Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

The cause of all the sorrows in this world,


Is ignorance.


The cure for this misfortune


Is true learning.

Addressing his compatriots in his poems of enlightenment, Seyid Azim Shirvani urges them to appreciate others not because of their religion, but because of their knowledge:

Don’t say, ‘He’s an infidel, but he’s a Muslim.’ Whoever is educated is a good man!

The poet understood the importance of the Russian language and advised the younger generation to learn it.

In the early 20th century the development of the media and creation of cultural and literary ties with foreign countries opened wide horizons for the development of multicultural views. Ahmad bay Aghaoghlu, a prominent intellectual of this period, delivered lectures on Islamic values at one of the European centres of learning – the Sorbonne University in Paris, and his lecture was well received by the European scholars.

At the beginning of the century conflicts between Arme­nians and Muslims had grave consequences. A prominent poet of this period,

148. 
     Mirza Alakbar Sabir, urged both sides to peace and reconciliation in
     

his poem International (Beynəlmiləl) in 1905. A little before the 1905 clashes, a prominent public figure, writer and dramatist, Nariman Narimanov, in his novel Bahadur and Sona criticized people’s attitudes towards people of different religions, describing it as ‘an abyss’. In the same period the great philosopher poet Huseyn Javid protested against discrimination on religious grounds. Taking the line ‘My God is beauty and love’ as the motto of his life, he wrote in his play The Prophet:


Whoever can stop bloodshed


Will be this Earth’s true saviour.

Husein Javid taught for a long time, seeking to bring up the young generation in a spirit of love irrespective of religions. These ideas are expressed clearly in his poem At the Girls’ School. The poem is written as a dialogue between the poet and a little girl, Gulbahar:

‘Who do you love most in this world, my dear? Tell me.’

Gulbahar replies: ‘I love Allah first of all, creator of the earth and heavens.’

The dialogue continues:

‘Go on – who do you love after Him?’ ‘I love his messengers, the prophets.’ ‘Don’t you love anyone else?’ ‘Yes, I do.’

‘Then who?’

‘My father and mother, my teacher, and all people on this earth.’

The poem We are All Atoms of a Single Sun, written in 1910 by Huseyn Javid’s contemporary, Abdulla Shaiq, is a perfect example of the multicultural thinking prevalent in the literature of Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 20th century:

Section II

Chapter 4

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Azerbaijani Multiculturalism

We are all atoms of a single sun!


We are all fledglings of a single nest!


Different tongues cannot divide us.


Different places cannot divide us.