The present paper deals with the Arabian sources of Nizami Ganjavi’s mathnawi “Haft Paykar” (Seven Beauties). The poem reflects cosmopolitan thought of the poet. Cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism is a characteristic feature of the works of many authors from the Medieval Islamic world which was designated by Marshall Hodgson by the term “Islamicate”. The term “Islamicate” encompasses the thoughts and concepts which are not limited to Islam, but embraces ancient beliefs, worships, and customs that existed long before Islam that creates multicolored picture of the vast area from Spain to Chine. Particularly the cultural picture of Caucuses, where religions and beliefs intermingled and intertwined, was very colorful which is clearly seen in Nizami’s poem “Haft Paykar”. Among many sources of Haft Paykar the important role belongs to Arabian sources, particularly the works of Abu Uthman al-Jahiz, Abu l-Həsən əl-Masudi, ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Abu Mansur al-Saalibi, Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani and Arabic translations of Almagest by Ptolemy should be mentioned.. The comparative analysis of the mathnawi “Haft Paykar” and Arabic sources indicates that although Nizami borrowed the plot of the poem from Firdawsi, “Haft Paykar” differs from Shahname in its ideas and topics. Nizami added some passages to the poem that intensify its cosmopolitanism, even distinguish it from the shuubiyya spirit of “Shahname”. Nizami glorifies Arab Lakhmid kingdom of Hira, its architectural monuments that coincides with the Arab anti-shuubiyya movement.

Nizami’s thoughts the jewel of medieval Azerbaijani literature, have always attracted the attention of Russian scientists – Orientalists. It is for this reason that the academician A.O.Ma-kovelsky, to express his thoughts on the power of the word and artistic creation, refers to the poems of Nizami included in «Khamsa» («Quintuple»). The author tries to show how valuable source is Nizami’s work, reflecting love and humanism. Thus, to prove that the heritage of Nizami as a monument of national culture should always be the object of research for scientists – Orientalists.

For studying Nizami Ganjavi’s creative activity on the background of the world literature it is very important to study the examples of oral folk literature which considered to be the main sources of Nizami’s poems. The poet not only recreated these ancient legends in poetical form but also used them in order to reach his poetical goals, not content with this he made them responsive to artistic truth. However the genius poet’s activity in the field of elaboration the legends and epics his ability to turn them into a perfect example of literary work has almost been forgotten. It is necessary to collect and study all epics, folk tales that was used by Nizami according to their origin and in the context of literary-historical development in order to conduct deep analysis of the poet’s poems. The poem (masnavi) “Leyla and Majnun” chosen as the object for presented article can be a starting point for research in this area. A number of scientists have come to the conclusion that the epic “Leyla and Majnun” isn’t based on epic but on real events. It is presented in the article comparative analysis of passages taken from “Leyla and Majnun” based on narrations and real events with Arabic legends that have existed in present days.

The article considers nazire to “Haft Peykar” by Nizami, created in the Middle Ages in Persian literature in India. It is noted that Nizami’s “Khamseh” was very popular in India and Indian authors have repeatedly turned to Nizami’s plots and images. Their particular interest was aroused by the poem “Haft Peykar, since the method of frame composition underlying it has long been familiar to Indian readers. The article analyzes five imitations to “Haft Peykar”: “Hasht Behesht” by Amir Khusrau, “Haft Dilbar” by Ahmad Dehdar, “Haft Gumbad-i Bahram” by Ruh al-Amin Shahristani, “Haft Akhtar” by Fani Kashmiri and “Haft Jauhar” by Ismail-khan Abjadi, written during the XIV–XVIII centuries.

According to the information given in Arabic sources, the epic “Xosrov and Şhirin” has been spread in oral form since VII century. In Persian literature Firdowsi was the first poet who touched this story in his “Shahname”. In spite of Shirin’s artistic image was not created in se-parate poem it was complete and interesting. However it was Nizami Ganjavi- a genius Azer-baijani poet who made this story famous all over the world. A number of famous poets created nazira (immitation) at this immortal work after Nizami's “Khosrov and Shirin”. Although both masters of words took different positions in terms of meaning and idea of the poem we consider comparative analysis presented in the article to be useful. By our opinion the article sheds light on such topics as: similarity of plots and the attitude to historico-mythological legends. The article also helps to determine the artistic style, social, moral and educational uniqueness of the poets. But by us it is not the task of literary critic to divide the images created by two poets in order to put one on he first place and another on second. These could be estimated like this only by millions of readers and history.

The decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan issued on January 6, 1979 about study, publication and promotion of Azerbaijan’s great poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi’s works established the beginning of new era in the field of study the literary heritage of the poet. It was also planned the publication of three-volume edition of the dictionary of the poet’s works. The Chief Scientific Council of Azerbaijani University of languages convened on April 24, 1981 discussed the matter of compiling the “Nizami’s language dictionary” as the first attempt in the world. “Central Working Group” headed by Professor R. Sultanov was formed to write and successfully complete the book. Members of the department began to prepare dictionary cards for compiling three-volume dictionary. After that, the task was to select the publication of Nizami's works that would be the basis for the card index, to select and prepare high-quality paper and card boxes for long-term storage of cards and to hire support and technical staff. The main aim of this article is to discuss the first phase of three phase process card index compiling proved by “Central Working Group” about instruction on what side of the card the names of the poems should be pointed along with information about order of letters –symbols, principles of writing simple and compound words, line colours of the underlined words and etc. It is also spoken in the article how abbreviations and additions of language units made as reguired by the poem should be recorded in the card files. It should be noticed that instruction of second and third phase of compiling “Nizami’s language dictionary” would also be written.

Among the research works carried out by Azerbaijani scientists in the field of study and publication of Nizami Ganjavi's legacy in recent years, those related to the philological translation of the works of the great poet into Azerbaijani have a special place However, no significant articles on the quality of these translations have been published, except for one or two newspaper articles on the philological translation of Nizami's works into Azerbaijani. In this study, we discuss the quality of the philological translation of Nizami Ganjavi's poem "Khosrov and Shirin" made by Doctor of Philology, Professor Hamid Mammad-zade, or, to be more precise, some semantic distortions. Generally on comparing philological translation of the poem "Khosrov and Shirin" with the original poem, it is clear that the translator mastered the translation with great skill, remained faithful to the spirit and content of the original and managed to recite Nizami's pearls in Azerbaijani. However, there are some mistakes in the translation. We can group them as follows: 1. Mistakes made as a result of incorrect reading 2. Mistakes made as a result of the literal translation of idiomatic expressions; 3. Mistakes made as the result of not taking into consideration figurative meanings 4. Incorrect translation of words, compositions, expressions and verses. Due to the small size of presented article, we could not list all the mistakes in the translation. However, we hope that it will be useful to take into account the mistakeswhen the book would be reprinted.

It is described in the article by the prominent Russian orientalist V.V. Bartold the condition of Nizami Ganjavi’s tomb. It is mentioned that the tomb of Nizami who passed away at the beginning of 13th century, like the tomb of "Shahname" s author Firdowsi, had been in bad condition. Bartold had examined the photos of the mausoleum given to him by the director of the Caucasus Museum in Tbilisi Kaznakov and relying on the given information pointed out that he ruins around the tomb were also associated with the name of Nizami. This grave is located on the old postal road to Dalimammadli railway station, 4 versts far from Yelizavetpol city. The second description cited by the author of the article was taken from the book dedicated to Nizami of Azerbaijani author Mirza Mahammad Akhundov, published in Ganja. According to the information given in the book, Nizami's mausoleum was located in the old city - 7 versts far from the present-day city of Ganja. It was also mentioned in the book that the tomb was in miserable condition. According to V.V Bartold, it have been found information about the view of the masoleum, it’s architect and the time of building in research works and sources of classical period literature. Then Bartold gave information about the masoleum of Nizami found in chronicle “Tarihi-alamarayi-abbasi” He later wrote that Nasreddin Shah on his way back from first trip to Europe in 1873, passing through Elizavetpol, have visited Nizami's mausoleum, built of baked brick, but it was still in in a dilapidated condition. In this article Bartold intended to focus on Nizami’s masoleum and update the problem of its renovation.

