Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Iranian Azerbaijani author (1812–1878)

Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Born| (1812-07-12)12 July 1812
Nukha, Shaki Khanate, Qajar Iran
Died| 9 March 1878(1878-03-09) (aged 65)
Tiflis, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Occupation| Playwright, philosopher
Language| Azerbaijani, Persian, Russian[1]

Mirza Fatali Akhundov (Azerbaijani: Mirzə Fətəli Axundov; Persian: میرزا فتحعلی آخوندزاده), also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Iranian Azerbaijani[2] author, playwright, atheist,[2] philosopher, and founder of Azerbaijani modern literary criticism,[3] "who acquired fame primarily as the writer of European-inspired plays in the Azeri Turkic language".[4]

Akhundzade singlehandedly opened a new stage of development of Azerbaijani literature. He was also the founder of the materialism and atheism movement in the Republic of Azerbaijan[5] and one of forerunners of modern Iranian nationalism.[6] He also advocated switching the Azerbaijani writing system from the Perso-Arabic script to the Latin alphabet.

According to the historian and political scientist Zaur Gasimov, the entirety of Akhundzadeh's intellectual landscape was "densely entangled with Persian thought".[7] Akhundzadeh defined his kinsmen as Turki, but at the same time considered Iran his fatherland.[8]

## Life[edit]

Akhundzade was born in 1812 in Nukha (present-day Shaki, Azerbaijan) to a wealthy landowning family from Iranian Azerbaijan. He was ethnically an Azerbaijani.[9][10] His parents, and especially his uncle Haji Alaskar, who was Fatali's first teacher, prepared young Fatali for a career in Shi'a clergy, but the young man was attracted to the literature. In 1832, while in Ganja Akhundzade, came into contact with the poet Mirza Shafi Vazeh, who introduced him to Western secular thought and discouraged him from pursuing a religious career.[11] Later in 1834, Akhundzade moved to Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia), and spent the rest of his life working as a translator of Oriental languages in the service of the Russian Empire's Viceroyalty. Concurrently, from 1837 onwards he worked as a teacher in Tbilisi uezd Armenian school, then in Nersisyan school[1]. In Tiflis his acquaintance and friendship with the exiled Russian Decembrists Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Vladimir Odoyevsky, poet Yakov Polonsky, Armenian writers Khachatur Abovian,[2] Gabriel Sundukyan and others played some part in the formation of Akhundzade's Europeanized outlook.

Akhundzade's first published work was The Oriental Poem (1837), written to lament the death of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. But the rise of Akhundzade's literary activity comes in the late 1850s. In early 1850s, Akhundzade wrote six comedies (Hekayati Molla Ibrahim-Khalil Kimyagar, The story of Monsieur Jourdan, a botanist and the dervish Mastalishah, a famous sorcerer, Adventures of the Lankaran Khanate Vizier, etc.) – the first comedies in Azerbaijani literature as well as the first samples of the national dramaturgy. The comedies by Akhundzade are unique in their critical pathos, analysis of the realities in Azerbaijan of the first half of the 19th century. These comedies found numerous responses in the Russian other foreign periodical press. The German, Magazine of Foreign Literature called Akhundzade "dramatic genius", "the Azerbaijani Molière." Akhundzade's sharp pen was directed against everything that he believed hindered the advance of the Russian Empire, which for Akhundzade was a force for modernisation, in spite of the atrocities it committed in its southern advance against Akhundzade's own kin.[12] According to Walter Kolarz:

> The greatest Azerbaidzhani poet of the nineteenth century, "Mirza Fathali Akhundov" (1812–78), who is called the "Molière of the Orient", was so completely devoted to the Russian cause that he urged his compatriots to fight Turkey during the Crimean War.[13]

In 1859 Akhundzade published his short but famous novel The Deceived Stars. In this novel he laid the foundation of Azerbaijani realistic historical prose, giving the models of a new genre in Azerbaijani literature. Through his comedies and dramas, Akhundzade established realism as the leading trend in Azerbaijani literature.

According to Ronald Grigor Suny:

> Turkish nationalism, which developed in part as a reaction to the nationalism of the Christian minorities [of the Ottoman Empire], was, like Armenian nationalism, heavily influenced by thinkers who lived and were educated in the Russian Empire. The Crimean Tatar Ismail Bey Gasprinski and the Azerbaijani writer Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzade inspired Turkish intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[14]

According to Tadeusz Swietochowski:

> In his glorification of the pre-Islamic greatness of Iran, before it was destroyed at the hands of the "hungry, naked and savage Arabs", "Akhundzade was one of the forerunners of modern Iranian nationalism, and of its militant manifestations at that nor was he devoid of anti-Ottoman sentiments, and in his spirit of the age-long Iranian Ottoman confrontation, he ventured into his writing on the victory of Shah Abbas I over the Turks at Baghdad. Akhundzade is counted as one of the founders of modern Iranian literature, and his formative influence is visible in such major Persian-language writers as Malkum Khan, Mirza Agha Khan and Mirza Abdul-Rahim Talibov Tabrizi. All of them were advocates of reforms in Iran. If Akhundzade had no doubt that his spiritual homeland was Iran, Azerbaijan was the land he grew up and whose language was his native tongue. His lyrical poetry was written in Persian, but his work carries messages of social importance as written in the language of the people of his native land, Azari. With no indication of split-personality, he combined larger Iranian identity with Azerbaijani—he used the term vatan (fatherland) in reference to both."[6]

