Nasimi Festival

Imadeddin Nasimi (1369-1417) is a great Azerbaijani poet and thinker, one of the founders of Azerbaijani poetry in the native language. Nasimi is the author of the first Divans (collections of poetry) in the Azerbaijani language. Thus, he raised Azerbaijani Turkic literature to the level of Arabic and Persian poetry. Along with this, Nasimi's works belong not only to Azerbaijani literature: Nasimi is considered the greatest Turkic-speaking poet-mystic and the first master of the poetic Divan in the history of the Turkic peoples. He is also the author of numerous verses in Arabic and Persian, which are known in many countries of the Orient. Nasimi is the author of lyrical and mystical verses preaching the philosophy of the Hurufite branch of Sufism. The main themes of his poetry: Man, Universe, Love and God. Poetry of Nasimi in a figurative and allegorical form promotes the philosophy of Sufism, thereby showing the unity of Man with the World and the Universe, explaining the ways leading to the perfection of the soul. The poet is inspired by divine love and glorifies the Man who achieved spiritual perfection. In 2017 UNESCO officially celebrated the 600th anniversary of the poet within the programme of commemoration of historic events and eminent personalities.