If we go back several centuries and look at the history of the ancient East, what we encounter is not only empires, wars and battles for territory. There is another, more enduring history of this geography, which is a history created by language, words and literature.

Until just a century ago, there were three lingua francas across the vast geography of the Muslim East: Arabic, Persian and Azerbaijani. While Arabic was an important medium of the religious and scholarly world, and Persian was one of the principal means of communication in the broader literary and administrative-cultural space, the Azerbaijani language also gained significant literary and cultural influence, particularly in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Anatolia, Iraq and various regions of Iran.

There is a striking feature in the history of the Azerbaijani language. The influence of this language cannot be explained solely by the campaigns of rulers and the movements of armies. One of the greatest weapons of Azerbaijani was its poets.

Nasimi, Fuzuli, Khatai and other great masters of the word transformed the Azerbaijani language from merely a means of everyday communication into a literary language capable of expressing profound philosophical and poetic ideas. Their works carried the language across borders and........

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