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi too considers Akhundzade as the founding father of what he calls 'dislocative nationalism' in Iran. According to Zia-Ebrahimi, Akhundzade found inspiration in Orientalist templates to construct a vision of ancient Iran, which offered intellectuals disgruntled with the pace of modernist reform in Iran, a self-serving narrative where all of Iran's shortcomings are blamed on a monolithic and otherized 'other': the Arab. For Zia-Ebrahimi, Akhundzade must be credit with the introduction of ethno-racial ideas, particularly the opposition between the Iranian Aryan and the Arab Semite, into Iran's intellectual debates. Zia-Ebrahimi disputes that Akhundzade had any influence on modernist intellectuals such as Malkum Khan (beyond a common project to reform the Alphabet used to write Persian) or Talibov Tabrizi. His real heir was Kermani, and these two intellectuals' legacy is to be found in the ethnic nationalism of the Pahlavi state, rather than the civic nationalism of the Constitutional movement.[15]

Portrait of Mirza Fatali Akhundov by the People's Artist of the USSR Mikayil Abdullayev, National Art Museum of Azerbaijan, 1962

While Akundzadeh is said to have been an atheist, he was very sympathetic to the Zoroastrian religion and was in correspondence with Manekji Limji Hataria.[16][17]

At that time, the Qajar dynasty was in great crisis as a consequence of their failures against the Russian empire and the British, and their corruption and mismanagement.[16] This gave rise to the Constitutional movement. According to these intellectuals Iran needed political change to a constitutional parliamentarian model of governance. But for some intellectuals like Akhundzadeh this was not enough.[16]

He argued that the Arabs and Islam were responsible for the downturn of Iranian civilization and argued that Iranians should look back to their glorious pre-Islamic civilization. In the Maktubàt-e Kamàl od-Dowleh beh Shàhzadeh Jamàl od-Dowleh (Letters from Kamal od-Dowleh to Prince Jalal od-Dowleh, 1860, hereafter Maktubàt) his vision on the glorious pre-islamic past is portrayed. Just like Jalal ed-Din Mirza Qajar, with whom he corresponded, he argued that Arabic loan words, alphabet and Islam should be removed. If this is accomplished, then according to him Iran can return to its glorious state. He was the first to compile these ideas into a coherent nationalist ideology, which makes him the father of Iranian nationalism. Akhundzadeh was also an atheist, but he made an exception for Zoroastrianism, which he saw as a great religion and the true Iranian religion. He hoped that it would one day replace Islam again and so tried to promote it with his Maktubàt.[16]

The ‘Sultans of Islam’ will be ‘kinder to your kin than to their own brother and father’. They ‘will deplore the fact that they did not know you until today and that throughout the history of Islam they have supported and admired Arabs, who are their enemies ... who destroyed their country’, rather than Zoroastrians who are ‘their brothers, who speak the same language [sic], their compatriots, the living memory of their glorious forefathers, and their guardian angels’.[16]

Akhundzadeh was under the spell of what seems to be Manekji’s archaistic charisma, a sort of magnetism stemming from the special knowledge of the glorious past that he was perceived to possess. Akhundzadeh put him on a pedestal because he saw him as an emissary of this Golden Age for which he and Jalal ed-Din Mirza longed, as if Manekji had just walked out of a time machine. In another letter, this admiration of Manekji becomes more evident: ‘my wish is that . . .Iranians knew that we are the children of the Parsis, that our home is Iran, that zeal, honour, idealism and our celestial aspirations demand that we favour our kin, rather than alien bloodthirsty bandits’ (Akhundzadeh to Manekji, 29 July 1871, in Mohammadzadeh and Arasli 1963:249, emphasis added). It is very revealing that Akhundzadeh called Iranians the ‘children’ of the Parsis. He accorded Parsis a genealogical ascendancy that can only be explained by the fact that he considered them as a kind of pure Iranians uncontaminated by Arabs and Islam, who should be ‘followed’ by the contemporary debased Muslim lot. He then added that ‘my appearance is that of a Turk, but I am of the Parsis’ race’.[16]

In the 1920s, the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre was named after Akhundzade.

## Iranian nationalism[edit]

Akhundzade identified himself as belonging to the nation of Iran (mellat-e Irān) and to the Iranian homeland (vaṭan). He corresponded with Jālāl-al-Din Mirzā (a minor Qajar prince, son of Bahman Mirza Qajar,1826–70) and admired this latter's epic Nāmeh-ye Khosrovān ('Book of Sovereigns'), which was an attempt to offer the modern reader biography of Iran's ancient kings, real and mythical, without recourse to any Arabic loanword. The Nāmeh presented the pre-Islamic past as one of grandeur, and the advent of Islam as a radical rupture.[18]

Dislocative nationalism is thus predicated on more than a total distinction between supposedly Aryan Iranians and Semitic Arabs, as it is suggested that the two races are incompatible and in opposition to each other. These ideas are directly indebted to nineteenth-century racial thought, particularly the Aryan race hypothesis developed by European comparative philologists (a hypothesis that Zia-Ebrahimi discusses at length [19]). Dislocative nationalism presents the pre-Islamic past as the site of a timeless Iranian essence, dismisses the Islamic period as one of decay, and blames all of Iran's shortcomings in the years after on Arabs and the adoption of Islam. The advent of Islam is thus ethnicised into an 'Arab invasion' and perceived as a case of racial contamination or miscegenation.

Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (1854–96) was one of Akhundzades disciples, and three decades later will endeavour to disseminate Akhundzade's thought while also significantly strengthening its racial content. Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani also followed Jalāl-al-Din Mirzā in producing a national history of Iran, Āʾine-ye sekandari (The Alexandrian Mirror), extending from the mythological past to the Qajar era, again to contrast a mythified and fantasised pre-Islamic past with a present that falls short of nationalist expectations.[20]

## Alphabet reform[edit]

Project of new Latin-Cyrillic alphapet by Akhundov

Well ahead of his time, Akhundzade was a keen advocate for alphabet reform, recognizing deficiencies of Perso-Arabic script with regards to Turkic sounds. He began his work regarding alphabet reform in 1850. His first efforts focused on modifying the Perso-Arabic script so that it would more adequately satisfy the phonetic requirements of the Azerbaijani language. First, he insisted that each sound be represented by a separate symbol – no duplications or omissions. The Perso-Arabic script expresses only three vowel sounds, whereas Azeri needs to identify nine vowels. Later, he openly advocated the change from Perso-Arabic to a modified Latin alphabet. The Latin script which was used in Azerbaijan between 1922 and 1939, and the Latin script which is used now, were based on Akhundzade's third version.

