SERAYA SHAPSHAL AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF AZERBAIJANI FOLK LITERATURE: THE SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF AN OUTSTANDING ORIENTALIST

Abstract

This article examines the scholarly legacy of Serai Markovich Shapshal (1873–1961), a dis-tinguished Polish orientalist and Turkologist of Karaite descent. Based on an analysis of his semi-nal work, "Attempts to Recreate the Folk Literature of the Turks of Persian Azerbaijan" (Krakow, 1935), this article examines his role in the development of European Azerbaijani studies in the first half of the 20th century. It demonstrates that Shapshal not only conducted a systematic fieldwork recording of Azerbaijani folklore in Southern Azerbaijan across a broad geographical area but also undertook the first genre-typological analysis of Azerbaijani folk poetry in Western European scholarship. Particular attention is given to the source study significance of the work, its original lexicographic apparatus—an Azerbaijani-Polish-German dictionary—as well as Shapshal's place in the history of Polish Oriental studies and his role as a mediator between regional folk tradition and European academic discourse.