APersonIndependent states
Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar
The great poet of South Azerbaijan (1906–1988), author of Greetings to Heydarbaba.
Shahriar was born in Tabriz in 1906 and spent his childhood in the village of Khoshginab at the foot of Mount Heydarbaba. He studied medicine in Tehran and then devoted his life to poetry.
His poem Greetings to Heydarbaba (1954), written in Azerbaijani Turkic, recalls childhood, village life and love for the mother tongue. It is cherished in both parts of Azerbaijan and across the Turkic world and has been translated into dozens of languages.
Shahriar is also a major poet in Persian. He died in 1988 and is buried in the Poets' Mausoleum in Tabriz.
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Updated: October 1, 2026