The life, creativity and the literary heritage of the genius Azerbaijani poet and thinker Ni-zami Ganjavi are studied with great interest in many countries of the world, including Arabic East. The first and the most notable monograph dedicated to life and creative activity of the great poet was created by Egyptian scientist Abd al-Nayim Muhammed Hasanain (Egypt, 1954, 527 pages). In the first part of this study, consisting of two books, was examined the Nizami’s epoch and such ruling dynasties as Great Seljukids, the Seljukids of Iraq and Asia Minor, the rulers of Shirvan and Maraga, the Abbasids of Iraq, the Ismailits of Iran, the Sunni and Shiite religious sects and socio-economic situation of Nizami era. The author of the book, referring to the re-marks and notes contained in the poems of Nizami, believes that the poet was born in 1144 and died in 1211/12. The second part of the monograph was devoted to the poetry of Nizami. After detailed analysis of the most famous poems ofNizami, the author stated that the poet wrote his first poem "Treasury of mysteries" under the influence of the poem "Hadikatul-hakaik" by the popular Persian poet Sanai. However Nizami’s style is more gracefull. Comparing the poem "Khosrov and Shirin" by Nizami with the poem of the same name in "Shah-name" by Firdowsi, Hasanain comes to the conclusion that it was Nizami who first elaborated the poem in a completely new aspect. The poem by Nizami differs from the same by Firdowsi by its plot, sequence of events, landscape images and etc. The author came to the conclusion that Nizami was the first poet who created the love story of Khosrov and Shirin in the form of a romantic poem. The image of Iskender (Alexander the Great) created by Nizami also differed in interpretation. If Firdowsi created the image of Iskender as a patron-hero, Nizami portrays him as a just ruler and a wise philosopher.Hasanain points out that Nizami elaborated the stories of "Shahnameh" by Firdowsi not by repeating and imitating his great predecessor, but in creative way, what opened the new possibilities for the poets of new generation. By this Hasanain rejected the opinion of Iranian scholars (Rezezade Shafak, Zabihullah Safa) that Nizami was a direct imitator of Firdowsi. According to the author, Nizami was not a poet – an epigone, but an original artist who inno-vatively enriched Persian literature in form and content. Thanks to this, the poet created his own literary school, becoming the founder of one of the most influential literary schools in the East. It can be said without exaggeration that poetry by Nizami served as a model for representatives of Persian language poetry who created poems in mesnevi genre which was one of the most popular genres of oriental literature. Despite some shortcomings (the author gave more space to retelling the content of Nizami’s poems than to their ideological and artistic analysis and he was little familiar with the studies of Soviet nizamiologists), the monograph of the Egyptian scientist Abdal-Naim Muhammad Hasanain was very valuable research devoted the life and cretivity of Nizami, as well as the socio-political and economic life of Azerbaijan in XII century.

No matter how abstract and timeless it might seem, in fact, each literary work reflects an absolute historical period as well as the atmosphere of the age in which it was written. Sometimes it can be so hidden and deep that it is not immediately noticeable. However, if we delve into many details, from language and style to certain historical features in the literary work, as well as into the essence of many points that the pen-owner does not deliberately disclose but hides behind their encrypted lines, one can see the real story in these literary passages. It is namely this merit that grants eternity and unchanging modernity to the classical literary pearls. It is not without reason that a number of commentators, followed by researchers from various countries characterized "Khamsa" which wrote about events and personalities from the distant past as if describing ancient history, as a mirror of Nizami's time, similarly scientists entitled the "Divine Comedy" the "Encyclopedia of Medieval Europe". Along with a number of other features, this advantage of literary creativity allowed Nizami to become one of the leading figures of the Muslim East, and Dante – the one of European Renaissance. Attachment to the palace inevitably means political dependence. Nizami was never associated with the palace, and he could freely express his political position, even when he wrote masnavi at the behest of the ruler and when he praised the king at the beginning of the work. Although the words of Nizami in the verses dedicated to God and the Prophet in the preamble of "Khamsa" were addressed to the heaven from the upper layer, they were addressed to the Earth with the deep layer of verses. The thoughts of the philosopher-poet towards building a society in which order, harmony, truth and equality rule do not end with the analysis and criticism of modern rulers through direct indication of their names. When Nizami wrote about the Sassanid rulers who had lived several centuries prior to him and called for justice and good governance, he did not mean the dead rulers of the past, but the alive rulers who sat on the throne at that time. We observe the same mode of thinking and approach in Dante. In Hell, political memories prevail, while in Araf, politics and philosophy merge. While the authorities’ harsh stance and persecution of Dante was presented as religious bigotry, it was actually revenge, the outcome of the poet’s clear political goals and the fact that those in power who read his writings comprehended everything as it was. Those who compare Dante's work with a magnificent Gothic church acknowledged that the entire historical fragment was reflected in every part of the Divine Comedy, just as the general picture was visible in every detail of this architectural monument.