## Family[edit]

His parents' was Mirza Mahammad Taghi (born in Khamaneh) and Nane Khanum.[10] He married Tubu Khanum, his mother's cousin in 1842. He had 13 children of whom only 2 (Nisa and Rashid) reached maturity. His second marriage was to Nazli Beyim, a descendant of Javad Khan, with whom he fathered Sayrabayim. He married off both Nisa and Sayrabayim to Khan Baba Mirza from the Bahmani family. His grandson Fatali was purged in 1938.

## Legacy[edit]

Akhundov Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater

Besides his role in Azerbaijani literature and Iranian nationalism, Akhundzadeh was also known for his harsh criticisms of religions (mainly Islam) and stays as the most iconic Azerbaijani atheist.[21] National Library of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, as well as a couple of streets, parks, and libraries, are also named after Akhundzade in Azerbaijan. A cultural museum in Tbilisi, Georgia that focuses on Georgian-Azerbaijani cultural relations is also named after him.

Punik, a town in Armenia was also named in the honour of Akhundzade until very recently. TURKSOY hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to declare 2012 as the year of Mirza Fatali Akhundzade.

## House Museum[edit]

House Museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Mirzə Fətəli Axundovun ev muzeyi

House Museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundov
July 30, 2015

Established| 1940
Location|  Shaki
Azerbaijan
Coordinates| 41°12′11″N 47°11′49″E﻿ / ﻿41.20306°N 47.19694°E﻿ / 41.20306; 47.19694

Mirza Fatali Akhundov's house museum is the house museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, an Azerbaijani writer, educator, poet, materialist philosopher and public figure, founder of Azerbaijani drama and literary criticism in Azerbaijani literature, located in Sheki. Akhundov was born in this house and spent his childhood and adolescence here. This museum is also the first memorial museum opened in Azerbaijan.[22]

### History[edit]

The house was built in 1800. In 1811, it was taken by Mirza Fatali Akhundov's father Mirza Mohammad Taghi. Mirza Fatali Akhundov was born here in 1812. Two years later, Akhundov's father moved with his family to Khamna village near Tabriz. Mirza Fatali's parents divorced when he was 13 years old. Later, in 1825, Akhundov returned to Sheki with his family. From this period, his mother's uncle Akhund Haji Alasgar began to take care of him. In 1833 he entered the Russian school opened in Sheki, and after studying there for a year he went to Tbilisi in 1834. In 1940, a museum was established in this house. In 2012, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Akhundov, the museum was overhauled.[22]

### Description[edit]

The house museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundov in Sheki is the first memorial museum opened in Azerbaijan. The museum consisted of two small interlocking rooms. There is another building near the house. It was built later and an exposition on the life and work of the great writer was created here. M. F. Akhundov's house museum consists of 2 buildings, an exposition hall dedicated to his life and work and the house where Akhundov was born.[22]

The house was built of raw brick in the Sheki architectural tradition around 1800 and consists of two rooms, a balcony and a basement. There is a wooden structure between the floors. The stove also shows that the building was built in an oriental style. Antiques are exhibited in the rooms. In the past, there were stone and brick walls in the yard, a brick arched gate in the eastern style, and another two-storey, basement house made of raw bricks belonging to Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh's cousins.[23]

The Exposition Hall was built in 1975. The house-museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh was repaired in 2011–2012. The museum displays 248 exhibits.[24]

### Photos[edit]

*   *   *   *   *   *

## Bibliography[edit]

Major works:

* Комедии Мирзы Фетъ-Али-Ахундова (Comedies of Mirza Fatali Akhundov). Tiflis, 1853.
* Tamsīlāt-i Kaputan Mīrzā Fath-ʿAlī Āḵūndzāda (Collection of plays of Mirza Fatali Akhundzade). Tiflis, 1860.

Works on literary criticism:

* Qirītīkah (Criticism)
* Risālah-i īrād (Fault-finding treatise)
* Fann-i kirītīkah (Art of criticism)
* Darbārah-i Mullā-yi Rūmī va tasnīf-i ū (On Rumi and his work)
* Darbārah-i nazm va nasr (On verse and prose)
* Fihrist-i kitāb (Preface to the book)
* Maktūb bih Mīrzā Āqā Tabrīzī (Letter to Mīrzā Āqā Tabrīzī)
* Uṣūl-i nigārish (Principles of writing)

## See also[edit]

* Mirza Fatali Akhundov National Library of Azerbaijan
* Mirza Fatali Akhundov State Prize of the Azerbaijan SSR

