also the language of the people of Khorasan and Balkh. (Iranica, Azari, , pg 238). Also Hamza Esfahani, Yaqut, Khawarazmi mention this also. Mr. Baguirov should take a note of difference between Dari and Pahlavi. Dari indeed was the Middle Persian dialect of Khorasan which was also influenced by Parthian, Soghdian and etc. Still though the grammer of Pahlavi and Dari are not different and many Pahlavi writings can be understood with modern Persian without the use of looking up even one word.

Next one is Fotuh Al-Buldan. I alread brought the Arabic quotes mentioning Kurds of Balasaagaan,.. Indeed under the victory in Azerbaijan, Baladhuri mentions:

فتح أذربيجان حدثنا الحسين بن عمرو الأرديلي عن واقد الأرديلي عن مشايخ أدركهم أن المغيرة بن شعبة قدم الكوفة والياً من قبل عمر بن الخطاب، ومعه كتاب إلى حذيفة بن اليمان بولاية أذربيجان. فأنقذه إليه وهو بنهاوند أو بقربها. فسار حتى أتى أردبيل، وهي مدينة أذربيجان وبها مرزبانها، وإليه جباية خراجها. وكان المرزبان قد جمع إليه المقاتلة من أهل باجرون وميمذ والنرير وسراة والشيز والميانج وغيرهم. فقاتلوا المسلمين قتالاً شديداً أياماً، ثم أن المرزبان صالح حذيفة عن جميع أهل أذربيجان على ثمان مئة ألف درهم وزن ثمانية، على أن لايقتل منهم أحداً ولا يسبيه ولا يهدم بيت نار، ولا يعرض لأكراد البلاسجان وسبلان وساتر ودان، ولا يمنع أهل الشيز خاصةً من الزفن في أعيادهم وإظهار ما كانوا يظهرونه. ثم أنه غزا موقان وجيلان فأوقع بهم وصالحهم على إتاوة.

He also uses the word Han (modern Persian Khaneh) which means house still. This is from 869 A.D. Again no Turkic in the area mentioned by Baladhuri. (Else bring the actual Arabic )

Moqaddasi (late 4th/10th century). Original Arabic: وبارمينية يتكلمون بالأرمينية، وبالران بالرانية، وفارسيتهم مفهومة تقارب الخراسانية في حروف

Translation: The language of Arran is Arranian and the language of Armenian is Armenian and their Persian (which again shows the common language of the area due to long term Sassanid, Parthian, Achaemenid, Median control) is similar to the Persian of Khorasan (Dari).

ON Azarbaijan he clearly mentions Iranian language. (Iranica, pg 239). The next one is Ebn Hawqal: the language of people of Azerbaijan and most people of Armenia is Iranian (Al-faresiya) which binds them together, while Arabic is also used among them; amongst those that speak al-faresiya , there are few who do not understand Arabic..’’ (same article) So again Ebn Hawqal does not mention Turkic. There is a couple of others which are already mentioned in the Iranica article. So all the classical authors have mentioned Iranian based languages in the area, Armenian and Arranian. But none of them mentioned Turkic. Either Turkic was not present or it was not wide spread.

Also lest to remind people again, Nizami Ganjavi in Eskandar Namah has clearly mentioned Azarbaijan as an Iranian and Zoroastrian strong-hold. Indeed the Turks have been put beyond the caucus and Central Asia and Western China. This is an important point.

10) Now lets get to the issue of Qatran Tabrizi comes up (and I have done a good amount of research on this poet) and Mr. Baguirov mentions a Turkic book about Qatran which is useless. Firstly let me mention this verse from Qatran: بلبل به سان مطرب بیدل فراز گل گه پارسی نوازد، گاهی زند دری The nightgale like a minstrel on flower, sometimes plays a tune in Persian(Parsi) and sometimes in Dari (Dari). Now here Qatran has mentioned Persian and Dari as two different dialects or languages. Persian (Parsi) is the same as the Fahlavi-Azari that Qatrans region spoke while Dari (the Khorasani Persian) was what Naser-e-Khusraw spoke. Indeed beyond Tabriz, Naser Khusraw wanders to Ekhlat, a city in modern Anatolia and he mentions the languages as Persian, Armenian and Arabic. Yet no mention of Turkic! Also it should be mentioned that Naser Khusraw praises the beauty of Turks and at the same time here dislikes Turks severely. It is the same for Qatran.. About that line of Turk and Ganja it is

اي ترك، به گنجه از كجا افتادي كاندر دل و جان من، فكندي شادي

يك بوسه مرا، به مستي اندر دادي اي ترك، هميشه مست و خرم بادي

Nothing special. The first verse says: "O Turk, from which place did you fall in Ganja". Indeed this shows that Turks were not natives of Ganja in Qatrans time. Although Qatran could just mean that a beautiful girl was in Ganjah that he liked.

Let us bring a general background of the Oghuz tribes in the area. Here we quote ‘’The Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1217), Boseworth, Cambridge History of Iran, pg 32)’’ (Begin )

The Rawwadids (latterly the form Raward is commoner in the sources) were another product of the upsurge of the mountain peoples of northern Iran; their domain was Azarbaijan , and particularly Tabriz. Strictly speaking, the Rawwadid family was of Azdi Arab origin, but by the 4th/10 century they were accounted Kurdish. (my comment: Shows the Iranian nature of the area were former Arabs like Shirvanshah and Rawwadids were Iranianize) At the opening of the Abbasid period Rawwad. B. Muthanna had held fief which included Tabriz. Over the course of the next two centuries his descendant became thoroughly Kurdicized, and the “Rawwadi Kurds” emerged with Iranian names, although the local poet Qatran (d 1072) still praises them for their Arab ancestry. Early in the 4th/10th century the Sajid line of the Arab governors in Azarbaijan collapsed, and the region became politically and socially disturbed. A branch of the Musafirid of Tarum first emerged there, but despite Buyid help the Musafirid Ibrahim b. Mazban was depose in 980-1, probably by the Rawwadid Abul’ Haija Husain b. Muhammad (955-88); certainly it was the Rawwadids who succeeded to all of the Musafirid heritage in Azarbaijan.

The most prominent member of the dynasty in the 5th/11th century was Vahsudan b. Mamlan b. Abi’ Haija. It was in his reign that the Oghuz invaded Azarbaijan. There were some of the first Turkmen to come westwards, being the so-called ‘’Iraqis’’, or followrs of Arsalan Isra’il, expelled from Khurasan by Mahmud of Ghaza. Vahsudan received them favourbly in 419/1028, hoping to use them as auxiliaries against his many enemies, such as the Christian Armenians and Georgians and the rival Muslim dynasty of Shaddadids. He even married the daughter of an Oghuz chief, but it still proved impossible to used the anarchic nomads as a reliable military force. In 429/1037 they plundered Maragheh (my comment: something all poets refer to when it comes to Turks) and massacared large numberf of Hadbani Kurds. Vahsudan allied with his nephew, the chief of the Hadhbanis, Abu’l Hija b. Rahib al-Daula, against the Turkmen; many of them now migrated southwards towards Iraq, and in 432/1040 Vahsudan devised a stratagem by which several of the remaining leaders were killed. The rest of the Oghuz in Azarbaijan then fled to the territory of the Hakkari Kurds south-west of Lake Van. (End of Boseworths quote).

Now I will show how Mr. Baguirov has manipulated Qatran Tabrizi. Mr. Baguirov writes: These Turks arriving from Turkistan Accepted you as their ruler Separated from their relatives and relations Began living under your rule Now they are everywhere Prepared to serve you

Indeed this was the time when Vahsudan wanted to use the migrating Oghuz from Khorasan. But then later on with the uncultured behavior of the Oghuz tribes, Qatran disparages Turks like no poet in Persian poetry has. Let me just quote some of it with all references provided in the original Persian: قطران تبريزی نيزدر بسياری از چکامه هايش ترکان را شايسته سرزنش دانسته و انان را نکوهش افزون کرده است . نمونه هايی از ان ابيات در ذيل می ايد : اگر بگذشت از جيحــون گروه ترکمانـــان را // ملک محمـــــــود کــاو را بود زابل کان در سنجر .... زمانی تازش ايشان به شروان اندرون بودی // زمانـــی حملـــه ايشان بــــه اذربايگــــان انــدر نبود از تازش ايشان کسی بر چيز خود ايمن // نبود از حمله ايشان کسی بر مال خود سرور (شهرياران گمنام ؛ ص۱۶۰) Sometimes the plunders of the turkomens occur in Shirvan, sometimes in Azarbaijan, No one was safe from their plunder and killing, no one had control of any of his material beings due to their plunder.

شده چون خانه زنبور با غم از ترکان // همی خلند به فرمان ما چو زنبورم (همان ؛ ص۱۹۷)

قطران در يکی از سروده هايش به هنگام ستايش يکی از فرمانروايان بومی اذربايجان عامل عدم پيشرفت کار او را حضور ترکان برشمرده است : گر نبودی افت ترکان به گيتی در پديد // بستدی گيتی همه چون خسروان باستان ( همان ؛ ص۱۹۷) Telling one of the princess he praises, Qatran writes: If it wasn’t for the calamity that appeared because of Turks, you would take control of the world like ancient Kings of Iran

قطران در بدگويی و مذمت ترک تباران چنان سخن گفته که حتی انان را موجب ويرانی ايران زمين برشمرده و

اين مفهوم به روشنی از بيت زير که در ستايش اميری از اميران اذربايجان سرايش يافته برمی ايد : اگر چه داد ايران را بلای ترک ويرانی // شود از عدلش ابادان چون يزدانش کند ياری ( همان ؛ ص۱۹۷) Translation: Even though the calamity of the Turks plundered Iran, but if Gods justice wills, Iran will be prosperous again اين شاعر اذربايجانی در يکی ديگر از چکامه هايش که در قالب قصيده سروده است ترکان را خونخوار و جرار و غدار و مکار خوانده است : کمــــر بستند بهــــر کيــن شه ترکان پيکاری // همـــه يکـرو به خونخواری همه يکدل به جراری يکی ترکان مسعودی به قصد خيل مسعودان // نهاده تن به کين کاری و دل داده به خونخواری .... چــه ارزد غـدر با دولت چه ارزد مکـر با دانش // اگـرچـه کــــار ترکان هست غــداری و مکــاری( همان ؛ ص۱۷۲)

All the turks got ready for battle again the Shah, the all united in blood sucking,.. they all inclined to hatred and their heart given into blood sucking (khoon-khwaari). What can treachery and faithlessness do blessing, what can trickery do to someone with knowledge, although the actions of Turks is all treachery and deceit.

"ترا خيل و رهی ای شاه بسيارنـــد و من داغـــم رهی را کی کـــم از قلاش و خيلــــی کمتر از تـــــرکان هميشه عزم ايشان بود بر تاراج و بــر کشــــــتن چو با شعر عـزم شان آنگونه باشد حال شان اين سان کنون تا از سر ايشان تو سايه بــــر گــــرفتـــــــه نگه کن تا چه آورده است گــــردون بــــر سر ايشــان" Translation: All the turks are inclined to do is plunder and killing.

So Mr. Baguirov, due to his lack of study in this matter thinks Qatran was a Turk. Indeed Qatran was at first happy with the alliance of the Oghuz tribes and praises his Rawwadid ruler. But then he sees the plundering and killings of Turks and their nomadic Oghuz behavior and disparages them heavily. Also Qatran heavily praises Sassanid and ancient Persian mythologies. His words for Turks is indeed really harsh.

11) The article by Dr. Bourtounian is solid proof of manipulation by the top echelons of the government of Azerbaijan.[5]. Rock solid. Mr. Baguirov does not know Persian to judge the Dr. Bournoutian's Persian. I can verify that all of Dr. Bourtounians words are correctly translated and so can other Iranian users. As per forgery and Nizami Ganjavi, let me quote a prominent scholar from the republic of Azerbaijan. Indeed a scholar from the republic of Azerbainan of 1980 forged the following verse: Pedar bar pedar mar-maraa tork bood - beh farzaanegi har yeki gorg bood!! The problem with this scholar is that the word Tork and Gorg are never rhymed in any Persian poetry and indeed violate the rules of Persian poetry. Furthermore Gorg(Wolf) is belittled in Nizami Ganjavi's poetry and although Turks had much respect for the wolf, the wolf is seen as heineous creature in the poetry of Nizami Ganjavi! (One can use all sorts of arguments like these!). Here is the translation of the madeup verse by the scholar of the republic of Azerbaijan: My father from generation to generation was a Tork - IN wisdom each one was like a gorg(wolf). Indeed this is the sort of polemical manuals Mr. Baguirov quotes from. This is the ideologically motivated scholarship of the repbulic of Azerbaijan, some of the scholars of the republic of Azerbaijani who delete quotes about Armenians and makeup quotes that do not even rhyme! This false verse which does not even rhyme was published by Arsali Nooshabi (Baku, 1980, Elm publishers) and the book is called “Nizami va Adabiyaat Torki”(Nizami and Turkish literature although Nizami did not write one verse of Turkish!). What can justify such a apparent and clear falsification except ethno-centric scholarship? Indeed can ethno-centric scholarship grasp Persian symbolic poetry? For example when Laili is compared to a Hindu, Turk, or whatever.. Vladimir Minorsky also says in: Pan Turkism, par minorsky dans ensycolpdie de islam, Livraison N. P. 924 Akopov Where ever there exist a problem unsolved, the Turks usually make claims that it belongs to their civilization’’ (retranslated from Persian). Also let me mention that there are people that manipulate in every culture but the republic of Azerbaijan by claiming 1300 year celebration of Dede Qorqod is definitely on the very top of the list. I have much more material from a dude name Fereydoon Aghasi-Oglu.. How about starting with his theory that Khazar and Azar are from the root and Turks being more ancient than Sumerians... I trust Prof. Iqrar Alioff though because of I have read some of his materials and they are sound. I would look at this discussion by one of Mr. Baguirov's friend[6] (although due to wrong propaganda there is a Turkish poem here that is not Nizami's[[7]] and no serious scholar has ever assigned a verse of Turkic to Nizami.)

