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and managed to elucidate all this theoretically which is of great importance as one of the serious
scientific-theoretical researches in Azerbaijani literary studies on poetic forms – genres and
individual styles in general.
Academician Isa Habibbeyli is also recognized as an outstanding scholar in the study of Jalil
Mammadguluzadeh in Azerbaijani literary studies and scientific-literary community. The literary
scholar has long been deeply involved in the problem of this gigantic and bright figure’s literary
and journalistic activities, environment and contemporaries. He has devoted a great stage of his
scientific activity to Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s literary creativity. His works “Jalil
Mammadguluzadeh” (1987), “The Genius of Time” (1993), “The Distinguished Azerbaijani Writer
Jalil Mammadguluzadeh” (1994) and others related to the great democrat Jalil
Mammadguluzadeh’s rich life and all-inclusive activities have been received with respect by the
scientific community. And his monographic research “Jalil Mammadguluzadeh: His Environment
and Contemporaries” defended as a doctoral dissertation (1996) is a monumental scientific work
worthy to be considered as one of the important achievements of not only Isa Habibbeyli but of the
entire literary studies as a science in Azerbaijan.
The main originality of Isa Habibbeyli’s research is in his new approach to Jalil
Mammadguluzadeh’s literary creativity as well as in his involving the study of the obtained rich
facts, rare and numerous archival materials together with their deep scientific comments. This
research of the literary scholar manifested a generalized new vision (Yusif Seyidov) of the late-
XIX-century and early-XX-century literary process in Azerbaijan. By writing this work, Isa
Habibbeyli has honorably fulfilled an important task to create a broad and clear vision of the
founder of critical realism Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s insightful and exemplary life, all-inclusive
literary-social activities, rich and unparalleled literary legacy and relations with his numerous
contemporaries, referring to new materials and documents obtained from the archives, museums
and libraries in Baku, Tiflis, Tabriz, Kiev, Erzurum, Odessa, Iravan, Nakhchivan, Gori and
Yasnaya Polyana. Noting that this course of life started from the family environment and the realm
of studies, he wrote that Jalil Mammadguluzadeh learnt the Arabian and Persian languages in the
years of primary education, closely familiarized himself with Islamic and Oriental history and
literature, Russian culture, acquired the reading skills owing to which his aesthetic and moral
attitudes were determined. Isa Habibbeyli is right to think that the environment at Gori Teachers
Seminary played a special part in the formation of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s personality and
world-outlook, became a factor affecting his future socio-political, literary-pedagogical activities.
Investigating the role of the schools of the 1870s-1890s and the early XX century in the
development of literature Isa Habibbeyli, who characterized this period as a special development
stage of Azerbaijani enlightenment, came to a true conclusion that “School encompasses the soul
and essence of national enlightenment and teaching constitutes its main locomotive. And theatre,
press and literature were the fields of enlightenment activities coming forth from school,
pedagogical work and accomplishing them”. In his research Isa Habibbeyli presented his studies
about Eynalibey Sultanov (1866-1935), Mahammad Taghi Sidgi (1854-1903), Mahammad Agha
Shahtakhtli (1846-1931), Alimammad Khalilov (1862-1896), Mirza Abulgasim Sultanov (1866-
1916), Mirza Alakbar Suleymanov (1862-1921), Pasha Agha Sultanov (1849-1902), Mirza Jalil
Surbi (1874-1915), Sadig Khalilov (1864-1905), Taghi Bey Safiyev (1878-1939), Mammadgulu
Bey Kangarli (1854-1905) and others who were leading the movement of enlightenment of the
period from this perspective. The rich material accumulated from different archives for many years
to create the biographical portraits of these intelligentsia of enlightenment, who enjoyed particular
places and roles in Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s life, all-inclusive activities, also enabled the scholar
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to animate the course and picture of the literary-social scene of the period. The initiation of the
publication of the magazine
Molla Nasraddin (1906) in the wave of the development of the Tiflis
literary-social scene and the change of socio-political processes in the world is appraised as a
progressive historical event not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the scale of the Middle East. In Isa
Habibbeyli’s view, the new literary-social scene generated by the period preconditioned not only
the appearance of the above-mentioned magazine, but also the formation of a new type of literary
school – the school of Molla Nasraddin. Isa Habibbeyli’s investigations and theses on Molla
Nasraddin literary school and the doctrine
mollanasraddinism manifest the systematic theoretical
views appearing in this line.
As it is known, in our history of literary-social view of the Soviet period Molla Nasraddin
and Fuyuzat were set against each other as the bearers of contradicting ideologies, their leaders
Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Alibey Huseinzadeh were introduced as the personalities representing
opposite poles, distinct and even antagonistically contradictory ideologies. Isa Habibbeyli was the
first to approach this problem from the spectrum of the realities of literary and historical processes
and pointed out the great importance of both the movements for the national awakening and
progress, the development of literature and press in the country. Relying on the realities of the
literary-social activities of these great personalities of the period, the researcher rightly noted that
although their courses varied and differed in their struggle for the future development of the nation
and country, for the independent and democratic statehood, they were never hostile fronts at all,
their conclusions were very close and significant.
It is known that Alibey Huseinzadeh advocated the thought of Turanism, the idea of the
Common Turkic language. And Jalil Mammadguluzadeh was not against this idea, though he
accepted the ideology of Azerbaijanism as a basis. And the magazine Molla Nasraddin was the
periodical of the Turkic-Moslem realm in the broadest sense of the word. Academician Isa
Habibbeyli is right to state that these great personalities were ideologically very close to each other
in their views against colonialism, about democracy and the establishment of an independent state,
the liberation movement against monarchy, their attitude to world and Russian literature and culture
and other issues. In Azerbaijani literary criticism Isa Habibbeyli was the first to investigate the
common features of the movements of mollanasraddinism and fuyuzatism from the scientific and
theoretical perspectives.
Isa Habibbeyli, who conducted surveys on Mirza Jalil’s movement to the south in 1920 and
his printing the magazine Molla Nasraddin in Tabriz, also substantiated the importance of this
event in the development of realistic-satirical press in Iran. The work adds new pages to the
information hitherto known to the public about Jalil Mammaguluzadeh’s relations with his
contemporaries living in Iran, provides the precise list of the subscribers of the magazine Molla
Nasraddin in Tabriz and neighbouring cities.
The researcher divided Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s activities in the Soviet period into two
stages: 1) the period of hope and belief (1921-1928); 2) the period of suspicion and shock (1929-
1932). The first stage was characterized as the hot period of the great writer’s creative activities as
Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s notion “everyman” – common people coresponded to the statements of
the Soviet govenment which pretended to be the government of workers and peasants. Isa
Habibbeyli characterized Jalil Mammadguluzadeh’s life and activities in the years under the Soviet
regime as the years of injustice, confusion, carelessness, negligence, loneliness, and the impact of
all this on his creative activities, and in general, on the development of literature is elucidated on
the basis of newly-obtained facts and documents. In fact, that was the process our other writers also