## References[edit]

1. ^ Heß, Michael R. (2015). "Axundzadə, Mirzə Fətəli". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_2482. ISSN 1873-9830.
2. ^ a b *ĀḴŪNDZĀDA ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812–78), Azerbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest and most outspoken atheists to appear in the Islamic world. According to his own autobiographical account (first published in Kaškūl, Baku, 1887, nos. 43–45, and reprinted in M.F. Akhundov, Alefbā-ye ǰadīd va maktūbāt, ed. H. Moḥammadzāda and Ḥ. Ārāslī, Baku, 1963, pp. 349–55), Āḵūndzāda was born in 1812 (other documents give 1811 and 1814) in the town of Nūḵa, in the part of Azerbaijan that was annexed by Russia in 1828. His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad-Taqī, had been kadḵodā of Ḵāmena, a small town about fifty kilometers to the west of Tabrīz, but he later turned to trade and, crossing the Aras river, settled in Nūḵa, where in 1811 he took a second wife. One year later, she gave birth to Mīrzā Fatḥ-ʿAlī. Āḵūndzāda’s mother was descended from an African who had been in the service of Nāder Shah, and consciousness of this African element in his ancestry served to give Āḵūndzāda a feeling of affinity with his great Russian contemporary, Pushkin.
* "Nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals, such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani (...)" -- Aghaie, Kamran Scot; Marashi, Afshin (2014). Rethinking Iranian Nationalism and Modernity. University of Texas Press
* "(...) exemplifies the centrality of the ideal of improving on existing institutions for Akhundzadeh and other nineteenth-century Iranian intellectuals. (...) As a native speaker of Azeri who published both in Persian and Azeri." -- Litvak, Meir, ed. (2017) Constructing Nationalism in Iran: From the Qajars to the Islamic Republic. Routledge. p. 43
* Russian Azerbaijan (1905–1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge University Press, Boston, 1985.
For example, Mirza Fath Ali Akhundov, the Azerbaijani best known in the West, will be referred to as Akhundzada, the form of his name that has been used for a century in publications outside of Russia.
* "Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, mīrzā fatḥ ʿalī (181–78) was the first writer of original plays in a Turkish idiom. The son of a trader who hailed from Persian Ād̲h̲arbayd̲j̲ān, he was born in 1811 (according to Caferoǧlu) or 1812 (according to the Soviet Encyclopaedia, 1950) in S̲h̲ēkī, the present-day Nūk̲h̲ā. -- Brands, H.W., Āk̲h̲und-Zāda, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs
* "This was no doubt also the reason why Fath'ali Akhundzadeh (d. 1878), the Azerbaijani Iranian who was a subject of the Russian Empire and lived in Georgia, launched an attack on Sa'adi in his general onslaught on Persian poetry. He was perhaps, the first nationalist and modernist Iranian intellectual, and he rejected virtually the whole of post-Islamic Iranian culture, romantically glorified the legacy of ancient Persia, and wished to turn Iran into a Western-European style country overnight. -- Katouzian, Homa (2006). Saʿdī: The Poet of Life, Love and Compassion. One world Publications. p. 3
* " The intellectual forerunners of romantic nationalism included Mirzā Fatḥ-ʿAli Āḵundzāda, Jalāl-al-Din Mirzā Qājār, and Mirzā Āqā Khan Kermāni (qq.v.). They introduced the basic ideals of the autonomy, the unity, and the prosperity of the Iranian nation with patriotic devotion." -- Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES. Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 522–530
* Kolarz W. Russian and Her Colonies. London. 1953. pp. 244–245
3. ^ Parsinejad, Iraj. A History of Literary Criticism in Iran (1866–1951). He lived in the Russian Empire. Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 2003. p. 44.
4. ^ Millar, James R. (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History. MacMillan Reference USA. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-02-865694-6.
5. ^ M. Iovchuk (ed.) et el. [The Philosophical and Sociological Thought of the Peoples of the USSR in the 19th Century http://www.biografia.ru/about/filosofia46.html]. Moscow: Mysl, 1971.
6. ^ a b Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press), 1995, pp. 27–28:
7. ^ Gasimov, Zaur (2022). "Observing Iran from Baku: Iranian Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan". Iranian Studies. 55 (1): 38. doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1865136. S2CID 233889871.
8. ^ Yilmaz, Harun (2013). "The Soviet Union and the Construction of Azerbaijani National Identity in the 1930s". Iranian Studies. 46 (4): 513. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.784521. S2CID 144322861.
9. ^ [Russian Azerbaijan (1905–1920): the shaping of a national identity in a Muslim community. Cambridge University Press, Boston, 1985. For example, Mirza Fath Ali Akhundov, the Azerbaijani best known in the West, will be referred to as Akhundzada, the form of his name that has been used for a century in publications outside of Russia.
10. ^ a b ĀḴŪNDZĀDA ĀḴŪNDZĀDA (in Soviet usage, AKHUNDOV), MĪRZĀ FATḤ-ʿALĪ (1812–78), Azerbaijani playwright and propagator of alphabet reform; also, one of the earliest and the most outspoken atheists to appear in the Islamic world. According to his own autobiographical account (first published in Kaškūl, Baku, 1887, nos. 43–45, and reprinted in M.F. Akhundov, Alefbā-ye ǰadīd va maktūbāt, ed. H. Moḥammadzāda and Ḥ. Ārāslī, Baku, 1963, pp. 349–55), Āḵūndzāda was born in 1812 (other documents give 1811 and 1814) in the town of Nūḵa, in the part of Azerbaijan that was annexed by Russia in 1828. His father, Mīrzā Moḥammad-Taqī, had been kadḵodā of Ḵāmena, a small town about 50 kilometers to the west of Tabrīz, but he later turned to trade and, crossing the Aras river, settled in Nūḵa, where in 1811, he took a second wife. One year later, she gave birth to Mīrzā Fatḥ-ʿAlī. Āḵūndzāda’s mother was descended from an African who had been in the service of Nāder Shah, and consciousness of this African element in his ancestry served to give Āḵūndzāda a feeling of affinity with his great Russian contemporary, Pushkin.
11. ^ Shissler, A. Holly (2003). Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey. I.B. Tauris. p. 104\. ISBN 978-1-86064-855-7.
12. ^ Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2016). The emergence of Iranian nationalism: Race and the politics of dislocation. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 141–45. ISBN 9780231541114.
13. ^ Kolarz W. Russian and her Colonies. London. 1953. pp 244–245
14. ^ Ronald Grigor Suny Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana State University, 1993. p. 25
15. ^ Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2016). The emergence of Iranian nationalism: Race and the politics of dislocation. New York: Columbia University Press.
16. ^ a b c d e f Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2010). "An Emissary of the Golden Age: Manekji Limji Hataria and the Charisma of the Archaic in Pre-Nationalist Iran". Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. 10 (3): 377–390. doi:10.1111/j.1754-9469.2011.01091.x. ISSN 1754-9469.
17. ^ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304788934. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help); Missing or empty `|title=` (help)
18. ^ Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2016). The emergence of Iranian nationalism: Race and the politics of dislocation. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 36–38.
19. ^ Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza (2011). "Self-Orientalization and dislocation: The uses and abuses of the "Aryan discourse" in Iran". Iranian Studies. 44 (4): 445–472. doi:10.1080/00210862.2011.569326. S2CID 143904752.
20. ^ Ashraf, AHMAD. "IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
21. ^ Ахундов М. Ф. – Великие люди – Атеисты
22. ^ a b c "Böyük dramaturqun ziyarətçisiz ev muzeyi". news.milli.az. May 20, 2013. Archived from the original on November 8, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
23. ^ "M.F.Axundovun ev muzeyi". sheki.heritage.org.az. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
24. ^ "Şəkidə M.F.Axundzadənin ev-muzeyi". anl.az. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2021.