12)

Conclusion: Nizami Ganjavi was Iranic in ethnicity and culture. He wrote three of his works about Ancient Persia. He tells the son of the Shirvanshah to read Shahnameh. Persian mythology is all over his work (Jamshid, Fereydoon, Zahaak, Afrasiyaab, Keykhusraw, Key Qobaad..). And indeed Mr. Baguirov agrees that the Seljuqs were to a large extent Persianized. I have mentioned these points too many times. Nomadic Oghuz Turks at that time were not able to produce Nizami's. Mu'ayyad (Nizami's great grandfather) lived at a time when the Kurds controlled the area. But let me just add that we do not have anything about Nizami’s fathers ethnicity. Although I strongly believe Nizami was not only half Iranian, but fully Iranian. The term Persian poet has been used by many authors when referring to Nizami and even Encyclopedia Britannica mentions it. Finally folks reread my point 4. Just like Homer or Rudaki are not Turks or Uzbeks, Nezami Ganjavi does not become Azerbaijani. And since the state of Azerbaijan did not exist, then Nezami Ganjavi is known through two things: 1) his works and the language he used 2) the ethnicity of his mother which was Kurdish. Other than that, we have nothing else about his ethnicity and all the deceit about him being half Turkish has not been accepted by Western scholars (by point 4 above we see it is not true) and even Stalin used the term Azerbaijani which is a new term for an ethnic group for the last 100 years. And the term Azerbaijani here is unambigious since if some scholars during USSR times have mistakenly called him Azerbaijani, it just means he was born in the area. Just like Rudaki was born in Uzbekistan, but he is not an Uzbek poet.

--Ali doostzadeh 12:42, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Some scholarly sources on Nizami in Russian that will be cited and added to the page showing Nizami as an Azerbaijani poet

1) Большой Энциклопедический словарь (Great Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia State Publishing House, Russia) НИЗАМИ ГЯНДЖЕВИ Абу Мухаммед Ильяс ибн

НИЗАМИ ГЯНДЖЕВИ Абу Мухаммед Ильяс ибн Юсуф (ок. 1141 - ок. 1209) - азербайджанский поэт и мыслитель. Основное сочинение - "Пятерица" ("Хамсе"), состоит из 5 поэм: "Сокровищница тайн" (между 1173 и 1180), "Хосров и Ширин" (1181), "Лейли и Меджнун" (1188), "Семь красавиц" (1197) и "Искандер-наме" (ок. 1203), в которой создана своего рода социальная утопия и дан образ идеального правителя. Сохранилась также часть лирического дивана. Поэзия Низами Гянджеви оказала влияние на литературы Ближнего и Ср. Востока.

<a href="http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc3p/212626">НИЗАМИ ГЯНДЖЕВИ Абу Мухаммед Ильяс ибн</a>

2) Иллюстрированный энциклопедический словарь (Illustrated encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia State Publishing House, Russia) Низами Гянджеви НИЗАМИ ГЯНДЖЕВИ Абу Мухаммед Ильяс ибн Юсуф (около 1141 — около 1209), азербайджанский поэт и мыслитель. Основные сочинения — ”Пятерица” (“Хамсе”), собрание 5 поэм: философско-дидактических “Сокровищница тайн” (между 1173 и 1180),...

© 2001 «Большая Российская энциклопедия» Все права защищены

http://www.rubricon.com/ies_ann/..%5Cann%5Cies%5C15_n%5C15_n66296.asp

3) Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Moscow, Great Soviet Encyclopedia State Publishing House, USSR)

Низами Гянджеви Низами Гянджеви Абу Мухаммед Ильяс ибн Юсуф (около 1141, г. Гянджа, Азербайджан, - около 1209, там же), азербайджанский поэт и мыслитель. Писал на персидском языке. Принадлежал к средним слоям городского населения. Получил хорошее образование, в молодости писал лирические стихи. Около 1173 женился на тюркской рабыне Афак (Аппак), воспетой им в стихах. Безвыездно жил в родной Гяндже. Будучи тесно связан с Азербайджаном, Н. Г. переносит действие отдельных эпизодов своих поэм на его территорию. Придворным поэтом он никогда не был, довольствуясь небольшими пособиями, которые ему назначали феодальные правители за посвященные им поэмы.

Основные сочинения Н. Г. - "Пятерица" ("Хамсе"), состоит из 5 поэм: "Сокровищница тайн" (написана между 1173 и 1180), "Хосров и Ширин" (1181), "Лейли и Меджнун" (1188), "Семь красавиц" (1197) и "Искандар-наме" (около 1203). Сохранилась также часть лирического дивана: 6 касыд, 116 газелей, 2 кит'а и 30 рубаи. "Пятерица" оказала огромное влияние на развитие многих восточных литератур. Известны десятки назире (поэтических "ответов") и подражаний поэмам Н. Г., создававшихся начиная с 13 в. Среди "ответов" - "Пятерицы" индо-персидского поэта Амира Хосрова Дехлеви, узбекского классика А. Навои, семерица А. Джами и др. Своеобразная композиция поэм Н. Г., построение сюжета, обрисовка характеров, образный язык и особенно благородные гуманистические идеи уже более семи веков побуждают поэтов едва ли не всех народов Ближнего и Среднего Востока к поэтическим состязаниям.

"Сокровищница тайн" относится к дидактико-философскому жанру и имеет лёгкую суфийскую окраску (см. Суфизм). Она надолго определила развитие дидактического жанра в восточных литературах. Автор во введении противопоставляет свою первую поэму пустой и напыщенной придворной поэзии. Впервые в истории поэзии на персидском языке Н. Г. добился в жанре месневи сочетания изощрённой поэтической техники с глубоким содержанием. Гибкая композиция поэмы, связанной в единое целое ассоциативными переходами мысли, также нова и развита на основе восточной проповеди, пересыпанной нравоучительными притчами. Н. Г. призывает правителей к правосудию и заботе о благе подданных, угрожает им карами за угнетение и насилие, осуждает любовь к золоту, воспевает истинную дружбу. Все увещания и поучения Н. Г. окрашены в религиозные тона, но необыкновенно смелы. В целом поэма, - безусловно, светское сочинение, преследующее гуманистические цели. Вторая поэма, романтическая по содержанию, посвящена любви шаха Хосрова к красавице Ширин. Принципиально ново в этом произведении то, что Н. Г. отводит главную роль не шаху, а Ширин, женщине, и наделяет её высокими достоинствами. Бесхарактерный, безнравственный, эгоистичный Хосров лишь перед смертью, облагороженный любовью к Ширин, поднимается до подвига самоотвержения. Необычен в поэме и образ благородного Ферхада, олицетворяющего труд и добродетели труженика. Третья поэма "Лейли и Меджнун" разрабатывает сюжет старинной арабской легенды о несчастной любви юноши Кайса, прозванного "Меджнун" ("Одержимый"), к красавице Лейли. Повествование развёртывается вокруг обстоятельств возникновения страстных лирических стихов истерзанного любовью Кайса. Н. Г. придал арабской легенде законченность, дал характеры героев в развитии, психологически мотивировал их поступки. Общая трагическая концепция поэмы - безграничная любовь, находящая выход лишь в высокой поэзии и ведущая к духовному слиянию любящих, также принадлежит Н. Г. Именно эта концепция объединяет произведение в стройное целое. В основу сюжета четвёртой поэмы - "Семь красавиц" - положена легенда о шахе Бехраме Гуре. Поэму составляют семь рассказов царевен, жён Бехрама, живущих в семи павильонах, каждый из которых, в соответствии с древней мифологией, посвящен какой-либо планете и дню недели и имеет соответствующий цвет. Сюжет каждой новеллы - любовное переживание, причём, в соответствии с переходом от чёрного цвета к белому, грубая чувственность сменяется духовно просветлённой любовью. Вторая тематическая линия поэмы - превращение Бехрама из легкомысленного царевича в справедливого и умного правителя, борющегося с произволом и насилием. Здесь Н. Г., как и в первой поэме, развёртывает картины народных страданий, изобличая коварство и алчность придворных шаха. Пятую поэму - "Искандар-наме" - Н. Г. считал итогом своего творчества. В центре её - образ Искандара (Александра Македонского). С самого начала он выступает в произведении как справедливый политик, решающийся воевать лишь ради защиты обиженных и освобождения угнетённых. В первой части ("Шараф-наме") сохранён хронологический порядок в описании различных подвигов Искандара. Вторая часть ("Икбал-наме") композиционно делится на два больших раздела, которые можно было бы озаглавить "Искандар-мудрец" и "Искандар-пророк"; они содержат серию философских новелл и диспуты с индийскими и греческими мудрецами о происхождении мира. Тайный голос сообщает Искандару, что он избран для возвещения истины всему миру, и приказывает объехать всю землю.

Но истина Искандара - не божественное откровение, а наука. Отправляясь в путь, он берёт "книги мудрости" Аристотеля, Платона и Сократа. Далее следуют описания четырёх путешествий Искандара. Во время четвёртого путешествия (на север) он приходит в страну, где нет ни властей, ни притеснителей, ни богатых, ни бедных, где не знают лжи и несправедливости, - страну с идеальным общественным устройством. Эта социальная утопия Н. Г. - вершина его мысли. Вопросы организации человеческого общества затронуты уже в "Сокровищнице тайн". В "Хосров и Ширин" рассказано, как под влиянием Ширин в характере Хосрова появляются положительные черты, но Хосров преждевременно умирает. "Лейли и Меджнун" стоит в стороне от этой главной темы Н. Г., однако, в поэме "Семь красавиц" она снова возникает. Едва начавшуюся деятельность Бехрама обрывает таинственная гибель. И, наконец, в последней поэме автор даёт развёрнутый образ идеального, по его представлению, правителя. Н. Г. идёт и дальше. Он высказывает необыкновенно смелую для его времени мысль: как бы ни был хорош правитель, возможна ещё более совершенная форма общества - общество равных, не знающее имущественного неравенства, а потому и не нуждающееся ни в каком правителе. Н. Г. понимал, к какому важному обобщению он пришёл, и потому придавал особое значение последней поэме, явившейся как бы завещанием Н. Г.-мыслителя, который был не только носителем передовых идей своего времени, но во многом опережал эпоху. Творчество Н. Г. - большой вклад в сокровищницу культуры Востока и Запада. В 1947 в СССР широко отмечалось 800-летие Н. Г. Над его могилой (близ г. Кировабада) сооружен в 1947 мавзолей.

Соч.: Куллият-е хамсе-йе хаким Низами Гянджеви..., Техран, 1335 с. г. х. (1956); в рус. пер. - Искандер-наме, М., 1953; Хосров и Шприн, М., 1955; Лейли и Меджнун, М., 1957; Семь красавиц, М., 1959; Сокровищница тайн, М., 1959; Лирика, М., 1960.

? Лит.: Бертельс Е. Э., Низами. Творческий путь поэта, М., 1956; его же, Избр. труды, [т. 2] - Низами и Фузули, М., 1962; Гулизаде М., Низами Гянджеви, Б., 1953; Мустафаев Дж., Философские и этические воззрения Низами, Б., 1962; История персидской и таджикской литературы. [Под ред. Яна Рипка], М., 1970; Aгajeв Э., Низами вэ дуенjа эдэбиjjаты Бакы, 1964; Аббасов Э., Низами Кэнчэвинин"Инкэндэрнамэ" поемасы, Бакы, 1966.

? А. Е. Бертельс.

http://www.oval.ru/enc/47621.html

4) From the book: "Persian-Tajik classic poetry / Ed. M.-N.O.Osmanov; Introduction by M.Dobrysheva, Moscow: Moscow worker, 1979": "Nizami - Great poet of Azerbaijan, who wrote in Farsi."

Ильяс ибн Юсуф Низами - (1141 - 1211) Великий поэт Азербайджана, писавший на персидском языке, автор «Хамсе» («Пятерицы»), состоящей из поэм: 1. «Сокровищница тайн». 2. «Хосров и Ширин». 3. «Лейли и Меджнун». 4. «Семь красавиц». 5. «Искендер-наме». Вслед за ним «хамсе» стали слагать многие другие выдающиеся поэты как на персидском, так и на других языках. Помимо поэм Низами писал также прекрасные газели. Творчество Низами является новой эпохой в поэзин на языке фарси.

М.-Н.О.Османов

Аннотация редакции: В книгу вошли стихотворения и отрывки из поэм персидских и таджикских поэтов классического периода: Рудаки, Фирдоуси, Омара Хайяма, Саади, Хафиза, Джами и других, азербайджанских поэтов Хакани и Низами (писавших на фарси), а также персоязычного поэта Индии Амира Хосрова Дехлеви.

(Родник жемчужин: Персидско-таджикская классическая поэзия / Сост. М.-Н.О.Османов; Предисл. М.Дробышева. - М.: Моск. рабочий, 1979)

http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/N/NIZAMI_Il'yas_ibn_Yusuf/_Nizami_I._ibn_Yu..html

Pope John Paul II recognized Nizami was Azerbaijani poet in 2002

This is an official proclamation by the Vatican, by Pope John Paul II of Nizami Ganjavi as an Azerbaijani poet -- and no one can accuse Vatican or the Pope of bias in regards to an ancient poet and a small Muslim country that has limited significance to the Christian cause. Vatican's research is pretty good, and they made such a correct determination.