Nizami Ganjavi is quite unique regarding the direct influence rendered by him to the development of literary and cultural insight of the period coming after him. In a view of the fact that the theme, plot and ideas of his works during eight centuries after him have been uninterruptedly maintained, followed, in certain cases adapted to the local conditions and even definitely repeated by hundreds of poets speaking various languages in Caucasus, Middle Asia, Near and Middle East and even in India located further away form this geography, one can hardly find out the similar poet with such a wave of influence in world literature. Considering the low frequency and speed of the intercourse among countries in 12th century and the opportunity of the spread of literary works solely in the form of individual manuscripts, one cannot avoid being amazed at the fact that the wave of Nizmai᾽s influence has covered such huge distances within such a short time-frame. If the comparatively quick spread of this influence in Caucasus, Middle Asia, Iran and Anatolia is understandable regarding the closeness of distance, then the emergence of replies to Nizami in India earlier than the indicated places is quite paradoxical in its turn. Nizami's poems are a kind of encyclopedia of the 12th century – the time when the poet lived. Khamsa can be regarded as the most reliable source for studying the way of thinking of that period, its public-political environment, architecture, art and economic life. What makes Nizami a global poet is, of course, not just his outstanding ability to manage words with magic and change their forms and meanings. Nizami was a genius who was far away from national boundaries and understood his belonging to humanity. The choice of the main characters of couplets is a graphic example of this. This character can be Persian, Arab or Greek. Nizami's goal was not to show what nation or country his character came from. His intention was to find a high literary solution to his idea or goal. But it is no accident that both the main characters and other people in his poems are representatives of dozens of nationalities. Nizami does this deliberately. He demonstrates once again he writes about people and for people and his poems should be read not just by one nation, but many nations. And this was the end result anyway. With his works, Nizami created not just a literary model that will be repeated for centuries, but also a model of thinking, nationhood, spirituality and statehood. The ideals promoted by Nizami eight centuries ago are still in demand. Humanity is still struggling to promote even more the qualities that Nizami wanted to see in people and society eight centuries ago. One of the most significant qualities that makes Nizami exeptional is an establishment by him the patterns which have been bringing closer as well as uniting the countries and nations through both his mode of life and his all works. Nizami via his knowledge, language skills and the books which he had read was a successor of science and culture that had been existing prior to him. Namely due to the rising based on such a reliable foundation he could have left after him as a keepsake such a wealth that the most people both in the East and the West accepted tehmselves to be a rightful heir of this heritage. And this tradition continues. Cultures had mixed together in his literary activities and “Khamsa” of Nizami became some kind of the invitation and appeal to the successive word-masters of the most various nations. That everlasting invitation and appeal which is gaining more and more actuality over time states that the genuine motherland of human being is a common environment generated by cultural and moral values of his inner world rather than the geaography on the ground.

