Abdulla Shaig (25 February 1881, Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

 – 24 July 1959, Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

), born Abdulla Mustafa oglu Talibzadeh, was an Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

i writer.

Early life and education

Shaig was born to Marneuli

Marneuli

Marneuli is a small city in the Kvemo Kartli region of southern Georgia and administrative center of Marneuli District that borders neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.-Population:...

-native Azeri

Azerbaijani people

The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...

 parents, Mustafa Talibzadeh and Mehri Bayramli. His father was an akhoond

Akhoond

An akhoond is a Persian name for a Muslim cleric, common in Iran, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. The Dungani word for imam "ahond", in Mandarin "阿訇", used in particular by the Dungans, also derives from this term....

 at the Caucasus Muslim Clerical Board, who taught Islamic law

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

, Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 and Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 at a secondary school in Tbilisi (then Tiflis). In 1883, due to a strained relationship with her husband, Shaig's mother moved with her two sons and a daughter to Khorasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

 (Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

), where Abdulla Shaig later attended a school. As a teenager, he wrote ghazal

Ghazal

The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

s and translated a number of pieces from the Russian literature

Russian literature

Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...

 into Persian. In 1901, at the age of 20, he permanently settled in Baku and passed an examination at the First Alexandrian Gymnasium becoming a certified teacher. He worked in the field of public education for the next 33 years.

Works

Shaig was a romanticist and a children's author. His plays and folklore-oriented tales first started being published in local newspapers and magazines in 1906. Later he was also known for writing short stories that illustrated bitter consequences of poverty and economic ordeals faced by the working class in pre-Soviet Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. This made Shaig's works particularly popular in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. His celebration of internationalism and pacifism earned him great success as a writer. Despite his academic work aimed at promoting Azeri culture and somewhat open anti-Stalinist views, he is not believed to have been persecuted by the state.

Shaig managed literature with his teaching career. He was the author of many language and literature textbooks, published from 1909 through 1920. During the brief independence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...

 in 1918–1920 he showed strong idealogical support for the ruling party of Musavat.

He also translated numerous works by Shakespeare, Defoe

Defoe

Defoe can refer to:*Defoe , a 17th century zombie story by Pat Mills and Leigh Gallagher for 2000AD*Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe*Gideon Defoe, author of Pirates!*Jermain Defoe, English footballer who plays for Tottenham Hotspur...

, Pushkin, Lermontov, Krylov

Krylov

Krylov Krylov Krylov (masculine or Krylova (feminine) is a common Russian last name, derived from a word literally meaning a wing (крыло́). Alternative spellings are Krilov, Kryloff, Kriloff (masculine) and Krilova (feminine; Крылова)....

, Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

, Nekrasov

Nekrasov

Nekrasov, also Nekrassov , or Nekrasova , is a Russian last name and may refer to:-People:*Aleksandr Nekrasov , Russian mathematician and academician...

, Nizami

Nizami

-Toponyms:* Nizami raion, a settlement and rayon in Baku, Azerbaijan* Nizami, Goranboy, a village and municipality in the Goranboy Rayon of Azerbaijan* Nizami, Sabirabad, a village and municipality in the Sabirabad Rayon of Azerbaijan...

, and Firdowsi into Azeri

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

.

Some of Shaig's famous works include:

• Undelivered Letter
• Lady Tigtig
• We're all Rays from the Same Sun
• Heroes of Our Century

External links

• Undelivered Letter by Abdulla Shaig (online version), Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7.1 (Spring 1999), 22-23.
• We're All Rays from the Same Sun," Azerbaijan International, Vol. 12:1 (Spring 2004), pp. 40-41.
• Kamal Talibzade, "My Father Abdulla Shaig," Azerbaijan International, Vol. 12.1 (Spring 2004), pp. 36-39. Shaig's Autobiography

Web site: http://abdullashaig.com