# Nasirli Muzaffar

Nasirli Muzaffar (Talysh, Azerbaijani: Nəsirli Muzəffər, 1902–1944) was a Talysh poet, folklorist, linguist, teacher and journalist, a prominent figure in the Talysh national cultural revival in the 1930s.

## Biography

Muzaffar Nasirli Ibrahimzadeh was born in 1902 in the village of Shaglazuza, Lankaran uezd, Baku governorate of the Russian Empire. His father Hadji Ibrahim was a merchant and owned his shop in the village. He received his initial education at a school at a mosque and an elementary school and then continued his studies in Lankaran.
In 1920, the “Society for the study of the Talysh region” was created, and he participated in this society and got acquainted with the researcher of the Talysh language, folklore and Iranianist Boris Miller. This acquaintance later had a positive effect on his activities. Miller with professor Vali Huluflu took part in scientific expeditions in connection with the study of the Talysh language and the search for samples of folklore. Nasirli carried out his main work on the way of collecting Talysh folklore, printing and clarification.
On November 18, 1928, Nasirli appeared on the Azerbaijani radio in Baku and performed 4 Talysh songs. There are also indications that a radio editorial office was organized in Lankaran in 1938, and Muzaffar Nasirli became the first radio editor.
It is known that since the 1920s-1930s, the Moscow Central State Library has kept hundreds of books on culture, science, educational literature, various articles and printed publications in the Talysh language based on Latin script. The authors and editors of many of these works were two people - Muzaffar Nasirli and Zolfaghar Ahmadzadeh.
In 1929, together with Shokhub Mursalov he published the first book in the Talysh language “Səvodin bıbən” (“Be educated”) and in 1930 together with the poet Zolfaghar Ahmadzadeh, he wrote textbooks for Talysh schools. He also translated a geography textbook from Azerbaijani into Talysh.
Since 1930 Nasirli has been actively involved in translation activities. One of the examples of his translation activities is his translation of the work of Leo Tolstoy "Stories about animals" ("Çı həyvonon həxədə hikoyon") into the Talysh language and published in 1935.
In the same 1935 his translations into the Talysh language of the works of Mirza Akhundov “The story of Monsieur Jourdan, a botanist and the dervish Mastalishah, a famous sorcerer” (Talysh: “Çı nəbatati həkim Musyo Jordani de coduəkə dəvişi Məstəli Şahi nəğl”) and a popular story by Valentina Dmitryeva "The Kid and the dog" (tal. "Rukəli iyən Pisə"), which went through more than twenty editions.
After the plenum of the Central Committee, held on June 6, 1937, on the eve of the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, where the issue of the content of the forthcoming report of the Central Committee to the congress was discussed among other things the issue of purification of the Azerbaijani language was raised. After this plenum, a decision was made to move away from teaching in other languages and switch to the Azerbaijani language. By 1936–1938, the Talysh aristocracy was subjected to repressions, the Talysh schools were closed and publication of books and newspapers was stopped.

### Arrest

After that, Nasirli was arrested in 1936 as an "enemy of the people" and despite the fact that not enough evidence was found. On August 11, 1937, he was sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the Baku garrison to 7 years in camps with a loss of rights for 3 years. He served his prison sentence in the Correctional labour camp in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). On March 5, 1940, due to the lack of evidence collected the case was dismissed by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union and Nasirli was released. After returning from the place of detention, due to a mental shock, he retired from scientific work.
After his release, he taught in Baku. From 1940 to 1941 he worked as a teacher at the department of state administration of education at orphanages in Mashtagha. From 1941 to 1944 he worked as deputy director for educational work in the comprehensive schools in Masally.
On March 3, 1944, he died of typhus, which was then widespread in the city of Masally and was buried at the Masally cemetery.