Theatre
Collected Dramatic Works of Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh
Təmsilat
Mirza Fatali Akhundov · 1859
Synopsis
Six satirical comedies written in the early 1850s. An alchemist, Mullah Ibrahim Khalil, abuses the credulity of his dupes; a French botanist, Monsieur Jourdan, and a magician dervish play on women's superstition; the vizier of the khanate of Lankaran shows the tyranny and corruption of the powerful; the bear that defeats a brigand provides the setting for a love story laden with social criticism; the miser Haji Qara embarks on smuggling; in Tabriz, it is crooked judges and lawyers who are targeted.
Context
The six plays, composed between 1850 and 1855, appeared first in Russian, in the newspaper Kavkaz and then in volume in Tiflis in 1853, before the Azerbaijani edition of 1859, also in Tiflis. Mirza Cəfər Qaracadaği translated them into Persian around 1871, and the Persian collection, Tamsilat, appeared in 1874; the first French versions rest on it, Trois comédies in 1886, then Alphonse Cillière's Deux comédies turques in 1888. Louis Bazin translated them from Azerbaijani for Gallimard in 1967, and Hasan Javadi brought together the English versions in 2019.
Who it is for
Six satirical plays in a single volume, which the French reader finds gathered together in the 1967 translation.
Prizes and reception
The first comedies of Azerbaijani literature, regarded as the birth certificate of its theatre and translated into Georgian, Persian, French and English.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.