Miniature exhibition opens at Heydar Aliyev Center

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The Heydar Aliyev Center opened its doors for an exhibition of miniature art "Baburnama" on December 26.

"Baburnama" or "Book of Babur" created by the founder of the Mughal Empire, Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, leaving between 1482 and 1530, is the first memoir genre work in Turkish and Islamic literature.

The emperor tells the story of his struggle first to assert and defend his claim to the throne of Samarkand, provides valuable information about the history, culture, ethnography, flora and fauna of Central Asia, Afghanistan and India. "Baburnama" depicts miniature paintings of battlefield, landscapes, birds and animals.

Director of the Center Anar Alakbarov, addressing the opening ceremony, noted that the exhibition was organized jointly with the Russian State Museum of the East. He expressed gratitude to the Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Leyla Aliyeva, for help to bring the exhibition to Azerbaijan.

“It’s very important for us that mainly this Center features works of the world-famous artists,” he said. “The organization of "Baburnama" exhibition went through a serious stage. Each of the team members has made great efforts in order to bring the exhibition to Baku.”

Alakbarov said the exhibition was the final art event of 2015 and that the art lovers could visit the Exhibition on the holiday of the New Year and the Day of World Azerbaijanis.

The exhibition will last till February 3.

Director of the Russian State Museum of the East Alexander Sedov, for his part, said the exhibition presents 57 miniatures from the ancient Baburnama, adding that the collection is for the first time exhibited abroad, that is in Baku.

“I am very pleased that Baku got the first opportunity to feature this collection. Baku has become my favorite city for the last 2-3 years,” he said.

The director of the museum said that he traveled a lot through the East and two years ago, he arrived in Baku, where he was delighted with the city, and the kindness of its inhabitants.

“Dear Bakunians, I am very glad that this exhibition has been presented to you, the connoisseurs of art. We know that the School of Oriental miniatures - Tabriz or Azerbaijani school was the leading in the world, and is known till today. I think that you will be interested in the exhibition, which is related to that period,” Sedov noted.

"Baburnama" was translated from the native Chagatai language of Babur into Farsi in 1589. European scientists became familiar with the memoirs of Babur in the early 19th century. In 1826 the book was translated into English from Chagatai, and in 1871 into French.

According to certain sources, the exhibited miniatures were acquired by Russian patron Aleksey Morozov in 1906 in Nizhny Novgorod from Persian merchants, and subsequently transferred to the collector of oriental art monuments Pyotr Shukin.

Now these thumbnails are stored in the State museum of the East in Moscow. The collection, consisting of a total of 57 pages, was first published in the album-catalog of Semen Tyulayev in 1960.