## Further reading[edit]

* Abdolmohammadi, Pejman (2015). "Remarks on the Origins of Secularism and Nationalism in Iran: The Case of Mirzā Fatḥʿalī Āḫūndzāde". Eurasian Studies. 13 (1–2): 153–179. doi:10.1163/24685623-12340008.
* Gould, Rebecca (2016). "The critique of religion as political critique: Mīrzā Fatḥ ʿAlī Ākhūndzāda's pre-Islamic xenology". Intellectual History Review. 26 (2): 171–184. doi:10.1080/17496977.2016.1144420. S2CID 147780901.
* Gould, Rebecca Ruth (2018). "Memorializing Akhundzadeh: Contradictory Cosmopolitanism and Post-Soviet Narcissism in Old Tbilisi". Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. 20 (4): 488–509. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2018.1439397. S2CID 151546731.
* Mazinani, Mehran (2015). "Liberty in Akhundzadeh's and Kermani's Thoughts". Middle Eastern Studies. 51 (6): 883–900. doi:10.1080/00263206.2015.1026897. S2CID 143161479.
* Rezaei, Mohammad (2021). "The Origins of the Early Iranian Enlightenment: The Case of Akhundzade's "Qirītīkā"". Contemporary Review of the Middle East. 8 (1): 9–21. doi:10.1177/2347798920976274. S2CID 230559505.

## External links[edit]

* Biography.
* Akhundov: Alphabet Reformer Before His Time, Azerbaijan International, Vol 8:1 (Spring 2000).
* http://mirslovarei.com/content_fil/AXUNDOV-MIRZA-FATALI-2072.html

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* Nafaschakma [az]
* Dodaqdaymaz
* Qıfılband

Medieval

| 1200s|

* Izzeddin Hasanoghlu
* Nasir Bakuvi

|

1300s|

* Yusuf Meddah
* Kadi Burhan al-Din
* Darir of Erzurum
* Ahmad Jalayir
* Qasem-e Anvar
* Imadaddin Nasimi
* Badr Shirvani

1400s|

* Jahan Shah Haqiqi
* Seyid Yahya Bakuvi
* Hamidi Isfahani [az; ru]
* Khalili of Tabriz [ru]
* Hidayat
* Yaqub bin Uzun Hasan
* Habibi
* Fuzuli
* Shah Ismail I
* Hagiri Tabrizi
* Khatai Tabrizi
* Kishvari

1500s|

* Shah Tahmasp I
* Sadiqi Beg Afshar
* Mahammad Amani
* Fazli
* Saib Tabrizi
* Qovsi Tabrizi
* Sheikh Alvan of Shiraz
* Roohi Bagdadi
* Ibrahim Mirza Jahi
* Shah Abbas I
* Fardi Ardabili [fa]
* Yusif Beg Ustajlu [az]

Modern

| 1600s|

* Shah Abbas II
* Masihi
* Tarzi Afshar
* Nitgi Shirvani
* Fatma Khanum Ani
* Vahid Qazvini
* Daruni
* Mirza Mohsen Tasir
* Safigulu bey Shamlu [az]
* Reza-Qoli Khan
* Mirza Jalal Shahrestani
* Mirza Saleh Tabrizi
* Malek Beg Awji
* Tathir Tabrizi
* Salman Momtaz Mowji
* Vaez Qazvini [az]
* Khasta Qasim
* Morteza Gulu Khan Shamlu [az]
* Mirza Mohammad Mahjub Tabrizi [az]
* Jununi Ardabili
* Mosaheb Ganjavi [az]

|

1700s|

* Molla Panah Vagif
* Molla Vali Vidadi
* Mirza Shafi Vazeh
* Nishat Shirvani [az]
* Mahjur Shirvani [az]
* Sayat-Nova
* Aga Masih Shirvani [az]
* Telimxan
* Gudsi Vanandi [az]
* Abbasgulu Bakikhanov
* Gasim bey Zakir
* Abdurrahman Dilbazoghlu [az]
* Agha Masih Shirvani [az]
* Heyran Khanim
* Govhar agha
* Baba bey Shakir [az; ru]
* Abu'l-Fath Khan Javanshir
* Fazil Khan Sheyda
* Muhammad Husayn Khan Mushtaq
* Fathali Beg Hali-Ganjavi [az]
* Jafargulu agha Javanshir
* Shakir Shirvani [az; ru]
* Aghabeyim agha Javanshir
* Zikri Ardabili [az; fa]
* Arif Tabrizi

