Baku to host Festival of Light

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Nizami Ganjavi's 880th anniversary will be celebrated with spectacular festival.

The audiovisual project "Festival of Light. Nizami Ganjavi" will be presented in Baku on October 14-17. 

Supported by the Culture Minisyru, the project attracts broader public interest in the study, preservation and transmission of the rich poetic, philosophical and social heritage of Nizami Ganjavi to future generations.

During the festival, miniatures based on "Khamsa" will be recreated on the facade of the National Museum of Azerbaijani Literature and on the Maiden Tower.

Notably, the year 2021 in Azerbaijan has been declared as the year of Nizami Ganjav.

President Ilham Aliyev declared this year the "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" in Azerbaijan, taking into account the exceptional importance of the poet's work, which always calls people to moral perfection and instills high spiritual qualities as an achievement of human culture.

The country also celebrates the 880th anniversary of  the great poet and thinker with multiple events. 

The Cabinet of Ministers has been instructed to develop and implement an action plan for the Nizami Ganjavi Year.

Nizami's legacy is of great importance for Azerbaijani culture. The poet, who started his creative activity with lyrical poems - gasidas, gazals and rubais, has gained popularity all over the world. He dedicated his whole life to lyrical poems, and different philosophical problems.

The works of Nizami Ganjavi were translated into many languages. The rare manuscript copies of his works are kept and preserved like precious pearls in famous libraries, museums and literary foundations in cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Tashkent, Tabriz, Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, London, Paris and others.

In Khamsa (Quintet), the poet revealed the living pages of history. The attack of the Russians on Barda city, a fairy tale of the Russian Princess, the beautiful Shirin amazons, battles, described in various poems of Nizami - all this is historically and geographically related to medieval Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

Nizami Ganjavi passed away in 1209 in his native city of Ganja. A grandiose tomb was raised over his grave.