Abdulla Shaig

Children's favorite

Azerbaijani literature has an ancient and rich history.

 Poet, writer, playwright, translator Abdulla Shaig, who has an exceptional place in the history of Azerbaijani literature, is also one of the prominent figures of our education and culture. Honored Art Worker. Dedicating his life to the enlightenment of the people, the writer created the rarest examples of our national children's literature.

Abdulla Shaig is known as one of the prominent writers of XX century Azerbaijani literature.  The main thing that distinguishes him from other literary figures is that he loves children and writes for children until the end of his life. Abdulla Shaig's children's works have been published for more than 100 years and translated into all world languages.

 Abdulla Akhund Mustafa oglu Talibzadeh (Abdulla Shaig) was born on February 24, 1881 in the Sheytanbazar neighborhood of Tbilissi (Tbilisi) in a religious family. He is studying in a six-grade city Muslim school. In 1893, his mother went on a pilgrimage to Khorasan with Abdulla and his older brother Yusif. There they studied for seven years at the school of Yusif Ziya, a well-known educator of his time, and received a good education in literature, history and logic. In 1900, they returned to Tbilissi (Georgia).

Abdulla moves to Baku. Begins to work in the field of education.  In 1901, he took an exam in front of a special commission at the 3rd Boys' Gymnasium and received a certificate as a mother tongue teacher. After a while, he was hired as a reserve teacher at a Russian-Tatar school.

 Abdulla Shaig, who was closely involved in the organization of the First Teachers' Congress held in Baku in August 1906, put forward progressive initiatives for the teaching of the mother tongue and literature at the congress. As a result, a special commission consisting of H. Zardabi, F. Kocharli, M. Mahmudbeyov, S. Sani, A. Shaig and others was established by the congress. This staff is instructed to develop a relevant program in the Azerbaijani language.

Less than a year after the congress, textbooks called "Alphabet", "Children's Fountain" ("Children's Eyes"), "Second Year" and "Gulzar" were published. Abdullah Shaig later prepared textbooks and programs in different years, such as "National Reading", "Muntahabat", "Turkish Wreath", "Literature", "Turkish Literature", "Gulshani-Literature". These textbooks contain information about the life and work of Azerbaijani classics and excerpts from their works. She also promotes women's magazines, a kindergarten, a library, and free education for poor children.

According to the research, A.Shaig started his career with translation and ghazal, but his first published work was a children's poem "Layla". Since 1906, he has created notable examples of Azerbaijani national children's poetry. Published in "Debistan" and "School" children's magazines. In the same year he was elected a member of the board of "Nijat" society.

 A.Shaig pays special attention to oral folk literature, gives wide space to these examples in his work. Poetic tales such as "Mrs. Tik-tik", "The fox goes on a pilgrimage", "Good back" are met with interest. He laid the foundation of national children's drama with his play "Beautiful Spring" written in 1910.