User:HistoryofIran/Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Mirza Fatali Akhundov
Portrait of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, located in the Institute of Manuscripts of Azerbaijan
Born	(1812-07-12)12 July 1812 Nukha, Shaki Khanate, Russian Empire
Died	9 March 1878(1878-03-09) (aged 65) Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Resting place	Tiflis
Occupation	Playwright, philosopher
Language	Azerbaijani Persian Russian
Subjects	Religious intolerance, freedom
Years active	From 1837
Philosophy career
Region	Iranian philosophy
Main interests	Political philosophy, literature, historiography

Mirza Fatali Akhundov was an philosopher, social reformer, historian, playwright and essayist in the 19th-century Russian Empire. Regarded as a nation-builder by both Azerbaijanis and Iranians, Akhundov played a major role in Azerbaijani literature and Iranian nationalism and modernism, contributing to the later Iranian Constitutional Revolution.

Spending most of his childhood and adolescence in the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran, Akhundov was raised by his mother's uncle Haji Ali Asghar, who wanted him to become a Islamic clergyman.

Life

Background and upbringing

Belonging to a relatively wealthy family, Akhundov was born in 1812 in the town of Nukha (present-day Shaki), which served as the capital of the Shaki Khanate. A khanate was a type of administrative unit governed by a hereditary or appointed ruler subject to Iranian rule. During the Russo-Iranian war of 1804–1813, the Shaki Khanate was occupied by the Russian Empire, who had installed Jafar Qoli Khan Donboli as their deputy.

Akhundov's grandfather, Haji Ahmad, originally lived in Rasht in northern Iran before relocating to Tabriz in northwestern Iran. His father Mirza Mohammad-Taqi had previously served as the deputy of the nearby town Khamaneh, but was dismissed by the Qajar crown prince of Iran, Abbas Mirza. Mirza Mohammad-Taqi subsequently became a merchant and relocated to Nukha, where he married Akhundov's mother Na'na Khanum in the same year. Her uncle was Akhund Haji Ali Asghar, a Shia clergyman belonging to the Moqaddam family of Maragheh. Akhundov felt a connection to the contemporary Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, due to his mother's lineage, which included an African ancestor who had served under the Iranian shah (king) Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747).

In 1813, Iran and Russia agreed to the Treaty of Gulistan, which resulted in Shaki, along with other territories, coming under Russian rule. The following year, Jafar-Qoli Khan's death led many of the province's inhabitants—who had relied on his support—to migrate elsewhere. In 1814, Akhundov was taken by his parents to Khamaneh. However, Na'na Khanum eventually became dissatisfied with living among the family of Mirza Mohammad-Taqi's first wife, and in 1818, she decided leave Khamaneh, taking Akhundov with her. She went to Meshgin, where her uncle Haji Ali Asghar resided. This marked the last time Akhundov would see his father. Many years later, Akhundov attacked the idea of men having more than one wife as an evil and corrupting practice that not only oppressed women but also caused permanent animosity and friction between the wives and their children.

Akhundov was adopted by Haji Ali Asghar, thus becoming known as "Haji Ali Asgharoglu" or simply "Akhundzade". Haji Ali Asghar was in charge of Akhundov's early education, which included the memorization of the Quran, teaching of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Arabic and Persian literature. Akhundov first stayed in the village of Hurand with his mother and Haji Ali Asghar. When Akhundov became seven years old the following year, he was registered in a school. In 1825, Akhundov, his mother and Haji Ali Asghar briefly stayed at Nukha before moving to Ganja. Some months later, the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828 erupted.

The Shah Abbas Mosque in Ganja, where Akhundov studied and met Mirza Shafi Vazeh, who steered him from becoming a Islamic clergyman

Haji Ali Asghar and his family endured difficulties throughout the war, losing their possessions. Following the conclusion of the war and another Iranian defeat, Haji Ali Asghar and his family relocated to Nukha. There he continued teaching Akhundov Arabic and Persian literature. In 1832, Akhundov was sent to the Shah Abbas Mosque in Ganja to study logic and Islamic jurisprudence with the Shia theologian Akhund Molla Hossein. This was arranged by Haji Ali Asghar, who wanted Akhundov to become a Islamic clergyman.

