FUNCTIONS OF FOLKLORE AND THEIR INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL AZERBAIJANI LITERATURE

Abstract

It is known that until the thirteenth century, our poets partly wrote their literary works in ara-bic, bur mostly in persian and this tradition became one of the characteristic features of medieval liter-ature. What is noteworthy is that the examples of medieval literature written in three languages influ-enced each other mutually. The study of medieval Azerbaijani literature and the exploration of the features and functions of folklore show that this period possesses a distinctive perfection. The medie-val period has also attracted great interest from a wide readership , as it is an era of significant scien-tific and historical importance. The literary works written by poets during this period stood out and attracted attention with their originality, innovation and thematic diversity. The titles of literary works, like literature itself have undergone a certain process of development and at a certain period these titles were mostly expressed through persian- arabic words and phrases. However after a certain peri-od of time the language of poetic artistic samples with its simplicity, folk character and close connec-tion to the common spoken language, constitutes a specific stage in the history of the development of the Azerbaijani literary language. Literary works belonging to medieval Azerbaijani literature are very diverse both in terms of structure and in terms of meaning and essence. The meaning conveyed by the titles of the literary works also differ in their connection to the content of the work and the events tak-ing place within it. The functions of folklore and their influence on medieval Azerbaijani literature are both meaningful and engaging as well as being one of the very important topics. The literature of this period is also very rich in terms of themes and sources.