Shah Ismail Khatai
is a great Azerbaijani governor and poet who handled both the sabre and quill
equally well. At the age of 14, he became the founder of Safavid Empire, which
on the peak of his ruling stretched from Amudarya to Euphrates. Shah Ismail was
the first Azerbaijani ruler who unified the lands of Azerbaijan as a part of a uniform
state. In 1501, Ismail captured Tabriz and accepted a title of the Shah of
Azerbaijan.
His ruling time is
a period of flourishing of Azerbaijani statehood, culture and national consciousness.
Kizilbash cavalry
from different Turkic tribes formed the heart of his army. Their name
“kizilbash” came from the special headdress – turban with 12 red strips,
honoring 12 Shiite imams. Ismail was the sheikh of the Safaviyya order.
Since childhood,
Ismail loved fight and hunting. At the same time, he liked to read and write
verses. In the period of Shah Ismail's government Azerbaijani became official language
of the state. Many poems Ismail wrote in Azerbaijani, under pseudonym Khatai.
His “Divan” (a set of lyric poems in Middle Eastern literature) includes
ghazals and other poems of different genres. He is an example of classic writer
in the Azerbaijani literature and poetry, who greatly contributed to the
literary development of all Turkic poetry. There are many well-known
manuscripts of Khatai demonstrating that he skillfully owned technology of
painting and a calligraphy.
The commander
Ismail who beheaded thousands of warriors during the battles, at the same time
was a skillful musician and even possessed a beautiful voice. Since childhood,
he played Barbat and Saz, an instrument, which, according to researchers,
received a modern form during Shah Ismail's government. During lifetime, he
became the character of many popular legends and dastans.
The great
commander and the poet died in 1524 at the age of 37 years. He was buried in
Ardebil in the mausoleum of Safavids’ Darul-Irshad.
