Molla Panah Vagif

Molla Panah , better known by his pen-name Vagif , was an 18th-century Azerbaijani poet, statesman and diplomat. He is regarded as the founder of the realism genre and the modern school in Azerbaijani poetry. He served as the vizier—the minister of foreign affairs—of the Karabakh Khanate during the reign of Ibrahim Khalil Khan.

Early life

It is mostly accepted by researchers that Molla Panah was born in 1717, in the village of Salahly, Kazakh Sultanate. However, some authors like Firudin bey Kocharli considered Hasansu as his birthplace, while Salman Mumtaz argued that he was actually born in 1733. His parents were Mehdi agha and Aghqiz khanum, In 1769, he was invited to the court of ruler Ibrahim Khalil Khan, who had heard of Panah's ability to predict the time of the lunar eclipse, and was appointed eshik aghasi (person in charge of foreign affairs) of the khanate after conversion to Shiism from Sunni Islam. He was described by authors such Mirza Jamal Qarabaghi as "A cautious and perfect vizier who found great fame in Iran and Rum" and by Mir Mehdi Khazani as the most trusted officer of Ibrahim Khan. The correspondence with Russia was initiated by Vagif and these letters were sent to the Catherine II. thumb As vizier, Vagif did much for the prosperity and political growth of the Karabakh Khanate. He also played an important role in organizing the defence of Shusha during the incursions of Agha Mohammad Shah Qajar of Persia in 1795 and 1797. He unsuccessfully tried to cement an alliance between Karabakh, Georgia, the Erivan Khanate and the Talysh Khanate against Qajar Iran.

Siege of 1795 The historian Mirza Adigozal bey records the following possibly apocryphal tale: during the 1795 siege of Shusha, which resisted stubbornly despite the overwhelming numbers of Agha Mohammad's army, the shah had the following couplet by Urfi, the Persian-Indian poet, attached to an arrow and shot behind the walls of the city: Vagif's house was also plundered and many of his verses were lost.

Vagif's remains were kept in Shusha, where a mausoleum in his name was built during the Soviet era in the 1970s. This mausoleum was destroyed in 1992 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The fate of Vagif's remains is unknown. Another museum was opened on 20 November 1970 in Qazakh.

Poetry

Despite the circumstances of his death, Vagif's poetry has persevered. His verses were collected for the first time in 1856 and published by Armenian writer Mirza Yusif Nersesov in Temir-Khan Shura with a fellow Armenian poet Mirzajan Madatov. Soon afterwards, his verses were published by Adolf Berge in Leipzig in 1867 with the assistance of Fatali Akhundov, a prominent 19th-century Azerbaijani playwright.

Vagif's works herald a new era in Azerbaijani poetry, treating more mundane feelings and desires rather than the abstract and religious themes prevalent in the Sufi-leaning poetry of the time. This was the main characteristic that distinguished Vagif from his predecessors and made him the founder of the realism genre in Azerbaijani poetry.

The language of Vagif's poems was qualitatively innovative as well: vivid, simple, and closely approaching the Azerbaijani vernacular. Vagif's poems have had a great influence on Azerbaijani folklore and many of them are repeatedly used in the folk music of ashiks (wandering minstrels).

An example: