Linguistic activity of Shahtakhtli during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice

UDC 81-119                                        

In the history of our culture and education, Muhammad Agha Shakhtakhtli is known primarily as a worthy follower of the reformism of the alphabet and writing M. F. Akhundzade, the publisher of the first printed organ of the twentieth century. M. Shakhtakhtli was a supporter of the idea of the unity of the Turkic peoples, he preached that linguistic unity is an important condition in this area, stood for the importance of a common literary language, and demonstrated the newspaper “Shargi-Rus” as an example of a common Turkish literary language for intellectuals [1, 2].

One of the leading intellectuals who was the first to proclaim the creation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Muhammad Agha Shakhtakhtli, a great teacher, prose writer and translator, thought about the development of education in an independent republic and the creation of a higher educational institution in his native language. as in Europe, a very important task. That is why he, as one of the foremost intellectuals, worked selflessly to prepare a project for the creation of a university. Articles published in the press of that time clearly show his activities in this field, longterm plans, dreams and aspirations. It is known that the scientist lived in Baku from 1919 to 1922. Academician Isa Gabibayli, who conducted a study of the biography of Muhammadag Shakhtakhtli, based on archival materials, determined that during the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, he took practical steps in terms of promoting the formation of educational, cultural and press work of the new government [4].

From the first days of its existence, the ADR was able to implement a number of sociopolitical and national-cultural events. One of them is Baku State University, a national university. One of the main authors of the opening of the Parliament of the Azerbaijan People's Republic in Baku to Darulf was Mohammed Agha Shakhtaktli [6]. As we know, Baku State University is an achievement of our national state, which has existed for 23 months. Muhammad Agha Shakhtakhtli also played a big role in the emergence and development of this scientific center. First of all, this period is characterized by an intensification of national-spiritual awakening. Thus, one can observe great enthusiasm that arose due to the freedom achieved by the people, and progressive figures tried to make the most of this opportunity for good. Homelands and nations. They tried every possible way to prevent this. The same thing happened in the case of the university [2].

As one of our progressive intellectuals, Mohammad Agha Shakhtakhtli expressed his attitude towards these issues with objective presence, deep logic and high civic sense in the article “Darulfunun in Azerbaijan”, published in the “Azerbaijan Newspaper” on July 28, 1919. At the beginning of his article: “What if there is no Darulfunun? He answers the question by asking...

This will disrupt our traditional and social life, we will not have teachers to teach our students in our general education schools. There are not enough doctors to treat our diseases. We cannot find legal scholars who can judge our citizens who are in conflict over property and properties, or our criminals who commit crimes. If we do not have Darulfun, then where will there be professors, indispensable to the life of the culture of nations, who is the embodiment of science and scholarship, who dedicated his entire life to science and art, where will the professors from our nation come from? from? When the conditions and factors of cultural life are considered from the point of view of research, it immediately becomes apparent that the source of this life is the confusion of mabadal kawalul darulfun. To abandon darulfun means to withdraw from cultural life [7]. Therefore, darulfun is necessary, first of all, for the training of national personnel necessary for all areas of our social, political, economic and spiritual life. Because if we do not have highly qualified national personnel, we will not be able to keep up with the developed cultural countries of the world and, as a result, we will be poor and humiliated. In order to say these words, the main thing in the hands of Mohammad Agha Shahtakhtli is that the Europeans do not consider the Turkish people to be the master of the “Hurriyet ideology” and claim that the Turkish people cannot govern either themselves or others. The scientist objects to this idea and says that the inclination and craving for “Hurriyat ideology” is our ethnic character. If this were not so, how could such thinkers of freedom as the young Mirza Shafi or Mirza Fatali Akhundov, whose names became legendary in Europe, destroy us? [7].

Due to the virtual absence of national personnel to open the university, the question arose about the language in which it should be created. Therefore, disagreements arose regarding the language for opening the university. According to the conditions of that time, M. Shakhtakhtli shows this way of solving this important issue: Currently, darulf can be organized in our country only from Russian professors. We don’t have our own professors [7].

During the republic, the government intervened in 1919 and created a commission to oversee education. A draft prepared by several people was brought up for discussion. After this, the submitted projects are reviewed. There are three projects in the middle: 1. Abdullah bey Efendizadeh project. 2. Project by M. Shakhtakhtinsky. 3. Project of Tagizade and Seyidov [8].