This is in addition to the other quote I've provided, with the official recognition by President Putin of Russia that Nizami is the great poet of Azerbaijan - the full statement is available on the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

Adil Baguirov

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2002/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20020522_world-culture-azerbaijan_en.html

APOSTOLIC VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II TO AZERBAIJAN AND BULGARIA

MEETING WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND POLITICAL, CULTURAL AND ARTS REPRESENTATIVES

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

Baku, Presidential Palace Wednesday, 22 May 2002

Mr President of the Republic, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. I am very pleased to be with you today. I greet each one of you, with special thanks to the President of the Republic who, in your name, has given me such a warm welcome.

One of your great poets wrote: "The word, new and at the same time old . . . The word, which is like the spirit, is the treasurer of the riches of the invisible realm: it knows stories never heard, it reads books never written" (Nizami, The Seven Effigies). This image alludes to something that is dear to the three great religions present in this country: Jewish, Christian and Muslim. According to the teachings of each of them, the One God, shrouded in unapproachable mystery, has chosen to speak to man, inviting him to submit to his will.

2. Despite the differences between us, together we feel called to foster ties of mutual esteem and benevolence. I am aware of all that is being done by religious leaders in Azerbaijan to favour tolerance and mutual understanding. I am looking forward to the meeting tomorrow with the representatives of the three monotheistic religions, so that together we can affirm our conviction that religion must not serve to increase rivalry and hatred, but to promote love and peace.

From this country, which has held and still holds tolerance as a primary value of all wholesome life in society, we wish to proclaim to the world: enough of wars in the name of God! No more profanation of his holy name! I have come to Azerbaijan as an ambassador of peace. As long as I have breath within me I shall cry out: "Peace, in the name of God!" And when word joins word, a chorus is born, a symphony, which will spread to every soul, quench hatred, disarm hearts.

3. Praise to you, followers of Islam in Azerbaijan, for being open to hospitality, a cherished value of your religion and your people, and for having accepted the believers of other religions as brothers and sisters.

Praise to you, Jewish people, who, with courage and constancy, have kept your ancient traditions of good neighbourliness, enriching this land with a contribution of great value and depth.

Praise to you, Christians, who have given so much, especially through the ancient Church of the Albans, in shaping the identity of this land. Praise especially to you, Orthodox Church, witness to God’s friendship with man and a hymn extolling his beauty. When the fury of atheism was unleashed in this region, you welcomed the children of the Catholic Church who had lost their places of worship and their pastors, and put them into contact with Christ through the grace of the holy Sacraments.

Praised be God for this testimony of love, borne by the three great religions! May it grow and become ever stronger, extinguishing with the dew of affection and friendship any remaining source of contrast!

4. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in addition to the world of religion, you represent the world of culture, art and politics. What an extraordinary vocation you have received and what high responsibilities you bear! So many people today feel lost and are seeking an identity.

To you, representatives of culture and art, I say: beauty, as you know, is the light of the spirit. The soul, when it is calm and reconciled, when it lives in harmony with God and the universe, emits a light that is already a kind of beauty. Holiness is nothing other than fullness of beauty, as it reflects, according to its ability, the consummate beauty of the Creator. It is your poet Nizami once more who writes: "The intelligent people are those angels who have human names. Intelligence is something marvellous" (The Seven Effigies).

Dear friends, men and women of the world of culture and art, transmit a taste for beauty to all those you meet! As the ancients teach us, beauty, truth and goodness are united by an indissoluble bond.

5. In this land, none of those who have devoted themselves to culture and art can feel useless or unrecognized. This contribution is essential for the future of the Azerbaijani people. If culture is cast aside, if art is neglected and despised, the very survival of a civilization is imperiled, for that would hinder the handing on of the values that constitute the deepest identity of a people.

In the recent past, a materialistic and neo-pagan vision has often characterized the study of national cultures. Yours is the task, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, of rediscovering the entire heritage of your civilization as the source of ever relevant values. In this way you will be able to prepare suitable study-materials for young people wishing to know the genuine wealth of history of their country, in order to build their lives as citizens on a solid foundation.

6. I turn to you, the men and women of politics! Your specific activity is the service of the common good, the promotion of legality and justice, the guarantee of freedom and prosperity for all. But politics is also an area fraught with dangers. The selfish seeking of personal advantage can easily take over, to the detriment of faithful dedication to the common good. The great Nizami warns: "Do not eat in the presence of those who are starving, or, if you do, invite everyone to table" (The Seven Effigies).

Politics requires honesty and accountability. The people should be able to feel understood and protected. They should be able to see that their leaders are working to build a better future for them. Let it not happen that when people are faced with situations of increasing social inequality, they begin to feel dangerous nostalgia for the past.

Those who accept responsibility for administering public affairs cannot deceive themselves: people do not forget! Just as they remember with gratitude those who have laboured honestly in the service of the common good, so they pass on to their children and grandchildren bitter criticism of those who abused power to enrich themselves.

7. There is one thing in particular that I would like to say to you, men and women of the world of religion, culture, art and politics: look to your young people and spare no effort on their behalf! They are tomorrow’s potential. They must be assured the chance to study and work, according to their aptitudes and capacity. Above all, care must be taken to educate them in the important values which last and give meaning to life and its pursuits.

In this task, you especially who belong to the world of culture, art and politics should see religion as your ally. It stands with you to offer young people serious reasons for applying themselves. What ideal in fact is better able to motivate the quest for truth, beauty and goodness than belief in God, who reveals to the mind the limitless expanse of his supreme perfection?

And you, the men and women of religion, you should become ever more involved in proclaiming with sincerity and frankness the values in which you believe, without recourse to dishonest means that impoverish and betray the ideals you affirm. Take a hard look at the substance of these ideals, and avoid methods of persuasion that do not respect the dignity and freedom of the human person.

8. In one of his prayers to God, Nizami wrote: "If your servant . . . has shown boldness in the formulation of his prayer, his water still belongs for ever to your sea . . . If he spoke a hundred languages, in each tongue he would praise you; if he falls silent like those forsaken, you comprehend the language of him who has no words" (Leila and Majnun).

From this cosmopolitan land, may a hundred different languages raise their prayer to the living God, who listens above all to those who are poor and forgotten.

Upon all of you present here, upon your people, upon your future, may the blessings of Almighty God descend, bringing prosperity and peace to all!

The beauty of the hymn "Ave Maria" invites all of us to a better life and work. Again many thanks to all present here.

Additional article by M.Shaginyan acknowledging Nizami being "great Azerbaijani of XII century"

Anyone can read the 15-page article, published in the Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Dept. of languages and linguistics, June-July 1947, Vol. VI, release 4, URL: http://feb-web.ru/feb/izvest/1947/04/474-269.htm

Thus, it makes for the fourth publication by this Armenian expert on Nizami, who acknowledged from the 1940s until her death in 1980s that Nizami was an Azerbaijani poet.

Yet Another big mistake by Mr. Baguirov exposed clearly

0) Mr. Baguirov claimed about Paul Smith's translation: poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “Layla and Majnun”, p. 117)

The funny thing is that the above source from 1945 does not exist and Mr. Baguirov madeup as he went. Indeed in 1945 G.H. Darab only translated the Makhzan Al-Asrar , Arthur Probstain Pub, 1945. So the addition by Paul Smith is not based on the translation of G.H. Darab as Mr. Baguirov claims since in 1945 G.H. Darab published Makhzan Al-Asrar. Paul Smith, who does not know Persian, can not be referenced here. Indeed I showed that the verse in question is totally translated wrong and Mr. Baguirov can not put such a quote in the main text anymore, since now the source of Paul Smith's English to English translation. And indeed that quote does not exist in the multitude of manuscripts that was checked. So Mr. Baguirov lied here or made a mistake in order to give backing to an unscholarly translation of a Person who does not know Persian and has just translated from English to English!

Here is the actual translation of that part by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke(The story of Layla and Majnun, 1966) (Note Dr. Gelpke also calls Nizami Ganjavi as a "Persian Poet"). Pg 65: Layli's father Great Prince among the arabs,' he began,' look at me, an old man, broken-hearted, beaten down by disaster, and prostrate before you. The Arabs are heaping blame and infamy upon me, as if I were a homeless stranger, and when I think of the streams of blood which have been shed for my sake, I wish I could become a drop of quicksilver and escape from such disgrade

As you can see folks, Mr. Baguirov tried to lie and connect the quote of Paul Smith to G. H. Darab (who never made a translation of Layla and Majnun). Furthermore, the above professional translation shows that there is nothing negative about Persians from the negative character (Layli's father). So these folks will have to start from scratch and try to find something negative about Persians in Nizami's poetry whereas I have found many instances about Turks. 1) Wilson writes in his Haft Paykar: From Arabic and older Persian themes in Tabaristān and Bukhārā’s towns

Then Wilson comments: Darī, “the older Persian,” is the name given to the older pure Persian spoken before the admixture of Arabic, due to the Arab occupation. Firdausī professes to have written in Darī, though his work contains a considerable number of Arabic words. It is said to have received its name from its having been the court language, but this etymology, as well as others given, is doubtful. It is also said to have prevailed chiefly in Bukhārā, Balkh, Badakhshān, and Marv. In (such) cities (as those) of Bukhārā and Tabaristān is one sense of dar savād-ī Bukhāri-y-ū Tabarī. Another sense is “in works (found) in Bukhārā and Tabaristān”. Bukhārā, it may be added, is said to have derived its name from the learned men who inhabited it.

And The rendering, “in the works of Bukhārī and Tabarī,” must, I think, be rejected, first, because Bukhārī was a Traditionist, and the Author does not quote Traditions, and secondly, because both Bukhārī and Tabarī wrote in Arabic, whereas the Author says he consulted both Arabic and also Persian works. Tabarī, it is true, was a historian, and therefore a likely source, but it seems curious that the poet should restrict his mention to that single authority.

As we can see difference of opinion on the interpretation of the verse exits. Mr. Baguirov who does not know Persian and has no choice but to look up translations, does not understand that different interpretations can be given on a wide range of verses. Just like Wilson's comment is very valid. Of course when someone looks at everything from an ethno-centeric point of view like Mr. Baguirov, they will not be able to appreciate Nizami's symbolism.

2) Nizami Ganjavi is a heir to the Persian traditions and Myths. For example in the Haft Paykar he mentions some of the following characters amongst many: Anushiravan, Arash (Who protected Iran from the mythical Turanians later identified as Turks), Ardeshir Babakan (founder of the Sassanid Dynasty), Arjang (the art book of Mani), Bahman ( the son of Isfandiyar from the legendary Kayanid dynasty), Bistun, Daraa (Darius), Dihqaan (Iranian nobility), Div (Shahnameh creatures that are not humans), Pari (fairies), Farhad, Fereydoon (the defeater of Zahak), farr (royal Zoroastrian glory), Firdawsi, Giv (a heroe in the Shahnameh and son in law of Rustam), Iraj ( the son of Fereydoon mentioned in the Shahnameh), Isfandyar (Zoroastrian heroe), Kavus (Kaykavus the legendary king and father of Siyavas), Kayanids (pre-Islamic Iranian mythical dynasty often associated with Achaemenids), KayKhusraw (the son of Syavash and one of the greatest Shahnameh heroes), Khusraw Parviz the Sassanid King, Kisra, Mani, Rustam (the greatest Shahnameh heroe), Shirin (part of Persian folklore), Simurgh (the legendary bird mentioned in Avesta who was the protector of Rustam in the Shahnameh), Siyamak (the son of Kayumarth, Kayumarth is the first Iranian man in the Shahnameh and according to legends of Avesta, the first wise being created by Ahuramazda), Jamshid (Yima of Indo-Iranians), KayQobaad (Founder of the glorious Kayanid dynasty), Siyavash (the son of Kaykavus and father of Kaykhusraw), Zahak (Bivarasp, the legendar demon-king mentioned in Indo-Iranian traditions), Avesta, Zand (Zoroastrian commentary on Avesta). These were just a few amongst many which demonstrates Nizami Ganjavi's clearly Iranian heritage and Iranian roots. Indeed let me bring a quote from a recent published book where the author always consistently mentions Nizami Ganjavi as a Persian poet: (Love, Madness, and Mystical Longing in Nizami's Epic Romance, Prof. Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, pg 276): The relationship between Shirwanshah and his son, Manuchihr is mentioned in Chapter eight. Nizami advises the king's son to read Firdawsi's Shah-nama and to remember the pithy saying of the wise. This again shows the clear Iranian heriage of Nizami and shows clearly he feels Iranians and shares in the Iranian heritage. Indeed the Shahnameh has some harsh comments against Turks, that anyone with Turkish consciousness would not appreciate.