Mirza Shafi Vazeh, a mystic, poet, and calligrapher who had been associated with mystical and atheistic ideas, was someone Akhundov encountered while studying in Ganja. Initially, Akhundov planned to learn calligraphy from Mirza Shafi, but their conversations quickly strayed into topics such as Islam, philosophy, mysticism, and the activities of the Shia clergy. Akhundov was adamant on learning Islamic law and jurisprudence in order to become a member of the Shia religious hierarchy, but this changed when he met Mirza Shafi. Akhundov wrote about the impact Mirza Shafi had on him;

"One day, this honourable man [Mirza Shafi], asked me: Mirza Fath Ali what is your intention in studying [Islamic] sciences?' I answered that I wished to become a clergyman. He said, 'Do you wish to become a hypocrite and a charlatan?' I was surprised and shocked . .. Mirza Shafi looked at me and said: Mirza Fath Ali, do not waste your life among this abominable group of people and choose another profession'. When I asked him about the reasons for his hatred of the clergy, he began to reveal matters which until then had remained hidden to me . . . Until the return of my second father from pilgrimage, Mirza Shafi inculcated in me all the elements of mysticism, and lifted the curtain of ignorance from my eyes. After this incident, I began to hate the clergy and I changed my intentions."

Haji Ali Asghar disapproved of his Akhundov's new aspirations and had him moved back to Nukha in 1833. Despite this, he still agreed for Akhundov to attend the newly established Russian school there. There Akhundov started learning Russian, but the following year he was forced to stop at the school due to being too old for it.

Life in Tiflis

A painting of Tiflis, dated 1838

Akhundov and Haji Ali Asghar therefore went to Tiflis, where the latter wrote a letter to Georg Andreas von Rosen, the Russian viceroy of the Caucasus Viceroyalty. In the letter, he proposed him to hire Akhundov as his translator of oriental languages (Arabic, Azerbaijani, and Persian). The renowned writer and historian Abbasgulu Bakikhanov gave Akhundov a test, and once he passed, the Russian chancellery hired him as an assistant to the principal oriental language translator. Akhundov learned Russian to a high level during the three years that followed. He also started teaching Azerbaijani and Persian at the Tiflis district school in 1836.

Writings

In 1837, Akhundov made his first work by composing a Persian elegy named Poema-ye sharq dar wafat-e Pushkin on the death of Russian poet Pushkin. A poem by Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov served as the model for Akhundov's elegy. Lermontov had composed "an angry elegy on Pushkin's death", which had instantly made him popular. Akhundov was supported by his friend, the Decembrist poet Alexander Bestuzhev to translate the elegy into Russian and send a copy to the Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, who was also the editor of the journal Moscow Observer at the time.

Akhundov started creating plays in Azerbaijani Turkish in 1850. The comedies and plays presented in the Russian and Georgian theaters in Tiflis attracted Akhundov to drama. In Tiflis, a Russian theater featuring professional repertory had been established in 1845. With the direct help and support of Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, the Russian viceroy of the Caucasus Viceroyalty, the playwright Giorgi Eristavi organized an amateur theatrical organization in Georgia, modeled after the Russian theater. Akhundov's plays was his first attempt to make his compatriots in the Caucasus adopt Western (mostly Russian) culture and eliminate traditional ideas in the Islamic world, especially in Iran. Akhundov made it clear that his goal as a playwright was to educate and improve society in several letters to close friends and in the preface to his plays. He wanted the viewers to recognize the flaws in the ridiculed corrupt, ignorant, and superstitious figures on stage and slowly come to embrace what Akhundov regarded as a more progressive and modern perspective.

Legacy and assessment

Regarded as a nation-builder by both Azerbaijanis and Iranians,

Sources

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