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, mīrzā fatḥ ʿalī (1812-78) 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. Thanks to the assistance of a relative he was able to avail himself of a good literary and philosophical education, which brought him into closer touch with liberal ideas than the actual calling which he intended to follow, that of an ¶ Islamic theologian. After instruction from a…

, Kāṣīm Bey , the foremost Ād̲h̲arbāyd̲j̲ānī poet and satirist in the first half of the 19th century. He was born probably in 1786, at Penāhābād in the K̲h̲ānate of Ḳarabāg̲h̲ (now S̲h̲ūs̲h̲a, Nagorno-Karabak̲h̲skay̲a̲ Avtonom. Oblast). He belonged to the clan of Ḏj̲awāns̲h̲īr, a renowned family of beys . In his satirical poetry he relentlessly castigated the religious fanaticism of the Mollās as well as corruption and all kinds of abuses by the beyzāde —the local aristocracy—and the Czarist administration officials. His criticism of the latter r…