Nigar Khudadat qizi Rafibeyli () (1913–1981, Baku) was an Azerbaijani writer and the Chairman of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan. She was the mother of

Anar Rzayev Anar Rasul oghlu Rzayev (; born 14 March 1938, Baku), known mononymously as Anar, is an Azerbaijani writer, dramatist, film director, and the Chairman of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan. Anar is primarily a novelist and short-story writer, alt ...

, novel and short-story writer, and the wife of the famous writer and poet

Rasul Rza Rasul Rza (real name Rasul Ibrahim oghlu Rzayev – ) (1910 – 1981 in Baku), was an Azerbaijani writer, Hero of Socialist Labour (1980), People's Poet of Azerbaijan, Laureate of Soviet State Award and the Chairman of the Writers' Union of Azer ...

.Reflections by son Anar: "KGB Documents Reveal Poet Nearly Sent into Exile"
AZER.com in ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 7:1 (Spring 1999), p. 34.

Early life

Nigar Rafibeyli was born on 23 June 1913 in the town of

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

. Her parents were medical surgeons. Her father, Khudadat Rafibeyli was the first

Azeri Azeri or Azeri Turk may refer to: * Azeri people, an ethnic group also known as Azerbaijanis * Citizens of Azerbaijan * Azeri language, the modern-day Turkic language * Old Azeri, an extinct Iranian language * Azeri Turk (journal), Academic jour ...

surgeon who had studied in Europe. In 1919, he was invited to head the Ganja government by the republican government of

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

, but he was soon arrested at the instigation of the Armenian Bolsheviks and sent to Nargin island, where he was executed by Bolshevik soldiers. Nigar Rafibeyli finished her schooling in Ganja and moved to Baku for her higher education. She studied at the Pedagogical Technical School. She taught at school but always wrote novels. Her first poem called "Chadra" (Veil in

) was published in "Dan Ulduzu" magazine in 1928. In the years 1930–1932 she worked in the

Azerbaijanfilm Azerbaijanfilm (; ) is an Azerbaijani state film production company. It is located in the capital Baku. History Azerbaijanfilm was established in 1920 as a photo-cinema department at the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat, and in 1923 renam ...

studio.

Later years

In 1931, she worked in the Azerneshr publishing house as the editor and as a translator. Rafibeyli then continued her studies in the Moscow Pedagogical University. As she was studying in Moscow, her first collection of poems was published in Baku. In the years 1937–1939, she worked in the Ushaqneshr publishing house. Beginning from 1940, she translated into Azeri many works of famous poets and writers of other nations such as Navai,

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of ...

Shevchenko Shevchenko ( ; alternative spellings Schevchenko, Ševčenko, Shevcenko, Szewczenko, Chevchenko) is a family name of Ukrainians, Ukrainian origin. It is derived from the Ukrainian word ''shvets'' ( ; ), literally meaning "Shoemaking, cobbler or sho ...

and others. For her great contributions to

Azerbaijani literature Azerbaijani literature (, ) is written in Azerbaijani, a Turkic language, which is the official state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan, where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken. It is also natively spoken in Iran, where the Sout ...

, she received the Order of Honour. Many of Nigar Rafibeyli's works were dedicated to

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

motherhood A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case ...

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

, and

motherland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

. Nigar Rafibeyli died on 9 July 1981. One of streets in Baku bears her name.

References

External links

Monument to Nigar Rafibeyli in one of Baku parks
(Poetry by Nigar Rafibeyli, translated into English). AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 7:1 (Spring 1999), p. 53.

AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 7:1 (Spring 1999), p. 53.

(whose husband, poet Husein Javid, was a victim in Stalin's GULAG) AZER.com, ''Azerbaijan International'', Vol. 7:1 (Spring 1999), p. 35. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafibeyli 1913 births 1981 deaths Azerbaijani novelists Azerbaijani women novelists Writers from Ganja, Azerbaijan 20th-century Azerbaijani poets Azerbaijani women poets 20th-century Azerbaijani novelists 20th-century women writers Soviet novelists Soviet poets