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Language and literature · Azerbaijan

Turkic languages, epics, books, writers and poets: from the Orkhon inscriptions to today.

Works and epics

Literary workThe Book of Dede KorkutThe heroic epic of the Oghuz Turks — a shared Turkic monument made up of separate tales, inscribed by UNESCO in 2018 on a joint nomination by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Türkiye.Read more →
Literary workEpic of KoroghluThe epic of a folk hero who rises against tyranny, told across the Turkic world from Azerbaijan to Central Asia.Read more →
Literary workNizami's KhamsaNizami Ganjavi's masterpiece of five long poems (12th century), a summit of Eastern poetry.Read more →
Literary workFuzuli's Leyli and MajnunMuhammad Fuzuli's love poem written in Azerbaijani in 1536.Read more →
Literary workAkinchi newspaperThe first newspaper in Azerbaijani, published in Baku on 22 July 1875 by Hasan bey Zardabi.Read more →
Literary workMolla Nasraddin magazineA satirical magazine published from 1906 to 1931, famous across the Muslim East for its cartoons.Read more →
Literary workGreetings to HeydarbabaShahriar's 1954 poem in Azerbaijani Turkic — a masterpiece devoted to childhood, the village and the mother tongue.Read more →

Writers and poets

See all (11) →

Languages

LanguageAzerbaijani languageA language of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic family, the state language of Azerbaijan and mother tongue of millions in South Azerbaijan.Read more →

Did you know?

The epic's thirteenth tale was discovered only in 2018, in a newly found manuscript.
The Book of Dede Korkut →