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 Molla Panah Vagif (1717-1797) - famous XVIII c. poet, the founder of realism genre in the Azerbaijanian poetry and also a prominent statesman and diplomat, eshikagasi - the minister of foreign affairs in the Karabakh khanate.
Vagif was born in 1717 in the village of Salahly in the Kazakh district of north-western Azerbaijan but spent most part of his life in Karabakh. Soon after coming to Shusha Vagif became popular and beloved among the people due to his knowledge and talents. There was even a saying: "Not every literate person can be Vagif".
Vagif began a new era in the Azeri poetry. In his poems he gave priority and praised the mundane feelings and desires, rather than the abstract divine ones. This was the main characteristic that distinguished Vagif from his predecessors and made him the founder of the realism genre in the Azeri poetry. The language of Vagif's poems was qualitatively innovative as well: vivid, simple, and closely approaching to the popular speech. That's why Vagif's poems – koshma have had a great influence on the Azeri folklore and many of them repeatedly used in the folk music of ashuks.
When being the eshikagasi, Vagif did a lot for the prosperity and political growth of the Karabakh khanate. Also, he played an important role in organizing the heroic defense of Shusha during the invasion of Aga Muhammad shah Qajar of Persia in 1795 and 1797.
Vagif was killed during the disorders, which followed Qajar's invasion of Shusha in 1797. At the time of his death his house was plundered and many of his verses were lost. However, interest to his poetry was preserved. In 1856 for the first time Vagif's verses were collected and published by Mirza Yousif Nersesov. Soon afterwards, with assistance of M.F. Akhundov, prominent XIX c. Azeri playwright, his verses have been published by Adolph Berge in Leipzig in 1867.
Vagif's remains were kept in Shusha in a mausoleum bearing his name. This mausoleum is half-destroyed now. The fate of Vagif's remains are unknown.
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