Literary environment in Western Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

During the Safavid era, the territory of Azerbaijan extended from India to Iraq, from Iran to Turkestan, and science and culture have developed extensively in these areas. Unfortunately, after Shah Tahmasib, this vast territory was divided into separate khanates and it led to the weakening of these khanates over time. By the early 18th century, these khanates were invaded by the Tsarist Empire and turned into provinces. At that time, Western Azerbaijan was entirely under the control of the Yerevan Khanate. This large territory was in no way behind other parts of Azerbaijan in terms of its economic, scientific, literary, or cultural development – on the contrary, in some respects, it held a distinctive advantage. Iravan was mainly in close contact with the cities of Nakhchivan, Tabriz, Ardabil, Baku, Ganja, and Shusha; and for this reason, like all these cities, it has developed its science, culture and literature in a rich way from time to time. 
  For a century, master craftsmen and great ashugs in Yerevan, Zengezur, Goyche, Dereleyez, Aghbaba, Garagoyunlu and Derechichek-Loru-Pembek have played a major role in preserving our native language, folklore, and national and spiritual values. In the article the place related to historical facts in the creativity of ashugs; and the goshmas, tajnises, bayaties, mukhammasses, murabbe, gifilbend, gozelleme and others that mentions the names of lands, as an archival material it is proven the fact that Western Azerbaijan belongs to the Azerbaijani Turks.