1800s|

* Ashiq Peri
* Khurshidbanu Natavan
* Bahar Shirvani
* Seyid Azim Shirvani
* Seyid Abulgasim Nabati
* Gonchabegüm Nakhchivanski
* Fatma Khanum Kamina
* Mirza Ali Khan La'li
* Memo bey Memayi
* Mirza Sadig Latifov
* Ali Mojuz
* Mehdigulu Khan Vafa
* Mir Mohsun Navvab
* Mohammad Bagher Khalkhali [fa; az]
* Dakhil Maraghai [az; fa]
* Ashig Alasgar
* Mirza Mahammad Taghi Gumri [az]
* Asaf Lanbarani [az]
* Abulhasan Raji [az]
* Yetim Emin [ru]
* Said Kochkhyurskiy [az; ru]
* Suleyman Stalsky

Historiography|

* Mirza Adigozal bey
* Ahmad bey Javanshir
* Karim agha Shakikhanov
* Haji Seyid Abdulhamid [az]
* Mir Mehdi Khazani
* Mirza Hasan Alkadari
* Mirza Rahim Fana [az]

Contemporary

| Prose|

| Novels|

* Nariman Narimanov
* Ismayil bek Kutkashensky
* Mammed Said Ordubadi
* Mirza Abdulgadir Vusagi
* Sakina Akhundzadeh
* Mirza Khazar
* Mir Jalal Pashayev
* Suleyman Rahimov
* Jamil Alibekov
* Ganjali Sabahi
* Kurban Said
* Ilyas Afandiyev
* Mirza Ibrahimov
* Ismayil Shykhly
* Manaf Suleymanov
* Elchin Afandiyev
* Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
* Magsud Ibrahimbeyov
* Chingiz Abdullayev
* Suleyman Valiyev
* Natig Rasulzadeh
* Afag Masud
* Akram Aylisli
* Aziza Jafarzade
* Naser Manzuri
* Yadollah Maftun Amini
* Mehdi Huseyn
* Isa Mughanna
* Heidar Abbasi
* Qilman Ilkin
* Vidadi Babanli
* Elchin Safarli
* Hamid Notghi
* Gholamhossein Bigdeli
* Hidayet
* Lala Hasanova
* Ali Akbar
* Seymur Baycan
* Rovshan Abdullaoglu

|

Stories|

* Jalil Mammadguluzadeh
* Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli
* Abdulla Shaig
* Samad Behrangi
* Anar Rzayev
* Rafiq Tağı

Essays|

* Ahmet Ağaoğlu
* Ali bey Huseynzade
* Hasan bey Zardabi
* Uzeyir Hajibeyov
* Jeyhun Hajibeyli
* Omar Faig Nemanzadeh
* Mammad Amin Rasulzade

Poetry|

| Classical|

* Mahammad Hadi
* Abbas Sahhat
* Sona Akhundova-Garayeva
* Aliagha Vahid

|

Traditional|

* Mikayil Mushfig
* Ali Nazmi
* Samad Vurgun
* Farhad Ebrahimi
* Rasoul Yunan
* Sahand
* Habib Saher
* Ahmad Javad
* Suleyman Rustam
* Musa Yagub
* Almas Ildyrym
* Alireza Nabdel
* Marzieh Ahmadi
* Huseyn Arif
* Teymur Elchin
* Famil Mehdi
* Nigar Rafibeyli
* Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh
* Nusrat Kasamanli
* Nabi Khazri
* Hossein Monzavi
* Mirvarid Dilbazi
* Gamar Sheyda
* Hasan Ali Khan Garadaghi
* Reza Baraheni

Free verse|

* Rasul Rza
* Fikrat Goja
* Ramiz Rovshan
* Vagif Samadoghlu
* Mammad Araz
* Khalil Rza Uluturk

Satire|

* Mirza Alakbar Sabir
* Baba Punhan

Drama|

| Plays|

* Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev
* Jafar Jabbarly
* Suleyman Sani Akhundov
* Hashim bey Vazirov
* Sultan Majid Ganizade [az]

|

Comedies|

* Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Tragedies|

* Najaf bey Vazirov
* Huseyn Javid

Screenplays|

* Hasan Seyidbeyli
* Suleyman Reshidi
* Farman Karimzade
* Gamar Salamzade
* Eldar Quliyev
* Tofig Ismayilov
* Rustam Ibragimbekov
* Ali Gafarov
* Ayaz Salayev
* Vagif Mustafayev

Literary critics|

* Hamid Arasly
* Rahilya Geybullayeva
* Ali Nazem
* Vilayat Guliyev

Literary historians|

* Firidun bey Kocharli
* Salman Mumtaz
* Mirza Huseyn Afandi Qayibov
* Amin Abid [az]
* Ahmet Caferoğlu [tr]

Translators|

* Alaviyya Babayeva
* Hamid Arzulu
* Davud Nasib
* Ramiz Abbasli
* Bagir Seyidzadeh
* Kamran Nazirli
* Mammad Rahim
* Heydar Abbasi

Related topics

| Literary circles|

* Divani-hikmat
* Majmaus-shuara
* Fovjul-fusaha
* Beyt-us-safa
* Anjumani-shuara
* Majlisi-faramushan [az]
* Majlisi-uns [az]
* Ghonchayi-ulfat [az]
* Gulustan literary circle [az]

|

Literary museums|

* Baku Museum of Miniature Books
* House-Museum of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (Baku)
* House-Museum of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (Nakhchivan)
* House-Museum of Samad Vurgun
* Nakhchivan Literature Museum
* Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature
* House Museum of Abdulla Shaig
* House Museum of Jafar Jabbarly
* House Museum of Huseyn Javid
* House-Museum of Mirza Alakbar Sabir
* House-Museum of Mammed Said Ordubadi (Baku)
* House-Museum and Memorial Complex of Huseyn Javid
* Memorial Museum of Molla Panah Vagif and Molla Vali Vidadi
* House Museum of Mirza Fatali Akhundov (Shaki)

