National Library highlights literary legacy of distinguished writer

The Azerbaijan National Library has presented a book exhibition dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Azerbaijani writer, translator, and historian Alisa Nijat, AzerNEWS reports, citing the library.

The exhibition features the writer's poetry, prose, novels, poems, novellas, essays, short stories, and translations, as well as books in Azerbaijani and foreign languages about his life and literary career and works for which he served as a preface author or editor. Materials from periodicals are also on display.

Alisa Nihat made a significant contribution to the development of philosophical stories and parables in Azerbaijani literature. He is also widely known as the author of historical novels and philosophical anthologies and encyclopedias.

The national writer was born on August 10, 1936, in the village of Yukhari Gadik in the Zuvand area of Lerik. He graduated from Secondary School No. 3 in Lankaran in 1955 and later studied Library Science at the Faculty of Philology of Azerbaijan State University, graduating in 1963.

His literary career began in 1955, when his first poem, Just One Word, was published in the newspaper Literature and Art. He began writing his historical novel The Qizilbash in 1959, although the work was not published until 1983 because of the restrictions of the period. The writer's first short story, Good Night, Stars, appeared in 1961, followed by his first poetry collection, Summer Evening, in 1964, and his first collection of short stories, One Girl, Three Plane Trees, in 1970.

From 1967 to 1969, Nijat worked in the Youth and Arts departments of Azerbaijan Radio and later at the Ekran television film association. Between 1973 and 1983, he served as an editor and department head at Science and Life magazine.

He lived in Lankaran from 1983 to 1990, where he continued his literary work and wrote the novellas Zoroaster, The Celebration of Captivity, and Unnecessary. He also worked as a translator, translating Plutarch's Alexander the Great and Muhammad Tahir's Sheikh Shamil.

The writer's collection of novellas and short stories, The Tribal Chief, was published in 1987, while his novel The Wise Man of Ganja followed in 1990. After Azerbaijan regained independence, Nijat published the magazine Turan in 1993–1994 and continued producing literary, historical, and philosophical works.

Among his best-known books are The Wise Man of Ganja, History Turned into Fairy Tales, The Pyramid, The Unshakable Mir Jafar, Angels and Devils, Reza Khan, The Qizilbash, Phenomenon, The Landscape of the Century, The Mysterious Treasure, The Temple of Wisdom, The Nightingale and the Rose, 101 Geniuses, Golden Philosophy, Tyrants and Slaves, and Patriot, among others.

His works published during the independence period also include A Conversation of Souls, Commanders of the World, Philosophers of the World, The Wine of Sorrow, Historians of the World, One Hundred Great Azerbaijanis, Caravan, and The Sunset of History.

Alisa Nijat's literary and scholarly output spans 50 volumes and includes numerous translations, poems, essays, novellas, and other works.

In recognition of his scientific and educational activities, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology named after Bahmanyar of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in 1999.