Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature

The Museum of Azerbaijani Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi was founded in 1939. It is located in the very heart of the city, near Icheri Sheher and Fontannaya Square. This is the main center of study and acquaintance with the […]

     

The Museum of Azerbaijani Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi was founded in 1939. It is located in the very heart of the city, near Icheri Sheher and Fontannaya Square. This is the main center of study and acquaintance with the written culture of the country. The museum occupies a beautiful old building of the former caravanserai, built in the second half of the 19th century. After in the 1930s. in the USSR, the classic Persian poetry by Nizami was recognized as the national poet of Azerbaijan, to his 800th anniversary, and his memorial museum was opened. Especially for this, the old mansion was restored, two floors were added to it, and the facade was decorated with eight sculptures. Later, the memorial museum expanded and became literary. Since then, the museum has been restored and modernized several times; the last time it happened was in 2005. After that, it became possible to exhibit more than one thousand items, as before, but almost 25 thousand. And it still makes up only one-fifth of the total museum fund.

One of the gems of the museum’s collection can be called the manuscript of the beginning of the 15th century by Nizami’s poem Iskander-name.
Among the exhibits of the museum, you can see more than three thousand manuscripts, rare prints, paintings and sculptures, book illustrations, memoirs, etc. Of particular interest are writers autographs and color miniatures illustrating ancient manuscripts – in particular, some well-preserved illustrations to the poems of Nizami “Seven Beauties”, “Khosrow and Shirin”. One of the gems of the museum’s collection can be called the manuscript of the beginning of the 15th century by Nizami’s poem Iskander-name. The illustration to the manuscript, made in the Shiraz school of painting, became the oldest illustration to Nizami in the USSR.

Statues on the facade of the museum, created by various sculptors, depict the great Azerbaijani poets, writers, and cultural figures. Among them, there is one woman – the poet of the 19th century Natavan Hurshidbanu, “Khan Kyzy”.

A part of the museum building is occupied by a bookstore where books in English and Russian are sold as well.

Practical information
Address: st. Istiglaliyat, 53.

The museum is located on the corner of st. M.E. Rasulzade and Istigliliyat.

Opening hours: daily, from 11:00 to 17:00, Sunday – day off.

Entry: 10 AZN.

Website: nizamimuseum.az

Prices on the page are as of August 2018.

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