3) I have already shown that the Russian sources are invalid when it comes to discussing Nizami's ethnic background and it was political incorrect at that time to call him anything but an Azerbaijani poet. Also Nizami did not write in Azerbaijani, he wrote in Persian. He is a Persian poet. People may discuss his ethnicity (which is not Turkish and can never be proven to be Turkish), but the term Azerbaijani could simply mean coming from Azarbaijan, which as s state did not exist at that time. Also the region Nizami came from was called Arran generally. Indeed one would have to prove there existed an Azarbaijani nationality at that time, which it did not. Whereas Iranian nationality existed and many writers of the old times, before the Safavids have called themselves Iranian. No scholar has ever called Nizami Ganjavi an Azerbaijani poet prior to the USSR and now the most scholarly sources like Enyclcopedia Iranica and Brittanica and many many English books do not call him an Azerbaijani poet. Also pretty soon, Prof. Paul Smith will delete that quote since it is not in the original manuscript and G.H. Darab never used such translation. This will then make it hard for Mr. Baguirov to repeat a verse that does not exist. The translation is simply faulty and one verse does not exist. Also it is attributed to Layli's father who is a negative character. Let me remind these folks that I can bring the quote by Shirwanshah and Alexandar about Turks.. Also Prof. Kapustin that Mr. Baguirov barrages wrote in the prestigious USSR culture magazine. This is a magazine that has a lot of readership from what I have gathered.

4)Sorry Pope John Paul is not a scholar of Persian studies! What matters is someone like Rypka or Jerome Clinton or De Blois or Meysami who know Persian and were/are chairs of Persian literature in the greatest Univerities. Pope John Paul's opinion on this matter is as good as anyone else's. Also the Pope did not call Nizami Ganjavi an ethnic Turk, not that his opinion matter.. Also I have shown in the above comments about the term Tork-zaad, that Nezami Ganjavi was not a Turk. Also per people's information, Pope John Paul also accepted the Armenian Genocide. So is Mr. Baguirov going to be selective, like his translations?

Nizami Ganjavi is Iranic in heritage and Mr. Baguirov should be very embarrased for not knowing that G.H. Darab published Makhzan Al-Asrar in 1945 and not Layli o Majnoon! Paul Smiths poetic translation has a large number of extrapolations (Armenian for Nasrani) and that verse which did not exist, (and although in the end from Layli's fathers who was a negative person), can not be considered scholarly. But the quotes from the Khaghan of Chin and Shirwanshah are well known and indeed in all the major manuscripts.

--Ali doostzadeh 05:29, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

What Pope John Paul II actually said about Armenians and why his affirmation of Nizami being Azerbaijani poet is correct

Mr. Doostzadeh says: "4)Sorry Pope John Paul is not a scholar of Persian studies! What matters is someone like Rypka or Jerome Clinton or De Blois or Meysami who know Persian and were/are chairs of Persian literature in the greatest Univerities. Pope John Paul's opinion on this matter is as good as anyone else's. Also the Pope did not call Nizami Ganjavi an ethnic Turk, not that his opinion matter.. Also I have shown in the above comments about the term Tork-zaad, that Nezami Ganjavi was not a Turk. Also per people's information, Pope John Paul also accepted the Armenian Genocide. So is Mr. Baguirov going to be selective, like his translations?"

To begin with, Pope and the Vatican do their research, which means they read not only Rypka's and Clinton's (who is a junior co-author with Persian K.Talattof), etc., but everyone. They have a massive library and holdings and have Nizami's manuscripts, are well-versed in languages and are actually equipped to do independent research. Hence, they make a highly educated assessment and determination, free of bias (in this regard, as which nationlity Nizami is means nothing to Vatican's foreign and domestic policy, they are interested only in truth). Secondly, it is fine by me not to call Nizami an ethnic Turk and only as an Azerbaijani poet -- the latter is precise and what I wanted anyways. Plus I've never said he was Turk exclusively -- just his father must have been, and his own self-realization/identification was Turkic. Third, Mr. Doostzadeh didn't show anything with Tork-zaad -- his yet another theory about Nizami insulting his own beloved wife is without any merit. In our debate we reaffirmed that at the very least Nizami's wife and son were Turkic, whilst I personally think that if any parent says about his/her son/daughter as being "Turkic-born" it means he too is probably Turkic.

Finally, 1) Pope John Paul II never accepted the "Armenian genocide" -- this was a falsification and misquotation by Armenian media. Here's a reference: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1564257.stm

And 2) assuming that what Pope John Paul II and indeed the Vatican, said about the events of 1915 is correct, and Mr. doostzadeh seems to subscribe to its correctness -- does it mean then that what was acknowledged about Nizami is also correct? Because as you say, we can't be selective, like your translations, Mr. Doostzadeh. --AdilBaguirov 07:25, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Western Scholars of Persian language have never called Nezami a Turk

NO scholar in 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th century has called Nezami a Turk and they all called him Persian. None of the ancient biographers have called him a Turk. Only in the USSR, when Stalin specifically mentions Nizami must not be surrendered to Iranian literature, some scholars had no choice but to call Nezami, an azerbaijani poet. But an Azarbaijani poet is vague. If it is language, then Nezami did not compose Azerbaijani. So it is most likely he was from the land of Azarbaijan and thats it. But the counter argument is simple: No nationality as Azarbaijani existed during Nezami's time. So only authors that have mentioned speficially that Nezami's father was a Turk must be examined and no serious Western scholar has mentioned this in the West. And during the time close to breakup and after breakup, many Russian, Tajiks and Armenians .. now do not consider Nezami Ganjavi an Azarbaijani.

The Pope calls Nizami from Azerbaijan, but does not say his ethnicity. Not that the Pope does not know Persian even to comment on this issue and there is not a single famous scholar of Persian in Vatican that has written anything scholarly about Persian literature and that has called Nezami a Turk. Yes he was born in what is today called republic of Azerbaijan. But at the time of Nezami, such a country did not exist. Even the Azerbaijani ethnic group did not exist and the inhabitants prior to 1918 were mainly called Tatars by foreigners. But when we are talking about Nizami's ethnicity, we are specifically talking about his ethnicity. Armenian genocide has been recognized by Vatican, but that is another issue. [8]. What is important is that not a single major Western scholar has called Nezami Ganjavi Turk or Azerbaijani. There is no where in the text of the Vatican that talks about Nezami Ganjavi being a Turk. And also me believing in the Armenian genocide has nothing to do with Vatican and it is just based on testimonies by Iranians who travelled to Turkey at that time. Of course Mr. Baguirov does not believe in the Armenian genocide due to again ethno-centeric reasons.

The term Torkzaad means half Turk in Persian poetry as proven by Ferdowi's shahnameh and Dehkhoda. Nizami uses the term Torkam (Turk) for his wife and Torkzaad for his son. Indeed why mention such race in such a particular manner and point to Afaq being a Turk (and also the terms like nomad and plunder Nezami uses in those verses) and his son being half Turk, if Nizami himself was a Tork? That alone is sufficient to show Nezami Ganjavi was not a Tork. The quotes from Ferdowsi are exact. Tork-zaad in the context of Persian poetry of that era specifically meant a person that is half Turkish (Sokhan bas kon az Hormozd-e Torkzaad - keh andar zamaaneh mabaad aan nezhaad). Extremly clear. So Nezami is not a Turk. BTW do you have any comments on why you claimed the quote by Paul Smith was from G.H. Darab translation of Layli o Majnoon (which does not exist!). I have brought a scholarly translation and there is nothing against Persians. Also see the point about Bukhari and Tabari and Wilson's interpretation which shows that different interpretation exists on the meaning of some verses. We can go back and forth, but the fact is that the ethnicity Azerbaijani did not exist during Nizami's time (unless you say Oghuz Turks) and Nezami Ganjavi was not an Oghuz Turk, he was at least half Kurdish and more than likely 100% Iranic. All the propaganda in the world won't make Nezami Ganjavi into a Turk (he was at least half Kurdish and more than likely 100% Kurdish). He was not Azerbaijani by nationality since such a state did not exist at that time. Tommorow I will show some quotes from Western Scholars which have mentioned him as a Persian poet. Persian poet means someone that composed in Persian. The term Azerbaijani poet is wrong since Nezami did not have one verse even in the Azerbaijani Turkic language. --Ali doostzadeh 07:38, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

No credible source from any century called Nizami as an ethnic Persian - I ask Mr. Doostzadeh to cite otherwise if he disagrees. And "Persian poet" is just a vague and imprecise way of saying "Persian-language poet". With the whole Qom falsification it is clear that Persian chauvinists have early on -- since about 18th century -- tried to wrest Nizami away from Azerbaijan, and nothing has changed, Iran on official level, on the level of its repressive government claims Nizami whilst all modern scholars and researchers either avoid ethnicity or even "Persian poet" terminology altogether, or as even the Pope has done, acknowldge that Nizami is an Azerbaijani poet. Hence, none of the Iranian sources, when discussing ethnicity, can be trusted and relied upon. Also, as I've said many times, Nizami was a not a 100% Turkic, but must have been only through his father (unless his mother also had some Turkic lineage on her maternal side, which was obviously not uncommon either then or now). But all this is not as relevant, because Nizami is an Azerbaijani poet not because he has had partial Turkic heritage, but because he was born, lived, worked, and died in Azerbaijan, a land he made famous in his poems, which he dearly loved, and because all Azerbaijanis since then have loved him back, taking as good care and pride as they could despite difficult times. --AdilBaguirov 08:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Ali Doostzadeh's preference of non-scholars, non-specialists: example of M.Kapustin

While I've already extensively commented on this, I didn't want to pass by the opportunity to comment once more on the choice of sources Mr. Doostzadeh resorts to. First, Mr. Doostzadeh brought a poor translation of an excerpt from a propaganda article by some Kapustin, the only Russian writer he could find suitable. Then, Mr. Doostzadeh claimed at the time, that Kapustin was a "scholar" and specialist on "Iranian studies", "Orientalist". After I denied it and asked for proof, Mr. Doostzadeh, realizing that Kapustin is no scholar and certainly not a specialist on Nizami or Oriental studies, now calls Kapustin a "professor" (e.g., "Prof. Kapustin that Mr. Baguirov barrages wrote in the prestigious USSR culture magazine. This is a magazine that has a lot of readership from what I have gathered.")

I hate to dissappoint, but Kapustin was not only not a scholar and Oriental studies specialist, but not even a professor. It's true, Kapustin was a writer, not a professor. And his article in "Soviet culture" newspaper (not magazine, Mr. Doostzadeh, as already said many times) was not even noted by anyone except for a few Armenian sponsors (who also placed an article by some Grachik writer in an Armenian culture newspaper at the same time) and Persian chauvinists. And that newspaper does not have much readership - it doesn't exist for many years.

This is quite a step down for Mr. Doostzadeh to express such fondness of the non-scholar, non-specialist Kapustin whose works he doesn't even know -- it is far better to limit yourself to either biased Iranian scholars or old and outdated (although great at the time) translations like Wilsons. I in the meantime will continue to cite the great scholars and specialists -- proven and accepted by everyone -- as Shaginyan, Bertels, Krymskiy, Krachkovsky, etc.

While I am not done yet with responding and putting forward some additional thoughts and information, it is simply outrageous how Ali Doostzadeh mishandles quotes and engages in blatantly unscholarly behavior. Consider the section INTERVENTION.

I) First, he claims (albeit with a proper disclaimer) that Encyclopedia Britannica calls Nizami Ganjavi a “Persian poet”. To begin with – and this was already noted by user Grandmaster – in the article about Nizami himself there is no such terminology.

Secondly, and I’ve stated this before, “Persian poet”, an unfortunately vague and imprecise term, is not equal to “ethnically Persian poet” or “Persian by birth” or “of Persian heritage/roots/ancestry/parents”. In other words, anyone who wrote in Persian, or actually Farsi-e Dari, was often simply labeled “Persian poet”, just like many ethnically non-Arab historians and geographers and poets are labeled “Arab(ic)”. Case in point – Azerbaijani poet Nizami. Another case in point – ethnically Turkic poet living in India, Amir Khosrov Dekhlevi.

Although, surprisingly, on this Iranian website, the ethnicity or even “Persian poet” epithets, are absent: http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/nezami/nezami.php It is also interesting, that some information on the Wikipedia page was PILFERED from this website, and in addition to such a potential copyright infringement, the biased authors also inserted “Persian poet” and other such incorrect and imprecise references to Nizami’s article.

Also ironic with E. Britannica is when some Persian chauvinists find a 1911 edition of Britannica and try to cite it – forgetting about all the superseding editions – just because it fits their agenda.

II) Mr. Doostzadeh used to fuss a lot about “50 year old books” when I quoted an Armenian expert Dr. Shaginyan, and insisted about the need to use newer sources. Indeed, Wikipedia favors sources after 1920s. Yet Mr. Doostzadeh is constantly bringing old – much older than 50 years – books from Hellmut Ritter, Yan Rypka, C.E. Wilson, et al.

While on Wilson I will comment more later, another irony is with G.H.Darab – whom Mr. Doostzadeh used to bring him a lot, even now he cited him in the context of not acknowledging Nizami’s Turkic heritage -- which reinforces my point once more – how fair is it to ask an ethnic Persian, which is who Dr. Darab was, to do that in light of extreme politicizing of this issue by Iranian ultra-nationalists?

But what’s interesting, when I bring two relevant quotes translated by G.H.Darab (as indicated in Paul Smith’s book, although he used all available books in English), Mr. Doostzadeh goes ballistic and throws every accusation imaginable. Specifically, the quotes were the following:

“Reproach has now fallen upon me and it has dared to insult me, calling me Persian: that, I disregard, for I’m still an Arab and scorn this cowardly sneer of bragging fools unused to the shield and spear.” (poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “Layla and Majnun”, p. 117).

“Rise of Empire of Turks was due to their love of justice. You’re no Turk! A plundering slave, fostering injustice.” (poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “The Treasury of the Mysteries”, p. 160).

