Mirza Shafi Vazeh

19th century Azerbaijani poet

Mirza Shafi Vazeh (; میرزا شفیع واضح; died 16 November 1852) was an Azerbaijani poet and teacher. Under the pseudonym "Vazeh", which means "expressive, clear", he wrote in both Azerbaijani and Persian, developing the traditions of poetry in both languages. He compiled the first anthology of Azerbaijani poetry and a Tatar Russian dictionary for the Tiflis gymnasium with Russian teacher Ivan Grigoriev. He wrote multiple ghazals, mukhammases, mathnawis and rubais. His poems are mostly intimate, lyrical and satirical. The main theme of Vazeh's works is the glorification of romantic love and the joy of life, but in some of his poems, he denounces the vices of feudal society and opposes slavery and religious fanaticism. The German poet Friedrich von Bodenstedt, who took oriental language lessons from Vazeh, published translations of Vazeh's poems in his book A Thousand and One Days in the East in 1850. Bodenstedt's book, titled Songs of Mirza Shafi, was published in 1851.

Mirza Shafi Sadykh oglu was born at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries in Ganja. The exact date of his birth is disputed. Soviet era encyclopedias such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the Concise Literary Encyclopedia and the Philosophical Encyclopedia state that Mirza Shafi was born in 1796, but a number of authors write that he was born in 1794. According to Willem Floor and Hasan Javadi in The Heavenly Rose garden: A History of Shirvan & Daghestan, by Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov, Vazeh was born in 1792. According to the orientalist Adolf Berge, he saw Mirza Shafi Vazeh, whom he described as "a modest, about 60 year old Tatar" in the streets of Tiflis in 1851. This would suggest the poet was born before 1800. Archival documents contain completely different information. In the "Official List of Service for 1845" (Формулярном списке о службе за 1845 год) it is written that Mirza Shafi is 40 years old. This would mean Vazeh was born in 1805. At the same time, in the "Official List of Service for 1852" (Формулярном списке о службе за 1852 год), it is written that he is 45 years old, indicating that he was born in 1807. According to orientalist Ivan Yenikolopov, the most trustworthy source is the "Official List of Service for 1845" which was approved by Mirza Shafi's commander in chief, A. K. Monastyrski.

Mirza Shafi's father was Sadykh Kerbalayi, more commonly known as Usta Sadykh, who served as an architect for Javad Khan, the last khan of the Ganja Khanate. The poet's elder brother, Abdul Ali, became an architect like his father. Mirza Shafi was born in the years of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. In 1804, Russian forces besieged and eventually captured Mirza Shafi's hometown, Ganja. After its fall, General Pavel Tsitsianov renamed Ganja Elisabethpol (in honour of Russian empress Elizabeth Alexeievna) and integrated the khanate's territory as part of the Georgia Governorate of the Russian Empire. Mirza Shafi's family was seriously affected by these events as his father lost his income. Orientalist Adolf Berge, citing Mirza Fatali Akhundov, an Azerbaijani critic, noted that after the fall of the Ganja Khanate, Mirza Shafi's father went bankrupt, then fell ill and later died. His father's death date is unknown, though literary critic Aliadjar Seidzade argues he died in early 1805. Mirza Shafi's father's bankruptcy is confirmed by a letter sent from a poet by the name of Shakir to poet Gasim bey Zakir, in which Sadykh from Ganja (Mirza Shafi's father), along with a certain Haji Qurban, are mentioned as being rich men, who became completely impoverished. According to historian Mikhail Semevsky, Mirza Shafi was "a kind, simple man who was Tatar by origin, and Persian by upbringing".

Shafi's interest in books and science was evident from an early age. Because of this, his father sent him to the madrasa at the Shah Abbas Mosque in Ganja. His father wanted him to become a mullah. Shafi's interests and abilities grew at the madrasa, where he learned Persian and Arabic language and was taught calligraphy. Adolf Berge wrote in an article published in the journal Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft:
text=His success in the study of the Arabic language was not great, the second language though (that is, Persian) he mastered, as it was possible, without a thorough knowledge of Arabic. Shafi did not want to become a mullah but wanted to learn literature and different languages instead. As his father was alive, Shafi did not want to go against his wishes. He continued his education in the madrasa until his father's death. According to Adolf Berge, Haji Abdullah was born in Ganja and went to Tabriz to engage in trade. In Persia, he visited holy places and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Later, he lived in Baghdad for some time where he met a dervish named Seid Sattar, who taught him about Sufism. After returning to Ganja, Haji Abdullah argued constantly with the local mullahs and akhoonds (Muslim clerics) of the Shah Abbas mosque, trying to prove the inconsistency and absurdity of religious prejudices and superstitions. Because of this, he made enemies of most of the local clergy. In his arguments with the mullahs, Shafi supported Haji Abdullah, who, according to Aliadjar Seizade, adopted him. There he established close ties with other prominent figures like Khachatur Abovian, Abbasgulu Bakikhanov and Mirza Fatali Akhundov,

He moved back to Elisabethpol in 1846 and continued to work as a teacher and write poetry until 1850 when he moved back to Tiflis. He began working in the Tiflis Gymnasium and taught the Persian and Azerbaijani languages.

In 1844, the German writer and orientalist Friedrich von Bodenstedt, who showed a great interest in the life of the Caucasus and wished to take lessons in oriental languages, came to Tiflis. Soon after his arrival there he met Shafi, who taught him the Azerbaijani and Persian languages. He compiled another book called Songs of Mirza Shafi which consisted of his translations of Shafi's poems. Twenty years after Shafi's death, Bodenstedt published a book titled From the Heritage of Mirza Shafi, in which he claimed the Shafi's songs were not translations but were his work. Nevertheless, the originals in Persian and Azerbaijani languages have survived to this day, proving the authorship of Mirza Shafi.