The tradition of official celebration by state decision of the round anniversaries of the great Azerbaijani philosopher and poet Nizami Ganjavi as well as the anniversaries of other classics who have entered our history forever, as a common national holiday of science and literature dates back to the first quarter of the 20th century. These commemorative ceremonies which have become especially systematic after the second half of the last century, have brought big benefits to our great word-masters in terms of propaganda, approaching closer to the masses and recognition outside Azerbaijan as well as publication and research of their works. From this point of view, Nizami Ganjavi has always attracted more attention in compa-rison with other classics, his anniversaries took place more frequently than others, not only 100 year and 50 year anniversaries, but also 840 year and 880 year anniversaries which do not seem round enough, but accompanied by international conferences, detailed research and publica-tions. Among the anniversaries of Nizami Ganjavi that have been celebrated many times over the past 80 years, the uniqueness of the ceremonies of his 880th anniversary was that they were not considered anniversaries held only on a specific day or days. By the order of the head of Azerbaijani state, the entire year of 2021 was declared the “Year of Nizami”, and events and publications dedicated to Nizami continued from the first month of the year to the last days of its last month. Furthermore, one of the outcomes of the events, researches, publications, memorials dedicated to Nizami within 2021 is that the “Year of Nizami” has not fitted into the framework of the past year, and the accumulated energy laid basis for continuing various events related to Nizami in the coming years with the intensity of the anniversary year. The Faculty of Oriental Studies founded in 1922 at the Baku State University has been known for decades not only as a place of study but also as one of the main centers of classical heritage research, particularly researches and translations related to Nizami Ganjavi. On the one hand, it relates to to the direct contribution to Nizami studies made by specialists working at the faculty, on the other hand, it relates to the fact that the faculty has been serving as the main base for training of the personell specialized in Nizami studies. The vast majority of the specialists in Nizami studies of Azerbaijan of the old, middle and new generations appear to be the graduates of the Faculty of Oriental Studies which should be explained not only by the language teaching skills of the faculty but also by the advantage of its ability to instill and direct love. And this tradition of researching, teaching and directing continues successfully in the faculty today as well.

One of the most popular stories in written literature “Leyli and Majnun”, has a long history and its origins is objects of scientific interests of Eastern and Western oriental studies. It can be said with some courage that the first form of the story “Leyli and Majnun” was formed in three periods: period of paganism, Christianity (preislamic) period and period of Islam. Although we don’t have detailed information about the epic in written literature the first and perfect example of this masnavi was written by the great Azerbaijani poet Nizami in 1188 by order of ruler from Shirvanshah dynasty Ahsitan ibn Manuchehr. The structure of composition Nizami’s “Leyli and Majnun” raises the question in itself: what story of Leyli and Majnun existed before him did Nizami use? There are a number of contradic-tionary hypothesizes on this problem and it’s impossible to touch upon all versions in one article. That’s why we will focus on the most important of these versions in this article. In this study, we will try to prove that the plot of the poem was first mentioned in cuneiform writing of Ancient Babylon then passed to Azerbaijan and after assimilation was reflected in folklore.

The creative activity of Nizami Ganjavi, who became famous as one of those who decorated the treasury of world literature with rare and precious pearls opened a new literary school in the Eastern world, found the way into the hearts of not only poets and writers, but all readers. That was the reason the eminent masters of words from different countries considered it a great honor to create imitations to “Khamsa" by Nizami. One of the poems, which attracted the attention of famous poets and were the subject of dozens of immitations and comments was the poem "Leyli and Majnun" based on real love story. Amir Khosrov Dahlavi was the first representative of Nizami literary school among the poets of the Near and Middle East. The aim of this article is to compare the images of Majnun created by both poets based on masnawi (couplets) with the same subject. It is known that world orientalists, as well as prominent Soviet and Azerbaijani scholars, have made remarkable services in the field of study Nizami’s creativity and worldview. They created valuable researches with artistic and scientific analysis of masnawis included in “Kham-sa” as well as the poem “Leyli and Majnun. Therefore, in this short article we will not discuss the relevance of the topic, its place in the history of literature the importance of socio-moral problems, the diversity and richness of the image gallery and the reasons Dehlevi touch upon this topic. In the article will be analysed the image of Majnun. It should be noted that diversity of Majnun’s image in the poems by Nizami and Dehlawi the description and explanations of the events related to love tragedy, interpretation of high human qualities and etc.was due to the differences in worldview of the poets and sometimes from Dehlevi’s tendency to be original.