Mr. Doostzadeh, perhaps it was not Prof. Darab who incorrectly translated, but you? Also, perhaps it is not Prof. Darab who translated an “absent” (according to Mr. Doostzadeh) line, but the ideologically-motivated Iranian editors and censors cut it out? After all, Mr. Doostzadeh, isn’t Iran a country where official censorship is very much alive and well, and press freedom is nearly zero – the only government who managed to get two (!) of its leaders in the worst enemy of the press, Predators of the Press Freedom list by the Reporters Without Borders: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=13618

And unfortunately for the Iranian people, their suffering has been going on for pretty long – before the cruel mullah’s, there was the no less cruel and freedom-stifling Shah – thus affecting all Nizami and other research.

Hence, there is nothing wrong with the translation of those quotes – previously, I’ve provided my own literal translation from academic editions in Russian, and now the same quote (e.g., on the old woman and Sanjar sultan) professionally translated directly from Farsi-e Dari by Prof. Darab – and they pretty much coincide.

III) Then, before, in our first debate rounds, Mr. Doostzadeh seemed to agree in principle with the translation of an important quote from Nizami, namely:

“In this Habash [Ethiopia] my Turkishness is not appreciated, That's why my tasty dooghbaa/dogha [Turkic milk-based hodgepodge] is not eaten”. (In Farsi-e Dari: "Torkiyam raa dar in Habash Nakharand, laajaram Dooghbaayeh Khos Nakhorand". From: Seven beauties/Haft paykar, fourth epic poem of Nizami).

In fact, Mr. Doostzadeh didn’t like my Latin-alphabet rendering of the quote in Persian, and suggested his spelling, which I adopted – to show once again my constructivism and objectivity. Yet either because Mr. Doostzadeh realized how terrible this quote – which is in EVERY SINGLE manuscript, by the way, I’ve checked and re-checked, and cross-checked all the translations from all editions – was for his purposes and agenda, especially in light of mentioning of the “dogha”, a traditional Turkic milk-based hodgepodge (in Persian spelling: dooghbaa), now he is objecting (?!) to this translation and proposing a 1924(!!!) translation by CE Wilson – which is completely imprecise and in fact horrible – even if for the fact that Mr. Wilson failed to translate and otherwise comment on the Dogha – a very crucial element, which I discussed in more details before.

IV) Yet what is more troublesome, while advertising C.E. Wilson’s translations, as well as the objectivity of the Encyclopedia IRANICA, Mr. Doostzadeh engages in outright unacademic methods and falsifications! Because, despite talking about Wilson’s translation at length and touting it as superior to his former favorite, ethnic Pesian Prof. Darab, Mr. Doostzadeh SELECTIVELY QUOTES ONLY WHAT FITS HIS AGENDA – just as prof. Talattof warned us in his 2001 book: “Adhering too rigidly to any point of view can be problematic, however, as when the editor Pizhman Bakhtiyar eliminates verses that undermine his interpretation. Similarly, some editors such as Sarvatyan [and I should add that Mr. Doostzadeh can be congratulated with being a worthy pupil of Sarvatyan, whose book he uses] will sift through many manuscripts of a work to come up with a rendition that suits their purposes”. (ibid., pp. 7-8). As I wrote before, Talattof goes on to name seven (7) Iranian editors of Nizami’s works as “ideologically motivated”.

What Mr. Doostzadeh conveniently omitted in his quotation – and what indeed undermined his card-house on sands – is the following revelation from his favorite source, Encyclopedia IRANICA: “There are three complete translations in western European languages. First, the one in very rough English "blank verse" by C. E. Wilson (The Haft paikar, 2 vols., London, 1924, with extensive notes), wherein the post-Victorian translator felt compelled to render a fairly large number of verses in Latin. Second, an Italian prose version by A. Bausani (Le sette principesse, Bari, 1967), based on the critical edition by Ritter/Rypka, with omission of the bracketed verses. And finally an English version by J. S. Meisami (The Haft Paykar, a medieval Persian Romance, Oxford and New York, 1995), in "free verse" (partially rhymed, partially in near-rhymes, partially unrhymed) based on the Ritter/Rypka edition (but retaining the bracketed verses). There are also versions in Russian prose (R. Aliyev, Baku, 1983) and verse (V. Derzhavin, Moscow, 1959 and reprints). Of the various partial translations it might suffice to mention the one by R. Gelpke in very elegant German prose (Die sieben Geschichten der sieben Prinzessinnen, Zurich, 1959), also in English metatranslation by E. Mattin and G. Hill (The Story of the Seven Princesses, Oxford, 1976).”

There you go, an admission that Wilson’s old and outdated translation was “very rough English” – although that’s easily noticeable from the quote that Mr. Doostzadeh provided us with. Hence, my quote is far better and more correct, and indeed, considering the comments I’ve provided, it makes more sense to the reader.

V) Now, on the supposed “insult” of Turks by Alexander the Great in Nizami’s last epic poem. (see Mr. Doostzadeh’s quotes: “Also there is negative quotes about Turks, for example Alexanders address to the Khaghan” and “Alexanders belittlement of Turks” and several times before that in earlier discussions). If one is to be polite, this is another example of a total misunderstanding of Nizami’s words. But if one is to be open and frank, this is an intentional misinterpretation.

After Nizami basically redefined Persian language literature and was the first to be so overwhelmingly in favor of Turkic people, and has said so many great things about Turks, and all Turkic people understanding Nizami’s allegory, symbolism and metaphors extremely favorably, it is safe to say that Mr. Doostzadeh misunderstands those expressions. The quote which he considers insulting/negative is taken out of context (like with Shirvanshah letter/Nizami quote): “…Damning the Turks, [Alexander] opened his mouth: ‘Turk was not born from his mother without distemper”.

Yet, this verse, said by Alexander, is completely taken out of context and that’s clear to anyone who reads the full passage or better, the chapter, or even better, the book. Here’s the synopsis of the story: this verse is preceded with how the Turk khan (ruler and heir of the kingdom of Afrasiyab) of Khotan and China disguising himself as an Ambassador and going to talk to Alexander, so as to feel what kind of a person he is. During the conversation he “opens up”, revealing his true identity – that he is the unconquered ruler against whom Alexander came to wage war and join that land to his empire. Alexander gets so impressed (!) by the intelligence, speaking abilities, diplomacy of the great khan, that he tells him: “Neither the crown, nor the country nor the throne do I demand from you” – only thing Alexander needs is acceptance of nominal dependence by the “ruler of Khotan” to the “shah of Rum [Byzantium]”. And they agree on this deal.

Yet the next morning Alexander is warned by his spies – that not too far from their base, a huge army of the Chinese khagan (Turk khan) has been assembled, battle-ready.

Hence, Alexander, thinking that the Turkic ruler has fooled him with sweet talk and empty promises, starts to curse and damns the Turks.

But everything gets clarified very quickly and Iskandar realizes how wrote he was with his premature conclusion. The Turk army approached Alexander’s base, and the Turk khagan comes down from his elephant, goes to Alexander and reassures him, that he is as well-intentioned as before. He notes, that by bringing his own huge and strong army, he, the “ruler of Turks”, accepted suzerainty of Alexander not because he is weak and afraid (unlike some others), but because: “The Sky is helping you, And I have no argument with the Sky”. Of course, the Sky, or the Eternal Blue Sky, Tengri, is the holly God, if one may, of the ancient Turkic people.

Hence, the Turk ruler showed: 1) great wisdom, 2) great strength; 3) great courage; 4) great honesty, loyalty and respect, and his army, which he allied with Alexander’s, soon showed its dedicated and loyal performance on the battle field.

Thus, aside from once again (!) showing all those great positive features of Turks, Nizami, by his “insulting” verse tried to perhaps make fun and otherwise comment of his non-Turk contemporaries, who were quick to blame the Turks for everything. Indeed, these kind of “insulting” verses (only for real, not like Nizami’s which is actually favorable) were the norm in Persian language literature especially from the ethnically Persian authors – and Nizami wrote it as a social commentary of sort, since these kind of words were expected. And then he masterfully proved his main hero wrong – by showing smth that we should all learn and keep in mind – never jump to conclusions quickly.

VI) Same with the “Shirvanshah quote” – I’ve provided the whole verse, unlike Mr. Doostzadeh’s selective quoting, and shown that the negative words were said by Shirvanshah, not Nizami himself, as Mr. Doostzadeh tried to allege at first. And that Nizami took great offense, described his emotional state as:

“I read this… My face became blood-red, - So, it means I have a slave’s ring in my ear! I don’t have the courage, to write a denial/refusal/rejection, My eyes have become dull, words (reserve/vocabulary) have run dry.” (The first two lines can also be translated as: “I paled, - so it means/looks like fate/fortune/destiny, the ring of shah’s slave has passed through me!”)

And etcetera, etc., etc. – as we see, Nizami is very much against and unwilling, he is not happy with Shirvanshah’s request and insult of Turks, whom he obviously dislikes.

However, as the verses continue, Nizami describes that his Turkic-born beloved son Muhammed quietly came to him, read the letter, and advised to proceed with the work, as “two pearls are more beautiful in pair than one” (the other pearl being Khosrov and Shirin), and since “shah asked you to compose dastan, to the king Iran is a subject territory and Shirvan…. Here’s your kalam (pen), father, sit down and write!”

Thus, Mr. Doostzadeh and those alike either intentionally (very bad!) or which is probably worse, unintentionally, misinterpret Shirvanshah’s words as Nizami’s – and keep completely quiet about Nizami’s initial furious reaction, anger at the request, and only thanks to yet another Turk, son Muhammed, did Nizami, despite Shirvanshah’s insult, decide to write his pearl.

As is clear from the text, Shirvanshah SPECIFICALLY asks Nizami to write in and use motifs of either Arabic or Persian, implying that never should another language and motives – in which clearly Turki and Turkic is singled out – be used. Whilst Nizami decided to follow the order – he needed the money and above all, he wanted well-deserved fame which was possible only with rich clients, who could pay for many manuscripts to be copied and otherwise distribute those epic poems – he did insert references to Turks into Leyli and Majnun.

This passage proves that Nizami knew Turki language; that he could write in it; that he was favorable of Turkic people, and how much opposition there was from writing in Turki among rich clients whether of Persian background (Shirvanshah’s most likely falsified their geneology to become Arab, and in case of Akhsitan I his mother was Georgian as I said already) or Turkic (Atabeks, Seljuk sultans, etc). --AdilBaguirov 07:54, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

On the Pressure on Turkic poets to write in Persian even 3 centuries after Nizami

Here’s an interesting verse and words from the great Alisher Navoi, a Turkic Uzbek poet, who was born exactly 300 years after Nizami, in 1441. One of his teachers was the Perso-Tajik poet Jami, and of Navoi held Nizami in highest respect, hence these two names he mentiones frequently.

"I am not Khosrov, not wise Nizami, Not the sheik of present-day poets Jami. But so in its humility I shall say: Upon their glorified path I traverse. Let the Nizami victorious wit/mind, has conquered Barda, Ganja and Rum; Let there was such a language given to Khosrov, That he has conquered the whole of Hindustan; Even if on the whole Iran is Jami singing, In Arabia in kettledrums beats Jami, But Turkic people of all tribes, of any country, All Turkic people one I have conquered... Wherever there was a Turk, under the banner of the Turkic words He to stand up willingly is always ready. And this tale mountain and separations, Passions spiritual and high torments, All own adversity notwithstanding, I have stated in Turki language."

[note the cities listed for Nizami -- not a single Iranian city, in fact, no connection to Iran aside from Persian language]

The same thought he has voiced on declivity of his days in prose, in its remarkable disquisition: “Dispute of two languages” (1499): “I seem that I have confirmed the great truth before worthy people of Turkic folk/people, and they, having got to know authentic power their speech and their expressions, beautiful quality of its language and its words, disposed [i.e., can break free] of scornful attacks on their language and speech on the part of those composing poetry in Persian”.

From: Каюмов А. П. Алишер Навои // История всемирной литературы: В 9 томах / АН СССР; Ин-т мировой лит. им. А. М. Горького. — М.: Наука, 1983— ... Т. 3. — 1985. — С. 576—582. http://feb-web.ru/feb/ivl/vl3/vl3-5762.htm

This proves that even 300 years after Nizami, Turkic people were under tremendous pressure to write everything in Persian or at least in Arabic, but not in Turki. And despite such great poets as Azerbaijani poet Nasimi living and writing before Navoi (in 14-15 centuries), as well as other Turkic-language poets, it was not enough to stop the pressure on poets.

It is exactly this pressure that Nizami frets about in his Leili and Majnun, when he is forced by the Azerbaijani Shirvanshah to write in either Farsi or Arabic, but not Turki. --AdilBaguirov 15:33, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Again the same lies and forgery from Baguirov

0) The problem with Mr. Adil Baguirov and other people from the republic of Azerbaijan is that they do not understand there was no such thing as a Azerbaijani identity back there and there was no such state as Azerbaijan giving citizenship. So the only justification for calling Nezami Azerbaijani would be if he was half Turkic, which he was not and there is no proof for it. Thats the end of the issue.

1) Nezami's quote about Turks from Alexanders viewpoint is Nezami's own writing. It is harsh and it doesn't need any context. Indeed no Turk would say such a thing about their own race.

