Genre of tezkire in history of Azerbaijani criticism

Abstract

In the classical period, one of the important means of expression of literary criticism was the genre of tezkire, which means to mention, to remember, to commemorate. Thoughts about the poets' lives, creativity, and personality are reflected in tezkires, which fulfill the task of literary historiography. tezkires, which consist of three parts: introduction, main part, and conclusion, are of great importance in the study of literary studies. However, some sources state that they are not a reliable source. The reason for this is the lack of objective evaluation of the works in some tezkires, the incompleteness of the information provided, and the lack of full coverage of the poets’ creativity.

In contrast to other means of expression of criticism that existed in the Middle Ages, the tezkire genre has been somewhat widely reported in Azerbaijani literary studies. It is possible to get information about the tezkire genre in dictionaries, theory books, as well as in the works of individual researchers.
In Azerbaijani literature, Sam Mirza Safavi’s “Tohfeyi-Sami”, Ahdi Baghdadi’s “Gulshani-Shuara”, Sadiq Bey Afshar’s “Majmaul-Khawas”, Lutfali Bey Azer’s “Atashgada”, Mir Mohsen Nawab’s “Tazkireyi-Nawab” are interesting examples of the genre. The author of the first tezkire in Azerbaijani literature is Sam Mirza Safavi, and the author of the first tezkire written in the Azerbaijani language is Ahdi Baghdadi.