The 20th - 30th years of the XIX century considered to be the new stage in acquainting the Russian readers with the East and Eastern literature. The pages of periodicals and books of these years were filled with names of such Eastern poets as Saadi, Hafiz, Hayyam, Firdousi, Jami, Ibn Rumi and others. One of the Eastern poets whose works were published in the original language in Russia in above mentioned years was the great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi. The first Russian edition of Nizami’s works in Russia was created by the well-known Russian orientalist Francis Erdman in 1826. In 1828, in the magazine «Northern Archive» was published the first article, containing information about the life and creative activity of the Azerbaijani poet. The author of this publication was a well-known writer and translator V.I.Obolensky. Unfortunately, Obolensky’s translation was full of a number of incorrect transcriptions, inac-curacies. Three years later these inaccuracies were noticed and published in a review in the journal «Telescope» by the famous Russian poet, the largest for his time connoisseur of Eastern literature D.P. Ozobishin (1804-1877) signed by the Persian pseudonym Delibureder (Brother’s heart). In 1832, Professor F.Erdman published in Kazan a new book based on the poem “Seven beauties” by Nizami in German. A year later Delibureder printed a review on this edition and a Russian translation of excerpts from it in the magazine «Telescope». This translation is remar-kable as the first poetical translation of Nizami. Masterpieces of Nizami’s poetry, like those of other great Azerbaijani poets, have long been translated into Russian. Therefore, the names of the first translators of Azerbaijani poetry - Nizami’s translators - V.Obolensky and D.Oznobishin - Deliburader should not be forgotten.

This year, the 880th anniversary of the genius Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi, who is at the peak of our history of artistic thinking with his poetic and philosophical heritage, is celebrated. Re-study of Nizami’s artistic heritage far from the Soviet way of thinking and free from the chains of absurd atheism, in the other words, re-study of Nizami as he was, is one of the main duties of the researchers and explorers. Nizami’s work, which laid the foundation of a new epoch in the socio-philosophical, artistic and aesthetic worldview of the Near and Middle East, is absolutely an educational school for everyone from children to adults, regardless of age, with an abundance of universal ideas The deep philosophical essence of his works, form, Idea-thematic scope, an artistic reflection of socio-political processes and historical events of the period with a clear tone (even if centuries have passed since it was written) give basis to the writers to repeatedly address Nizami’s work. Interest in Nizami’s work, Nizami’s personality knows no bounds like the thoughts of the poet. İn this investigation which we have involved it to the research, we have mentioned Nizami’s scientific theory and have focused health, tips and prohibitions about health lifestyle in his poems.

Very few works created in the Middle East in the Middle Ages have not been influenced by Nizami. Although he did not write separate work as a language specialist, he left a legacy of lyrical works and mesnevi, which are of exceptional importance and are of great interest to the study of historical grammar, state vocabulary and lexicography of the Persian language. Comprehensive study of these works, that is, phonetic, morphological, semantic, lexical and lexicographic study, and comparisons with the modern period contribute to the achievement of invaluable results in terms of the historical development of the Persian language. In the lexicography of the Persian language, Nizami’s works were used for various purpo-ses. People who create dictionaries, who have experienced their powers in this field, collecting words from the language of Nizami and sometimes finding interesting meanings, transmitted it by means of couplet. From this point of view, the classical lexicography of the Persian language, written using the Nizami heritage, takes two forms: 1. Dictionaries covering the language and the rich vocabulary of Nizami’s works 2. Dictionaries dedicated to the lexical composition of the Persian-language Eastern poetry. The purpose of the research is to tell about the attitude of the lexicography of the Persian language and its researchers during the Middle Ages and in subsequent stages to the work of Nizami, as well as the influence of the poet’s works on the dictionari, at the same time, to clarify the history of the study of the Nizami’s vocabulary. Since we do not have the opportunity to conduct research on the basis of all above-mentioned dictionaries for the purpose of a more specific and detailed study of these issues, in the article we highlight this topic through examples taken from the manuscripts of the dictionary "Mejme ul-forsi" by Muhammad Gasim Sururi. Let us note that in the dictionary «Mejme ul-forsi» the number of couplets, quoted from the literary heritage of Nizami, is more than 300. There are many geographical, historical names, terms related to the military sphere, botany, medicine, music, animals, everyday life, economics, various religious denominations, as well as many phrases, metaphors, ironic phrases, artistic expressions and word compositions. They represent interest in themselves and are very valuable in terms of studying the vocabulary of the Persian language, as well as toponymy, art, science, history, everyday life, economic and political life of the Eastern countries.