Khadi Mukhammed

(pen name of Aga-Mukhammed Gadzhi-Abdussalim ogly). Born 1879 in Shemakha; died May 1920 in Gandzha (now Kirovabad). Azerbaijani poet of the romantic school.

Khadi Mukhammed knew Persian and Arabic and was well versed in the history, literature, and philosophy of the East. His work was first published in 1905. In such poems as “Howl of the People” (1907) and “I Am a Book” (1908) he opposed national and social oppression and autocratic despotism, exalted individual freedom, and condemned religious obscurantism. He depicted the struggle of the Russian revolutionaries in the narrative poem “A Bloody Incident” (1909). Also noteworthy is his anti-militarist, anti-imperialist narrative poem “Pictures of Rebirth” (1918–19).

The majority of Khadi Mukhammed’s poems are social or philosophic lyrics. He wrote primarily mathnawis and qasidas, but his distinctive artistry imbued these old forms with new life. Khadi Mukhammed translated various works by Nizami Ganjevi, Omar Khayyam, Jalal al-Din Rumi, and Hafez.