Unions, institutes and archives|

* Union of Azerbaijani Writers
* Institute of Manuscripts of Azerbaijan
* Institue of Literature named after Nizami [az]
* The State Archive of Literature and Art of Azerbaijan

Monuments of Literary Figures|

* Fuzuli (Baku)
* Jafar Jabbarly (Baku) [az]
* Samad Vurghun (Baku) [az]
* Sabir (Baku) [az]
* Nasimi (Baku) [az]
* Hasan bey Zardabi (Baku) [az]
* Mikayil Mushfig (Baku) [az]
* Nariman Narimanov (Baku) [az]
* Shah Ismail Khatai (Baku) [az]
* Aliagha Vahid (Baku) [az]
* Natavan (Baku) [az]

Literary Prizes and Honorary Titles|

* Golden Pen Prize [az]
* Hasan bey Zardabi Prize [az]
* Mirza Fatali Akhundov State Prize
* People's Poet of Azerbaijan
* People's Writer of Azerbaijan
* People's Poet of Azerbaijan SSR [az]
* People's Writer of Azerbaijan SSR [az]

See also|

* List of Azerbaijani dramatists and playwrights
* List of Azerbaijani writers
* List of Azerbaijani-language poets
* List of Azerbaijani screenwriters
* Azerbaijan emigrant literature
* Bible translations into Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani is the official language of Azerbaijan and one of the official languages in Dagestan, a republic of Russia. It is also widely spoken in Iran (in particular in the historic Azerbaijan region) as well as in parts of Turkey and Georgia.

* v
* t
* e

Persian literature

Old

* Behistun Inscription
* Old Persian inscriptions
* Ganjnameh
* Inscription of Xerxes the Great in Van Fortress
* Achaemenid inscription in the Kharg Island

Middle

* Ayadgar-i Zariran
* Counsels of Adurbad-e Mahrspandan
* Dēnkard
* Book of Jamasp
* Book of Arda Viraf
* Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan
* Cube of Zoroaster
* Dana-i Menog Khrat
* Shabuhragan of Mani
* Shahrestanha-ye Eranshahr
* Bundahishn
* Menog-i Khrad
* Jamasp Namag
* Dadestan-i Denig
* Anthology of Zadspram
* Warshtmansr
* Zand-i Wahman yasn
* Drakht-i Asurig
* Shikand-gumanig Vizar

Classical

| 800s|

* Muhammad ibn Wasif

|

900s|

* Rudaki
* Daqiqi
* Ferdowsi (Shahnameh)
* Abu Shakur Balkhi
* Abu Tahir Khosrovani
* Shahid Balkhi
* Bal'ami
* Rabia Balkhi
* Abusaeid Abolkheir (967–1049)
* Avicenna (980–1037)
* Unsuri
* Asjadi
* Kisai Marvazi
* Ayyuqi

1000s|

* Bābā Tāher
* Nasir Khusraw (1004–1088)
* Al-Ghazali (1058–1111)
* Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088)
* Asadi Tusi
* Qatran Tabrizi (1009–1072)
* Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092)
* Masud Sa'd Salman (1046–1121)
* Moezi Neyshapuri
* Omar Khayyam (1048–1131)
* Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani
* Ahmad Ghazali
* Hujwiri
* Manuchehri
* Ayn-al-Quzat Hamadani (1098–1131)
* Uthman Mukhtari
* Abu-al-Faraj Runi
* Sanai
* Banu Goshasp
* Borzu-Nama
* Afdal al-Din Kashani
* Abu'l Hasan Mihyar al-Daylami
* Mu'izzi
* Mahsati Ganjavi

1100s|

* Iranshah
* Suzani Samarqandi
* Hassan Ghaznavi
* Faramarz Nama
* Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191)
* Adib Sabir
* Falaki Shirvani
* Am'aq
* Najm al-Din Razi
* Attār (1142–c.1220)
* Khaghani (1120–1190)
* Anvari (1126–1189)
* Faramarz-e Khodadad
* Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209)
* Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209)
* Kamal al-Din Esfahani
* Shams Tabrizi (d.1248)

1200s|

* Abu Tahir Tarsusi
* Awhadi Maraghai
* Shams al-Din Qays Razi
* Sultan Walad
* Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī
* Afdal al-Din Kashani
* Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi
* Mahmud Shabistari (1288–1320s)
* Abu'l Majd Tabrizi
* Amir Khusrau (1253–1325)
* Saadi (Bustan / Golestān)
* Bahram-e-Pazhdo
* Pur-Baha Jami
* Zartosht Bahram e Pazhdo
* Rumi
* Homam Tabrizi (1238–1314)
* Nozhat al-Majales
* Khwaju Kermani
* Sultan Walad
* Badr Shirvani
* Zu'l-Fiqar Shirvani

1300s|

* Ibn Yamin
* Shah Ni'matullah Wali
* Hafez
* Abu Ali Qalandar
* Fazlallah Astarabadi
* Nasimi
* Emad al-Din Faqih Kermani

1400s|

* Ubayd Zakani
* Salman Savaji
* Hatefi
* Jami
* Kamal Khujandi
* Ahli Shirazi (1454–1535)
* Fuzuli (1483–1556)
* Ismail I (1487–1524)
* Baba Faghani

1500s|

* Vahshi Bafqi (1523–1583)
* Muhtasham Kashani (1500–1588)
* 'Orfi Shirazi

1600s|

* Taleb Amoli
* Saib Tabrizi (1607–1670)
* Asir-e Esfahani (c. 1620–1648)
* Kalim Kashani
* Hazin Lāhiji (1692–1766)
* Saba Kashani
* Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (1642–1720)
* Naw'i Khabushani
* Mohammad Qoli Salim Tehrani
* Rasa Salim Tehrani

1700s|

* Hatef Esfahani
* Azar Bigdeli (1722–1781)
* Neshat Esfahani
* Abbas Foroughi Bastami (1798–1857)