2) Once again Mr. Baguirov fails to grasp that Dr. Talattof has said about Nezami and the republic of Azerbaijan:It seems that many of these former soviet republics have been trying to make history and construct cultural background in the process of their attempt for nation building. The official websites of the Republic of Azerbaijan featured Nezami as one their own many years ago. This happened at the time when our own officials did not care much about our cultural heritage. . The misquote again by Mr. Baguirov shows his manipulation and propaganda. On pg. 7 and 8, Mr. Talattof mentions: "The rise of Islam to state ideology after the Islamic revolution 1979 has affected culture production Iran, lending new prominence to religious readings of classical literary texts. This Islamic reading of Persian literature in general and of Mizami's poetry in particular also occured in the period before Islamic Revolution, particularly in the wokrds of Muhammad Mu'in and Sa'id Nafisi. Since the revolution, howerver, a great number of ideologically motivated interpreters such as Muhammad Taqi Ja'fari, Ab al-Husayn Muvahhid, Barat Zanjani, Muhammad Riza Hakimi, Muhammad R. Rashid and especially Bihruz Sarvatiyan have focused on Islamic and Sufic elements in Nizami's stories, subjecting their topological and allegorical levets to reductivist and predictable Islamic exegesis.

Furthemore Dr. Talattof comments:

(begin) Ja'fari for example, states that Nizami does not write to demonstrate his art but to express himself at the moment of prayer. According to Zanjani, Nizami's strength in art lies not in storytelling but in the ability to incorporate moral teachings and advice as a mean of strengthening Islamic principes and faith. Rashid insists that Nizami's work has Sufi tents, as does Sarvatiyan, who states that Nizami thinks of one thing only: the world of brotherhood and religious equality. He writes: The philosopher's treasure {Nizami's book} is a book that ebgins with 'in the name of God the merciful', and the readers have to say 'in the name of God' in order to understand the myserious secrets and to understand its meanings.

These readings seem to be based principally on the works of medieval biographers like Dawlatshah, Samarqand, Awfi, Bigdili, and Jami, who were convinced of Nizami's membership in one or another Sufi school but provided no reliable evidence of this. ...The question of the nature of Nizami's relation to Sufism cannot be resolved easily (end)

As one can Mr. Baguirov when it comes to manipulation facts does not know that the Iranian scholars Dr. Talattof is referring to have taken a more Islamic and Sufic viewpoint of Nezami. He tries to think that some big ideological consipiracy is going on Iran about Nezami's ethnicity after the revolution, whereas before the revolution he was never considered a Turk either! Furthermore Mr. Baguirov makes another conspiracy that Western scholars were scared of Persians violent reaction! As if Taraaj (plunder) (used by Nezami to refer to Turkish action) should scare scholarship and all the Western scholars are in one big giant conspiracy!

As per forgery and Nizami Ganjavi, let me quote a prominent scholar from the republic of Azerbaijan. Indeed a scholar from the republic of Azerbainan of 1980 forged the following verse: Pedar bar pedar mar-maraa tork bood - beh farzaanegi har yeki gorg bood!! The problem with this scholar is that the word Tork and Gorg are never rhymed in any Persian poetry and indeed violate the rules of Persian poetry. Furthermore Gorg(Wolf) is belittled in Nizami Ganjavi's poetry and although Turks had much respect for the wolf, the wolf is seen as heineous creature in the poetry of Nizami Ganjavi! (One can use all sorts of arguments like these!). Here is the translation of the madeup verse by the scholar of the republic of Azerbaijan: My father from generation to generation was a Tork - IN wisdom each one was like a gorg(wolf). Indeed this is the sort of polemical manuals Mr. Baguirov quotes from. This is the ideologically motivated scholarship of the repbulic of Azerbaijan, some of the scholars of the republic of Azerbaijani who delete quotes about Armenians and makeup quotes that do not even rhyme! This false verse which does not even rhyme was published by Arsali Nooshabi (Baku, 1980, Elm publishers) and the book is called “Nizami va Adabiyaat Torki”(Nizami and Turkish literature although Nizami did not write one verse of Turkish!). What can justify such a apparent and clear falsification except ethno-centric scholarship? Indeed can ethno-centric scholarship grasp Persian symbolic poetry? For example when Laili is compared to a Hindu, Turk, or whatever.. Vladimir Minorsky also says in: Pan Turkism, par minorsky dans ensycolpdie de islam, Livraison N. P. 924 Akopov Where ever there exist a problem unsolved, the Turks usually make claims that it belongs to their civilization’’ (retranslated from Persian). Also let me mention that there are people that manipulate in every culture but the republic of Azerbaijan by claiming 1300 year celebration of Dede Qorqod is definitely on the very top of the list. I have much more material from a dude name Fereydoon Aghasi-Oglu.. How about starting with his theory that Khazar and Azar are from the root and Turks being more ancient than Sumerians... I trust Prof. Iqrar Alioff though because of I have read some of his materials and they are sound. I would look at this discussion by one of Mr. Baguirov's friend[9] (although due to wrong propaganda there is a Turkish poem here that is not Nizami's[[10]] and no serious scholar has ever assigned a verse of Turkic to Nizami.)

As Dr. Bourtounian has shown, the republic even deletes and edits ancient texts as it wills: [11]

Also let us not inject politics in the discussion. The current republic of Azerbaijan has been called the most corrupt country on earth many times. Where as for example someone like the Turkic nationalist Javad Heyat in Iran who is well known amongst pan-turkist circles and is no scholar in literature, but is a medical doctor, has called Nezami and Qatran a Turk and his book is published. So one is free to mention such falsehood in Iran.

3) The Encyclopedia Britannica was taken from Mr. Baguirov's own webpage and I WIll quote: (begin) In the 20th century the critical study of imagery in Oriental poetry was taken up by Hellmut Ritter in his booklet Über die Bildersprache Nizamis (1927; "On the Imagery of Nizami"), which gives a most sensitive philosophical interpretation of Nizami's metaphorical language and of the role of imagery in the structure of Nizami's thought. Ritter's criticism is basic to the study of many other Persian poets. Slightly later, the Polish scholar Tadeusz Kowalski tried to interpret the "molecular" structure of Arabic literature--the absence of large units of thought or architectural structure--typical of the greater part of Islamic literatures, which might be described as "carpetlike." This "molecular" structure can be related to the atomist theories and occasionalist world view embodied in Islamic theology, which, unlike Christianity, does not admit of secondary causes and requires only short spans of hope from the faithful. In a number of articles, and in many books, E.G. von Grunebaum has pioneered this interpretation of literary structure. Other important critical works include S.A. Bonebakker's book on the rhetorical importance of tawriyah (ambiguous wording); Manfred Ullmann's excellent study of rajaz-poetry and its place in Arabic literature; and C.H. de Fouchécour's detailed analysis of the descriptions of nature in early Persian poetry. (end)

4) Mr. Baguirov again brings the quote:

“In this Habash [Ethiopia] my Turkishness is not appreciated, That's why my tasty dooghbaa/dogha [Turkic milk-based hodgepodge] is not eaten”. (In Farsi-e Dari: "Torkiyam raa dar in Habash Nakharand, laajaram Dooghbaayeh Khos Nakhorand". From: Seven beauties/Haft paykar, fourth epic poem of Nizami).

That is not the correct translation. The two available translation of Haft Paykar by Wilson and Dr. Julia Meisami shows this.

Dr. Meisami: The Ethiiop scorn my Turkish wares, rejects the fine foods I prepare (1995 Translation)

Dr. Wilson: This Ethiopia likes not Turkish wares hence it will have not palatable curds

Indeed the word appreciated is not here, but the word Nakharand (do not buy). As if buying Turkish! in Ethiopia makes literal sense. Turkishness in persian would be Turki-Sefat and Torkiyyam would be my Turkish. Furthermore, Dooghbaa is a Persian word and it is just a soup made of yogurt. Perhaps originally common to nomads (and there were Iranic nomads) or more associated with Oghuz tribes that started to come in Arran at that time, it had gained wide acceptance as it is mentioned by other Persian poets. Furthermore some manuscripts of the above verse has the word Doogh and the word Curd is close and best understood to English readers: A coagulated liquid that resembles milk curd.

Mr. Baguirov who does not know Persian is not in the position to comment on Wilson. Wilson's translation is old, but it is still used by scholars and his interpretation of Bukhara and Tabari, shows that different interpretation of the same verses exist.

Given the context of the line (after 100's of line of moral advice), there is nothing to suggest anything about ethnicity and ethno-centeric intrepretation. Since the opposition of sefid (light tone skin) (Tork) and zangi (Abyssinian)(black) has a figurative meaning, it simply signifies the range of tastes and climes, cultures and complexions, specifically with the Turks representing fair skin and good looking (as mentioned by many Persian poets) (as opposed to the dark-skinned Habashis). For the Turk to be taken literally, we would also need to take the /Habash/ part literally, and unless Nezami made a trip to Ethiopia(which he did not), composed poems in honor of African princes inr somewhere(which he did not), it is hard to see how /Habash/ could have a literal meaning here. Also let me add "Turk" is a very generic term as an ethnic indicator: would it have suggested "Azeri" Turkish in Nezami's day, or was there even yet such a concept (a mixture of Iranian, Caucasians and Oghuz Turks)? Probably not - most likely it would suggest the Seljuq tribesmen, whom I believe were Oghuz, but then it could also refer to Orkhun Turkic, or Uighur, Chaghatay, Turkoman, Mongol, etc.? We have no census data from those days, but we may assume that the various Turkic speakers, to the extent that they held a shared sense of identity, would do so on the basis of language. So choosing an unlikely interpretation (which still does not prove Nizami's father being Turkish since speaking Turkish does not necessarily imply his father was Turkish), does not validate Nizami's father being a Turk and at most it is just an unlikely hypothesis.

The symbolic meaning of the verse above is also clear for anyone with the simplest understanding of classical Persian poetry. Nizami Ganjavi did not live in in Ethiopia and in Persian poetry Turks are known as outer beutifull and Ethiopians (Blacks) as not too so. So Nezami Ganjavi is simply saying that he is in a place that dark and does not appreciate his beauty. Because Turks who had yellow/light skin were seen as compared to Sun and Ethiopians were seen as night. This is in the section where he has given some more hundreds of lines of advice and the quote and context is clear and the poet complains about people not listening to his advice! Thats the context. There is nothing about Nezami Ganjavi speaking Turkish and then people not appreciating it. The section comes after hundreds of lines of Moral advice and has absolutely no ethnic connoation and the constrast between Turk and Ethiopia and Turk and Hindu and etc. are found all over Persian poetry and poets compare their state to different groups like Rumi said: "Sometimes I am a turk, sometimes a Hindu, sometimes a Roman, sometimes a Black".

Indeed I might scan that whole section from both Wilson's and Meysami's translation. The fact of the matter is that the poem above does not prove anything about Nezami's father being Turkish and the intrepretation of Mr. Baguirov is not only ethno-centeric, but does not fit within the context and no expert in Persian poetry has ever interpolated such a bizarre meaning that Mr. Baguirov wants us to believe. So if the above is all Mr. Baguirov has, then it is not sufficient at all to claim Nezami Ganjavi to be half Turkic. Any sort of conjecture needs overwhelming proof and if such overwhelming proof existed, then in all the centuries, Nezami Ganjavi would be called a Turk, while no have ever called him a Turk.

When poets talk about Turk,India, Rome, Ethiopia one needs to take consideration of symbolic state of the poets feeling in the context. When actual characters are in play, then that is different (for example Khaghan of Turks). For a short introduction to this wide topic, people should the article by Professor Annemarie Schimmel, Turk and Hindu, A literary Symbol. Indeed in Lili o Majnoon, many times Lili is compared to a “Turk” and sometimes characters would be compared to Hindu. Also let me add this from

Rumi" Negar man Tork ast gar cheh man Tork nistam - Amaa midanam beh Torki hast aab su"

Translation:

My beautiful is a Turk and although I am not a Turk, I know this much that in Turkish the word for water is “su” (water in Turkish)

So here Rumi is not a Turk.

Rumi:

Gah torkam o gah hendu gah rumi gah zangi Az naqsh to ast ay jaan enkaaram o eghraaram

I am sometimes a turk, sometimes a Hindu, sometimes a Greek, sometimes a Black From your colors o Soul is my existence and non-existence

So here sometimes he is all four.

Rahaan kon harf hendu, bebin torkaan ma’ni raa Man aan torkam keh hendu raa nemidaanam

Leave the words of Hindu behind, Look at the meaning of the Torkaan I am that Turk that does not know Hindu

Here he is a Turk that does not Indian.

So here had we taken the ethno-centric viewpoint on poetry about the symbolism of Turk/Hendu, Turk/Black.. then we would say Rumi is sometimes a Tork, sometimes he is not, sometimes he is a Hindu, sometimes not a Hindu, sometimes a Greek and sometimes a Black…

Khaghani:

Kamtarin Hendooyeh oo Khaghaanist

The lowest of all Hindus is Khaghani

Attar: Key tavanaam goft hendu to-am Hendooyeh khaak sag-e- gooye to am

When can I say that I am your Hindu, I am the Hindu of the dust of your dogs feet

So all these are taken to be symbolic specially the context is important and Nezami talks about 100's of moral advice and has nothing to say about ethnicity. I also checked up that verse and it seems in some manuscripts it does not exist. Also explicity many times in Persian poetry (Sanaii, Nezami, Rumi, Hafez..) all these Turks were the Tang-cheshm(narrow eyes),which are the mongloid Turks people see in Central Asia. Not the Azerbaijani/Anatolian Turkic speakers who by modern genetic evidences are strongly predominantly non-Turkic in DNA. The problem is that Mr. Baguirov is confined in a small ethno-centric viewpoint and thus he can not grasp the symbolic meanings in Persian poetry. I have about 10 pages on how the word Turk is used in Persian materials. Specially when it compares to Ethipioa/India. For Iranian poets, Blacks/Indians were considered ugly, dark and Turks were considered light-skin and sun-like and pretty. Indeed had the people in the republic of Azerbaijan considered the fact that Nizami uses symbolic language many times, they would not be making such big mistakes and not view poetry from ethno-centric concept. So Mr. Baguirovs ethno-centeric and narrow viewpoint on a verse can not be taken seriously by Persian scholars and that is why he won't be able to prove a Turkic father for Nezami.

