Anvar Gafar oghlu Mammadkhanli (; 28 February 1913 – 19 December 1990) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the

Union of Azerbaijani Writers The Union of Azerbaijani Writers () is the largest public organization of Azerbaijani writers, poets and publicists. It has over 1500 members at present. It was founded on June 13, 1934, when Azerbaijan was a part of the Soviet Union as the Azer ...

since 1938.

Biography

Anvar Mammadkhanli was born in 1913 in the provincial town of Goychay. Mammadkhanli was five when the independent

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: ...

began its three years of existence and eight when the Bolsheviks finally took control of Azerbaijan. The

idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

and energy of Soviet communism in the 1920s left their mark on his work. Anvar Mammadkhanli studied at a technical college in Baku. He completed two years of distance study at the prestigious Oil Institute. Despite his technical background, Mammadkhanli moved in the 1930s into translating and editorial work. Anvar Mammadkhanli was a special correspondent for the Azerbaijani army newspaper Qizil Ordu during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1944–46 where he was a special correspondent for the army newspaper Vatan yolunda, published in

Tabriz Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...

. Mammadkhanli worked for 18 years as chief script editor at Azerbaijanfilm. He continued to translate literary classics into Azerbaijani and was a member of Soviet delegations that visited Cuba, Turkey and Spain. Anvar Mammadkhanli died in 1990 at the age of 77 and is buried in the Avenue of Honour in Baku.

Creativity

The Poet of Prose

Anvar Mammadkhanli was part of a generation of talented writers who burst onto the literary scene with their own distinctive styles. His first collection of stories was Baku Nights (1935). The combination of realism and romanticism found in the first of the stories in Baku Nights brings the city of Baku alive to the reader. Mammadkhanli's prose is especially lyrical. Writing in 1939, critic Mikayil Rzaguluzade described the young writer as the founder of lyrical, psychological and emotional prose in Azerbaijan. Forty-five years later, another critic, Professor Abbas Zamanov, dubbed him the 'poet of prose'. Mammadkhanli is an author who loves his characters. They are modern thinkers for their time, sensitive, with a sense of responsibility and duty to society. Through his characters, Mammadkhanli draws the reader into the struggle for justice, truth, fresh ways of thinking and high ideals against inertia, hostility, selfishness and outdated concepts. Even when some characters die in the struggle, the writer's commitment to fighting social injustice does not waver. Baku Nights and the stories Sevinj and My Mother's Death were part of school textbooks in Azerbaijan for more than 40 years.

Plays

Director Mehdi Mammadov described Anvar Mammadkhanli's work for the stage as 'monumental dramas and dramatic pictures with a large frame that keep alive the traditions of realism in our national play-writing, and are in accord with the important and complicated problems of contemporary life and the arts'.

Play works

*In the Fire *The Beauty of Shirvan (comedy)

Films

*Leyli and Majnun * Babak

Awards

The work "City of the East" that was staged in 1957 in the Academic Drama Theatre was awarded with the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...

. However, the author's name was not in the list of award recipients.

Works

*Fire to the West. *Mothers and roads. *Sevinj *My Mother's Death *Fountain of life. *25 spring (essay). Tabriz. *The Ice Statue *Morning of the East *Rose buds.

100th jubilee

On 5 June 2013, ANAS Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi held an academic session devoted to one of the notable figures of Azerbaijan literature, talented prosiest, scenarist and translator Anvar Mammadkhanli's 100th jubilee.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mammadkhanli, Anvar 1913 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Azerbaijani dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Azerbaijani writers People from Goychay District Honored Art Workers of the Azerbaijan SSR Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Socialist realism writers Azerbaijani-language writers Azerbaijani screenwriters Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet screenwriters Soviet male screenwriters