The first version is authorized for publication under the title “The Last Turkish Alphabet”. It is then submitted to parliament for discussion. When the time came to discuss this issue, a coup occurred on April 28. It is known that the development of a literary language is associated primarily with writing and the alphabet. The more accurately the sounds of an alphabetic language reflect its phonetic composition, the more the language will be freed from the limitations of misspellings and alphabetic deficiencies. This also creates favorable conditions and opportunities for the growth of the written literary language, especially for its enrichment and improvement on the basis of the national spoken language. However, as is known, the use of the Arabic alphabet could not fully reflect the phonetic composition of the Azerbaijani language and did not correspond to its sound structure, therefore this alphabet was very defective for our language. This hinders the development of the literary language of Azerbaijan, the enrichment of its vocabulary, creates a gap between the written literary language and the national spoken language, and prevents their rapprochement [5. 7]. Translation is one of the important tools for integrating cultures and enriching our national and moral values with the universal cultural values of the world. The main key to intense relations between states is the importance of translation and interpretation. Translation is not only a means of communication between countries, but also a great bridge of friendship. All relations between states and peoples and mutual enrichment pass through this bridge. Therefore, the stronger the pillars and supports of this bridge, the faster cultural and spiritual ties and mutual enrichment will develop [3].

During his multifaceted creativity, M. Shakhtakhtli was also actively involved in the art of translation, and devoted a lot of effort to promoting the introduction of valuable works of art of the peoples of the East into Russia. The great intellectual devoted most of his life to the art of translation. At the same time, M. Shakhtakhtli provided important services in the field of translation into Azerbaijani. “Back in 1920, he translated N. Narimanov’s article “Educated People and the Restoration of the National Economy” from Russian into Azerbaijani in a simple and understandable form and published it in the weekly magazine “Fugara Fuyuzati”, which is the organ of the Azerbaijan Military Revolutionary Committee” [4].

M. Shakhtakhtli did a lot of work in the field of language construction during the years of Soviet power. He carried out effective activities in the field of simplifying the literary language, removing Arabic-Persian elements from the sphere of use, and observing the rules of the Azerbaijani language in the use of borrowed words and terms. The great writer paid special attention to the movement of purism in language in the right direction [9].

During the republic, the government intervened in 1919 and created a commission to oversee education. A draft prepared by several people was brought up for discussion. After this, the submitted projects are reviewed. There are three projects in the middle: 1. Abdullah bey Efendizadeh project. 2. Project by M. Shakhtakhtinsky. 3. Project of Tagizade and Seyidov. The first version has been cleared for publication under the title "The Last Turkish Alphabet". It is then submitted to parliament for discussion [9].

It is known that the development of a literary language is associated primarily with writing and the alphabet. “The more accurately the sounds of an alphabetic language reflect its phonetic composition, the more the language will be free from the limitations of misspellings and alphabetic deficiencies. This also creates favorable conditions and opportunities for the growth of the written literary language, especially for its enrichment and improvement on the basis of the national spoken language. However, as is known, the use of the Arabic alphabet could not fully reflect the phonetic composition of the Azerbaijani language and did not correspond to its sound structure therefore this alphabet was very defective for our language. This hinders the development of the literary language of Azerbaijan, the enrichment of its vocabulary, creates a gap between the written literary language and the national spoken language, and prevents their rapprochement”. Translation is one of the important tools for integrating cultures and enriching our national and moral values with the universal cultural values of the world. The main key to intensive relations between states is the importance of translation and interpretation. Translation is not only a means of communication between countries, but also a great bridge of friendship. All relations between states and peoples and mutual enrichment pass through this bridge. Therefore, the stronger the pillars and supports of this bridge are, the faster cultural and spiritual ties and mutual enrichment will develop. During the period of his multifaceted creativity, M. Shakhtakhtli was also actively involved in the art of translation, and devoted a lot of effort to promoting the introduction of valuable works of art of the peoples of the East into Russia.

The great intellectual devoted most of his life to the art of translation. At the same time, M. Shakhtakhtli provided important services in the field of translations into the Azerbaijani language. “Back in 1920, he translated N. Narimanov’s article “Educated People and the Restoration of the National Economy” from Russian into Azerbaijani in a simple and understandable form and published it in the weekly magazine “Fugara Fuyuzati”, which is the organ of the Azerbaijan Military Revolutionary Committee”. M. Shakhtakhtli did a lot of work in the field of language construction during the years of Soviet power. He carried out effective activities in the field of simplifying the literary language, removing Arabic-Persian elements from the sphere of use, and observing the rules of the Azerbaijani language in the use of borrowed words and terms. The great writer paid special attention to the movement of purism in language in the right direction [6-9].

Acnowledgments: I want to thank all these people, who have helped and supported me personally and professionally during the article process: Prof. Mubariz Imran Yusifov; Prof. Telman Ziyatkhan Guliyev; Dissertation candidate Kamala Ramiz Isayeva.