Also lets remember that Nizami uses the term Tork-zaad(a term used in classical Persian poetry meaning a son of Iranian who had a Turkic wife) for his son from his wife that was given to him by the ruler of Darband.

The first time such a word is used is by Ferdowsi (which Nizami was an avid reader of) when referring to Hormozd the Sassanid king whose father was the Sassanid king Anoshiravan and whose mother was from the Gok-Turks, sent by the Khaghan of Turks as a present to Anoshiravan.:

Ferdowsi says:

سخن بس کن از هرمزد ترکزاد که اندر زمانه مباد آن نژاد

Sokhan Bas kon az Hormozd-e Torkzaad Keh andar zamaaneh mabaad aan nezhaad

The translation is:

End all this talk about Hormozd the Tork-Zaad, May such a race (Nezhad) never exist in time

Indeed the difference between Tork-zaad and Tork is key here.

And again Ferdowsi says about Hormozd:

که این ترکزاده سزاوار نیست کسی او را به شاهی خریدار نیست.

Keh in Torkzaadeh sezaavaar nist kasi raa beh shaahi kharidaar nist

This Tork-zaadeh is very incompetent, No one supports his kingship

Note Hormozd father was a pure Iranian king by the name of Anoshiravan.

This is a sufficient proof that Nizami was not a Turk. Indeed lets re-examine that section again:

تو کز عبرت بدین افسانه مانی چه پنداری مگر افسانه خوانی درین افسانه شرطست اشک راندن گلابی تلخ بر شیرین فشاندن بحکم آنکه آن کم زندگانی چو گل بر باد شد روز جوانی سبک رو چون بت قبچاق من بود گمان افتاد خود کافاق من بود همایون پیکری نغز و خردمند فرستاده به من دارای در بند پرندش درع و از درع آهنین‌تر قباش از پیرهن تنگ آستین‌تر سران را گوش بر مالش نهاده مرا در همسری بالش نهاده چو ترکان گشته سوی کوچ محتاج به ترکی داده رختم را به تارج اگر شد ترکم از خرگه نهانی خدایا ترک زادم را تو دانی

The last two line after mentioning his wife as an idol of Qifqach (and symbolism can not be ruled out). Nevertheless, Nizami says in the last two lines about the gift given to him from the ruler of Darband (and note he uses the term Daraayeh Darband which means the Darius of Darband again showing Persian and Iranian mythology/history): Cho Torkaan gashteh sooyeh kooch mohtaaj - beh Torki daadeh rakhtam raa beh taraaj - agar shod torkam az khargah nahaani - khwudaayaa tork-zaadam raa to daani" First line: Since the Torkaan (turks) are in need of migration (using the word Kuch which means nomadic migration), Second line: Beh Torki (In Turkis way) daadeh Rakhtam raa beh taaraaj (In Turkish manner has plundered my belongings) Third line: Agar shod torkam az khargah Nahaani (If(Agar) happened(Shod) torkam (my Turk) from (az) khargah (tent) Nahaani (disappeared) = If my torkam disappeared from her tent) Fourth line: O god you know best about my Tork-zaad.

First Nizami calls Turks, Nomadic. Secondly note Nizami uses the term Torkam for his wife, but Tork-zaad for his son. Tork-zaad is defined as race by Ferdowsi, Dekhoda (based on the history book Habib al-Sayar mentioning Hormozd) and classical literature and it means a child from an Iranian father and Turkic mother. Indeed that is why there is a distinction between Tork (his wife) and Tork-zaad (his son). The term is actually famous for Hormozd, the Sassanid king whose mother was a Turk and his father was the Iranian king Anushirawan. That is the classical definition in classical Persian poetry. Sokhan bas kon ze Hormozd-e Tork-zaad - Keh andar zamaaneh mabaad aan Nezhaad.

Also look how explicity Nizami mentions the this first wife ( given to him as a Gift by the ruler of Darband). "Agar shod Torkam az khargaah Nahaani" (If my turk disappeared from her tent). If Nezami felt or had anything to do with Turks, there would be no need to call her Torkam and make such a distinction.

Indeed if Nizami was a Turk, he wouldn't need to point out a particular term like Tork-zaad! There is no way of going around this, as we already know Nizami read Ferdowsi thoroughly and knew what this term exactly meant. Also the way Nizami talks about Taraaj, Kooch and etc. makes it definite he was not a Turk. But his direct and explicit used of the term Tork-zaad in such a particular manner is sufficient to show he wasn't Turkic or else assuming 0.00000...1% chance he was, there would be no need to point out the obvious!. (although we already knew he wasn't Turk because his mother was Kurdish and so at most acording to our friends he would be a Kurd-Turk.).

Also another interpretation can be taken on the verse: "Torki sefat-e- vafaayeh maa nist - Torkaaneh sokhan sezaayeh maa nist - An koo ze nasab boland zaayad - oo raa sokhon boland baayad". It is doubtful Shirvanshah even wrote these words, since his government was controlled by Seljuqids. But more importantly Nizami uses the term "maa" (we) instead of "my". So another interpretation can mean both Nizami and Shirvanshah did not consider themselves Torki-Sefat and consider themselves nasab boland (of high descent as opposed to Turkish descent). If Nezami was a Turk, he would never praise Shirwanshah for 90 verses and also Nezami never indicates he was desperate for money and that is why he wrote Lili o Majnoon.. Indeed because of his fame, he would be awashed from money and he was well supported by the many sultans and kingdoms.

So many theories and interpretation can be valid and I firmly believe that Nezami's father was Iranian from simply all the Iranian culture Nezami has shown, the Tork-zaad verse, the advice given to Shirwanshah's about Shahnameh, all the elements of Iranian mythology he uses (nothing from Turkish mythology), his understanding of Pahlavi, and even if he was something else(Nizami was half Iranian for 100%), culturally he was Iranian for 100%.

5) Mr. Baguirov should know that I have quoted major Western scholars, not only: Hellmut Ritter, Yan Rypka(last article published in 1968 in Camridge history of Iran right before he passed away), C.E. Wilson but Clinton, Chelkowsi, Gelpke, Gohrab, Meisami, Bashiri and many others of the modern era. None of these authors call Nezami Ganjavi a Turkic poet. Even the term Azerbaijani poet is unambigious it just means he was from the land that is now called the republic of Azerbaijan. Indeed all Mr. Baguirov can do is repeat couple of Russian scholars who before the USSR have clearly stated Nezami Ganjavi was Iranian. Only after the USSR, they had no choice but to say Nezami Ganjavi was from Azerbaijan. Because as Stalin said(referred to Nizami 'as the great poet of our brotherly Azerbaijan people' who must not be surrendered to Iranian literature, despite having written most of his poems in Persian. . Mr. Baguirov is repeating the same thing! )[12]. Note both Beretls and Krymskiy have called Nezami Ganjavi an Iranian poet before the USSR. This is important point.

6) The quote by Alisher Navaoi brings Jami (a Persian poet) and Nizami (a Persian poet of Iranic background) and mentions that there is no poet like that of Jami nor Nezami amongst the Turks and he mentions Jami in Arabia (again not even a Persian speaking land). Also Mr. Baguirov again uses his materials that have been shown to have many wrong quotes. . This should be taken into account when Mr. Baguirov gives false translations like ususal. Like he was caught red handed many times. Indeed AliSher's Navaoi's originalgives us the impression that Nezami was not a Turk and indeed AliSher never mentions Nezami as a Turk. Jami was not a Turk either. I will in due time try to find Alisher's quote. It is sufficient to say Jami praises Nezami greatly in Baharistan and so he was read greatly in that area. Indeed the oldest manuscript of Haft Paykar for example is in Iran. I will bring some interesting quotes from Alisher Navaoi soon.

7) Mr. Baguirov claimed about Paul Smith's translation: poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “Layla and Majnun”, p. 117)

The funny thing is that the above source from 1945 does not exist and Mr. Baguirov madeup as he went. Indeed in 1945 G.H. Darab only translated the Makhzan Al-Asrar , Arthur Probstain Pub, 1945. So the addition by Paul Smith is not based on the translation of G.H. Darab as Mr. Baguirov claims since in 1945 G.H. Darab published Makhzan Al-Asrar. Paul Smith, who does not know Persian, can not be referenced here. Indeed I showed that the verse in question is totally translated wrong and Mr. Baguirov can not put such a quote in the main text anymore, since now the source of Paul Smith's English to English translation. And indeed that quote does not exist in the multitude of manuscripts that was checked. So Mr. Baguirov lied here or made a mistake in order to give backing to an unscholarly translation of a Person who does not know Persian and has just translated from English to English!

Here is the actual translation of that part by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke(The story of Layla and Majnun, 1966) (Note Dr. Gelpke also calls Nizami Ganjavi as a "Persian Poet"). Pg 65: Layli's father Great Prince among the arabs,' he began,' look at me, an old man, broken-hearted, beaten down by disaster, and prostrate before you. The Arabs are heaping blame and infamy upon me, as if I were a homeless stranger, and when I think of the streams of blood which have been shed for my sake, I wish I could become a drop of quicksilver and escape from such disgrade

As you can see folks, Mr. Baguirov tried to lie. And tried connect the quote of Paul Smith to G. H. Darab (who never made any translation of Layla and Majnun). An English to English translation by a non-scholar can not be used as an academic source. I have also emailed Paul Smith about this issue, and the actual translation by Prof. Gelpke is valid. Indeed Paul Smith does not know Persian and Mr. Baguirov was not able to show the actual source of that translation. G. H. Darab has no published literary translation of Lili o Majnoon. So stop the faslificaiton.

There is nothing against Persians in the 5-Ganj and Nezami praises Iran and Persians many times in the 5-Ganj. Also there is no translation of Lili O Majnoon published in 1945 from G.H. Darab and Mr. Baguirov lied and made up a source!

8) The quote by Alexander is clear. No Turk would ever compose such poetry against their own kind. Here it is again:

He opened his mouth and cursed at Turks 2) and said: "Without discord/disbelief(fitnah) No Turk is born from a mother 3) do not expect anything from chinni except a movement of an eyebrow (In Persian poetry Chin refers to Uighyur western China and parts of Central Asia while Machin refers to mainland China. For example Ferdowsi calls the ruler of the Turks as Khaghan Chin) 4) because they are covenant-breakers and can not be trusted 5) The wise people of the past said it in truth 6) that there is no honor and faithfullness in chinni 7) They all have accepted Tang-Chesmi (meaning narrow eyes) (like in the mongolian race) (meaning also they can't see well..) 8) they have only seen greatness and wideness in the eyes of others 9) Have you not heared that their love is equal to hate 10) the heart of Turk-e-chinni is full of crookedness 11) If the Turk-chinni had any honor 12) then the earth would be clothed under chinn (Part of Eskandar Nama)

No matter what one says, the above quote would never be composed by a Turk.

9) Nezami Ganjavi studies Asadi Tusi, Sanaii and Ferdowsi greatly, both of them having many negative quotes about the Bi-Vafaaii of Turks. I have already explained the Shirwanshah's quote. For Mr. Baguirov's information the introduction to Lili O Majnoon was written after Nezami completed the poem. And Nezami was commisioned by the Shirwanshah to write the poems and it is well known that the Shirwanshah's were a Persianized Arab dynasty who claimed descendant of Sassanid general. Indeed what is more important is that they did not know Turkish for Nezami Ganjavi to write Turkish for them. So Mr. Baguirov's false intepretation while having no basis is to be reject. The actual context becomes clear when references against Persian poetry:

The quote of Nizami from the mouth of Shirvanshah are couplets that were written and composed by Nizami. Indeed Nizami was the was that wrote and composed those couplets from the mouth of Shirvanshah. Shirvanshah’s were not poets! Let us analyze it and firstly remember that the Persianized Arab descendants (indeed they made a geneology tracing their background to the Sassanid general Bahram Chubin) were not Turks and if Nizami wanted to compose Turkish, he would do it for the Seljuqids and not Arab/Persianized kings! This should be enough to reject the claims of Mr. Baguirov but we will analyze his false claim in more detail. The beginning of that section is as follows (all quotes checked from Barrat Zanjani edition as well checked with Vahid Dastgerdi edition and an internet edition): 45) 1) Nizami Ganjavi receives a letter from the king as he said: در حال رسید قاصد از راه آورد مثال حضرت شاه بنوشته به خط خوب خویشم ده پانزده سطر نغز پیش After reading the letter(not poetry), Nizamis first word is: هر حرفی او او شکفته بافی افروخته تر ز شب چراغی Translation: Every word of that letter is like a blossomed garden, all of it is more bright than the lights that are lit at night.

So this shows that Nizami was totally pleased with the letter unlike what Mr. Baguirov claims.

The claims of Mr. Baguirov is nonsense and there nothing about force on this mannter.

خواهم که بیاد عشق مجنون رانی سخنی چو در مکنون For the sake of love of Majnoon, I want you to compose like the pearls in shells در زیور پارسی و تازی این تازه عروس را طرازی

Mr. Baguirov who does not know a word of Persian further claims: (The 3rd line can also be translated as: “From Persians and Arabs you can take….”)

It actually translates to: the ornament of Persian and Arabic, make this new bride take shape.