1800s|

* Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869)
* Zayn al-Abidin Shirvani (1779–1837)
* Reza-Qoli Khan Hedayat (1800–1871)
* Mirza Mohammad Taqi Sepehr (1801–1880)
* Qaani (1808–1854)
* Mahmud Saba Kashani (1813–1893)

Contemporary

| Poetry|

| Iran|

* Ahmadreza Ahmadi
* Mehdi Akhavan-Sales
* Hormoz Alipour
* Qeysar Aminpour
* Mohammad Reza Aslani
* Aref Qazvini
* Ahmad NikTalab
* Aminollah Rezaei
* Manouchehr Atashi
* Mahmoud Mosharraf Azad Tehrani
* Mohammad-Taqi Bahar
* Reza Baraheni
* Simin Behbahani
* Dehkhoda
* Hushang Ebtehaj
* Bijan Elahi
* Parviz Eslampour
* Parvin E'tesami
* Forugh Farrokhzad
* Hossein Monzavi
* Hushang Irani
* Iraj Mirza
* Bijan Jalali
* Siavash Kasraie
* Esmail Khoi
* Shams Langeroodi
* Mohammad Mokhtari
* Nosrat Rahmani
* Yadollah Royaee
* Tahereh Saffarzadeh
* Sohrab Sepehri
* Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani
* Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar
* Ahmad Shamlou
* Manouchehr Sheybani
* Nima Yooshij (She'r-e Nimaa'i)
* Fereydoon Moshiri

|

Armenia|

* Edward Haghverdian

Afghanistan|

* Nadia Anjuman
* Wasef Bakhtari
* Raziq Faani
* Khalilullah Khalili
* Youssof Kohzad
* Massoud Nawabi
* Abdul Ali Mustaghni

Tajikistan|

* Sadriddin Ayni
* Farzona
* Iskandar Khatloni
* Abolqasem Lahouti
* Gulrukhsor Safieva
* Loiq Sher-Ali
* Payrav Sulaymoni
* Mirzo Tursunzoda
* Satim Ulugzade

Uzbekistan|

* Asad Gulzoda

Pakistan|

* Muhammad Iqbal

Novels|

* Ali Mohammad Afghani
* Ghazaleh Alizadeh
* Bozorg Alavi
* Reza Amirkhani
* Mahshid Amirshahi
* Ghassem Hashemi Nezhad
* Reza Baraheni
* Simin Daneshvar
* Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
* Soudabeh Fazaeli
* Reza Ghassemi
* Mohammad Hanif (Iranian writer)
* Houshang Golshiri
* Aboutorab Khosravi
* Zeyn al-Abedin Maraghei
* Ahmad Mahmoud
* Shahriyar Mandanipour
* Abbas Maroufi
* Mansour Koushan
* Iraj Pezeshkzad

Short stories|

* Jalal Al-e-Ahmad
* Shamim Bahar
* Sadeq Chubak
* Abolhassan Etessami
* Javad Mojabi
* Simin Daneshvar
* Nader Ebrahimi
* Ebrahim Golestan
* Houshang Golshiri
* Sadegh Hedayat
* Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh
* Aboutorab Khosravi
* Mostafa Mastoor
* Jaafar Modarres-Sadeghi
* Houshang Moradi Kermani
* Bijan Najdi
* Shahrnush Parsipur
* Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
* Bahram Sadeghi
* Goli Taraqqi

Plays|

* Reza Abdoh
* Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh
* Mohsen Yalfani
* Bahram Beyzai
* Bahman Forsi
* Amir Reza Koohestani
* Alireza Koushk Jalali
* Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
* Bijan Mofid
* Hengameh Mofid
* Abbas Nalbandian
* Akbar Radi
* Pari Saberi
* Mirza Aqa Tabrizi
* Mohammad Yaghoubi

Screenplays|

* Saeed Aghighi
* Mohammad Reza Aslani
* Rakhshan Bani-E'temad
* Bahram Beyzai
* Hajir Darioush
* Pouran Derakhshandeh
* Asghar Farhadi
* Bahman Farmanara
* Farrokh Ghaffari
* Behrouz Gharibpour
* Bahman Ghobadi
* Fereydun Gole
* Ebrahim Golestan
* Ali Hatami
* Abolfazl Jalili
* Ebrahim Hatamikia
* Abdolreza Kahani
* Varuzh Karim-Masihi
* Samuel Khachikian
* Abbas Kiarostami
* Majid Majidi
* Mohsen Makhmalbaf
* Dariush Mehrjui
* Reza Mirkarimi
* Rasoul Mollagholipour
* Amir Naderi
* Jafar Panahi
* Kambuzia Partovi
* Fereydoun Rahnema
* Rasul Sadr Ameli
* Mohammad Sadri
* Parviz Shahbazi
* Sohrab Shahid-Saless

Translators|

* Amrollah Abjadian
* Jaleh Amouzgar
* Najaf Daryabandari
* Mohammad Ghazi
* Lili Golestan
* Sadegh Hedayat
* Ramak NikTalab
* Saleh Hosseini
* Ahmad Kamyabi Mask
* Ahmad Shamlou
* Mohammad Moin
* Ebrahim Pourdavoud
* Hamid Samandarian
* Jalal Sattari
* Jafar Shahidi
* Ahmad Tafazzoli
* Abbas Zaryab

Children's literature|

* Samad Behrangi
* Houshang Moradi Kermani
* Babak NikTalab
* Hengameh Mofid
* Poopak NikTalab
* Farhad Hasanzadeh
* Ramak NikTalab

Essayists|

* Aydin Aghdashloo
* Ali Latifiyan
* Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi
* Ehsan Yarshater
* Ahmad Kasravi

Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

Authority control

International|

* FAST
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National|

* France
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Other|

* IdRef
* İslâm Ansiklopedisi

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