Lets continue. Indeed here is one of the most ridiculous mistakes of Mr. Baguirov coming up. Mr. Baguirov claims: Nizami continues the verse, after the words Mr. Doostzadeh quoted, now speaking for himself: “I read this… My face became blood-red, - So, it means I have a slave’s ring in my ear! I don’t have the courage, to write a denial/refusal/rejection, My eyes have become dull, words (reserve/vocabulary) have run dry.’’

The actual lines are these: چون حلقه ی شاه یافت گوشم از دل به دماغ رفت هوشم نه زهره که سر ز خط بتابم نه دیده که ره به گنج یابم سر گشته شدم در آن خجالت از سستی عمر و ضعف حالت کس محرم نه که راز گویم وین قصه بشرج باز گویم فرزند محمد نظامی آن بردل من چون جان گرامی این نسخه چو دل نهاد بردست در پهلوی من چو سایه بنشست داد از سر مهر پای من بوس کای آنکه بر آسمان زدی کوس خسرو و شیرین چون یاد کردی چندیدن دل خلق شاد کردی لیلی مجنون ببایدت گفت

تا گوهر قیمتی شود جفت این نامه ی نغز گفته بهتر طاوس جوانه جفته بهتر خاصه ملکی چو شاه شروان شروان چه که شهریار ایران...

Indeed as he continues, Nizami says that since the story of Lili o Majnoon takes place in a desert and since it does not have much beauty and romance compared to Khosrow o Shirin and since he is old, he was a little not sure if he can accomplish this task. But then his son urged him on and Nizami happily continues! So the story has nothing to do with being forced to compose a masterpiece in one language or another!. Indeed the poets complaint is about the bareness of the story and nothing to do with being forced! Anyone with first grade knowledge of Persian can see this, but unfortunately the absurd claims of the scholars of the republic of Azerbaijan knows no bound. As you can see, Mr. Baguirovs statement has absolutely nothing to do with Nizami getting mad! Indeed Nizami writes 90 lines in praise of the Shirvan Shah! 90 lines and yet Mr. Baguirov claims Nizami was mad at Shirvanshah ! As if Nizami who according to the false claims of Mr. Baguirov was a Turk! Would be scared to take his case to the Seljuqs! And as if a poet can be forced to write Persian for an Arabo-Persian King like Shirvanshah who did not know Turkish!!

Finally the words of Shirvanshah were composed into poetry by Nizami and their total degradation of Turks ,and indeed some say it refers to Mahmuds treatment of Ferdowsi (which sounds much more reasonable), shows that Nizami did write negative stuff about Turks.

Nizami chose to compose these verses and I have already brought similar verses by other Persian poets and I will do so again He quotes the Shirvan Shah in beutifull poetry:

تُرکی صِفَت وَفای ما نيست تُرکانِه سُخن سِزای ما نيست آن کز نَسَبِ بُلَند زايد او را سُخن بُلند بايد

Torki-sefat VAFAAYEH (emphasized for explanaion) maa nist Turkish manners are not part of our faithfullness Turkish tongue is not befitting for us The person who is born of great lineage (he is belittling turks) The words of his must be of great ascent (belittling turkish language)

Now what Mr. Baguirov does not know that the term Turk (with many shades of meaning) had also came to mean wrong-doer, plundered. For example Sanai says: To Torki o Hargez Nabood Tork VAFADAAR (You are a turk and a Turk never had any faithfullness). Another poet Asadi Toosi says: VAFAA na-ayad az torkaan hargez padid- vaz Iranian joz vafaa kas nadid Faithfullness has never came from Turks, but from Iranians everyone sees faithfullness Asadi Toosi by the way wrote the Loghotnaameh-Parsi Asadi in Azarbaijan and some of the Azari-Pahlavi terms can be found in that book.

Ferdowsi says about Turks:

Keh torkaan raa baa kherad nist joft (That turks do not possess with logic and wisdom).

Of course a character is saying it, but this is still rough. Also the major dispute between Mahmud and Ferdowsi is rumored to be because of ethnic(Iranic vs Turkic) and religious conflict (Shi'i vs Sunni). Nizami despite being a Sunni, praises Ferdowsi and has shown which side he takes in that dispute and so does the Shirvanshah.

The term bi-VAFAA (faithlessness and honorlessness) about Turks has a long history in Persian poetry and I just mentioned Sanai and Asadi Tusi, two Persian poets, living prior to Nizami. Indeed Asadi Tusi although originally from Tus (Khorasan and also the hometown of Ferdowsi and Nasir ad-Din Tusi and Al-Ghazzali..), moved to Azarbaijan during the Shaddadid era. Nizami who was another poet of the area uses the same language.

10) The fact of the matter is that no respected authority in the West has called Nezami Ganjavi's other half a Turk. Note in the Makhzan al-asraar he praises the Wisdom of the Sassanid King Anushiravan. Whereas in the story, the old lady is complaining to Sanjar about the misdeeds occuring in the empire. Ferdowsi also for example praises some Turanians (at the time were considered Turks) like Piran. Nizami Ganjavi is a heir to the Persian traditions and Myths. For example in the Haft Paykar he mentions some of the following characters amongst many: Anushiravan, Arash (Who protected Iran from the mythical Turanians later identified as Turks), Ardeshir Babakan (founder of the Sassanid Dynasty), Arjang (the art book of Mani), Bahman ( the son of Isfandiyar from the legendary Kayanid dynasty), Bistun, Daraa (Darius), Dihqaan (Iranian nobility), Div (Shahnameh creatures that are not humans), Pari (fairies), Farhad, Fereydoon (the defeater of Zahak), farr (royal Zoroastrian glory), Firdawsi, Giv (a heroe in the Shahnameh and son in law of Rustam), Iraj ( the son of Fereydoon mentioned in the Shahnameh), Isfandyar (Zoroastrian heroe), Kavus (Kaykavus the legendary king and father of Siyavas), Kayanids (pre-Islamic Iranian mythical dynasty often associated with Achaemenids), KayKhusraw (the son of Syavash and one of the greatest Shahnameh heroes), Khusraw Parviz the Sassanid King, Kisra, Mani, Rustam (the greatest Shahnameh heroe), Shirin (part of Persian folklore), Simurgh (the legendary bird mentioned in Avesta who was the protector of Rustam in the Shahnameh), Siyamak (the son of Kayumarth, Kayumarth is the first Iranian man in the Shahnameh and according to legends of Avesta, the first wise being created by Ahuramazda), Jamshid (Yima of Indo-Iranians), KayQobaad (Founder of the glorious Kayanid dynasty), Siyavash (the son of Kaykavus and father of Kaykhusraw), Zahak (Bivarasp, the legendar demon-king mentioned in Indo-Iranian traditions), Avesta, Zand (Zoroastrian commentary on Avesta). These were just a few amongst many which demonstrates Nizami Ganjavi's clearly Iranian heritage and Iranian roots. Indeed let me bring a quote from a recent published book where the author always consistently mentions Nizami Ganjavi as a Persian poet: (Love, Madness, and Mystical Longing in Nizami's Epic Romance, Prof. Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, pg 276): The relationship between Shirwanshah and his son, Manuchihr is mentioned in Chapter eight. Nizami advises the king's son to read Firdawsi's Shah-nama and to remember the pithy saying of the wise. This again shows the clear Iranian heriage of Nizami and shows clearly he feels Iranians and shares in the Iranian heritage. Indeed the Shahnameh has some harsh comments against Turks, that anyone with Turkish consciousness would not appreciate. So does Sanai's work. So does Asadi Tusi's work. All these poets were praised and influenced Nezami Ganjavi. Also Mr. Baguirov should tried to appropriate Qatran Tabrizi and turn him into a Turk, but apparantely he didn't know Qatran was not a Turk.

Conclusion:

Since Nezami Ganjavi's other half was Iranian, as the term used Tork-zaad for his son shows (and the context and connotation of this word is clear from classical Persian poetry and dehkhoda), then one can not call him Azerbaijani poet. Culturally he was Iranian as shown from the comments in part 10. Also everyone agrees that he was half Iranic. The theory that his father was a Turk can never be proven from his work or else major scholars would have accepted it. So in the end, Nezami Ganjavi is a Persian poet (since all his work is in the language and a Persian poet does not mean anything about ethnicity. Just like an Azerbaijani poet could simply mean he was from geographical region of Azerbaijan). His mother was a Kurd and his father was Yusuf the son of Zakki the son of Mu'ayyad. That is all that is known about his biography.

I suggest that we say his heritage is shared by Azerbaijan and the Persian speaking World. Other than that, the issue is finished and right now, there is not even one major Western scholar of Persian literature who claims Nezami a Turk.

Just to let the readers know, I have requested intervention. The Armenianness of Shirin will be certain. As will be the half Kurdishness of Nezami. The QOM theory will be a perhaps. There is not a single major scholar even USSR that has called Nezami Ganjavi's father as explicity a Turk. So I hope this issue is resolved soon.

Some scholars

Ghulam Hussein Darab Khan (Oxford University) was not Iranian, but of Indian origin. He has called Nezami Ganjavi a Persian poet several times. Another person is CE WILSON (professor of Persian literature and studies) Another person is Edward Brown. (Professor of Persian literature and studies) Another person is Dr. Ali Asghar Seyed Gohrab (Abu Gohrab) whom I believe is of Indian origin. (PhD 2001) Peter Chelkowsi. (Professor of Persian literature and studies in NYU currently) Julia Scott Maisami (a native of California and not Iranian and Professor of Persian literature and studies) Another Person is Dr. Rudolf Gelpke (Professor of Persian literature and studies). These were not some random people, but Professors in a very definite field: Persian literature and Iranian studies. --Ali doostzadeh 22:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Ali Sher Navaii considers Nizami amongst Persian Poets

The Persian(Actual Uzbek version: Sart which means a Perso-Turk mixture) rulers won independence in some climes and territories, whereupon Persian poets (Actual Uzbek version: Sha'eraan Parsi-goo or Persian speaking poets) appeared: Khaghani and Anwari and Kamal Ismail and Zahir and Salman for Qasidas; Ferdowsi "Master of Knowledge", Nizami, "Incomparable" and Mir Khusraw "Sorcerer of India" for Mathnawis; and Sa'di "Inventor of Time" and Hafiz "Non-pareil of the Century" for Ghazals.(Muhamat Al-Lughatain, translated by Robert Devereux, Leiden, 1966). --Ali doostzadeh 22:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Nizami and Zoroastrianism fables

Everyone knows Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion. Here is an interesting quote from G.H. Darab's translation of Makhzan Al-Asrar pg 17:

One night, while Nezami was in deep meditation, he (a close friend of Nizami's) entered and began to reproach and rebuke Nezami severely, saing: Thou art supposed to be the lod of spiritual understanding and king of eloquence and speech. Thou has been deceived by the deceit of the idolators and fire-worshippers. Thou has revived the fables of the Zoroastrians. Sing the song of the Unity of God; Why are thou reviving the customs of the Magians? Although the fire-worshippers consider thy heart alive, yet the true believes consider it dead. The poet was not embittered by these reproaches and began to read a few passages from the love stories of the beautiful Shirin. When his friend heard these ravishing stories, he remained silent, as though he had lost speech. Nezami said: Why art thou silent now, and how is it thou canst not find words for praise?. The friend surrendered himself to Nezami with the utmost humiliation and asked him to complete his story and finish the building, the foundaiton of which he had laid so beautifully. The the poet calls on himself to leave the prison city of Ganjeh, to attack like a lion, to spread his shadow like a phoenix, and to relinquish the country to few owls. He seems to have a few bitter enemies who are jealous of his fame and virtue. He knows that if he leaves the country he will not hear even the names of his enemies after two stages. He compares those enemies with candles which are at the same time moths, taking pleasure in their own scanty lights in their ownhomes (pg 17-18).

Note also Nezami sometimes praises Ganjah but sometimes he called it prison like.

Interesting info from Nezami about himself and his mother

مادر که سپند، یار دادم با درع سپندیار زادم

Maadar keh sepand, yaar daadam baa Dar' sepandayaar zaadam

My mother who lit up spand for me and gave birth to me with the iron-clad body of Sepandiyaar

This quote is from Nezami about his own auto-biography. What is Spand? Spand is made from wild rue and is burned in many Zoroastrian ceremonies, rituals and purification rites in Iranian homes. When burned, the ESpand bits give off a pleasant odor and smoke similar to incense. The person carrying the Spand may walk around the couple and carry the smoke near them to make sure all evil is kept away. To burn Spand, you can place it on hot coals in a metal container called Manghal or brazier. This will burn and set off the desired effect. Spand was kept from Zoroastrianism to Iranian culture.

Now the second part refers to Sepandiyaar/Esfandiyaar of the Shahnameh, who was the rooin-tan (invulernable) except in eyes. This was because Zoroaster blessed Esfandiyar according to Shahnameh and Zoroastrian tradition. Now another interesting fact about Esfandiyaar in the Shahnameh is that he is a major enemy of Turks who are identified as enemies of Iran and Zoroaster and anyone with the simples amount of Turkic consciousness would not praise such a heroe (like Nizami has many times). Indeed Esfandiyaar uses some harsh terms for Turks, which I can bring if requested. The above two lines from Nezami also shows that he had Iranian conscious and comparing himself to Esfandiyaar the great Iranian/Zoroastrian heroe.

relavent Iranica articles:

Spand

Spandiyaar

Note how Nizami uses the Persian form and not the later arabicized for Esfand and Esfandiyar.

--Ali doostzadeh 16:13, 8 June 2006 (UTC)