Imadeddin Nasimi in Medieval Sources and Literary Criticism

The personality of the great Azerbaijani poet Imadeddin Nasimi aroused interest not only among his contemporaries during the years of his life (1369 – 1417) but also in later centuries. The study traces the statements and the most diverse opin-ions about the poet’s life, the dates and places of his birth and death, his wander-ings, and many other biographical details presented both by medieval authors and by the writers of more recent times. The author emphasized the appropriateness of following the single concept in studying the poet’s heritage that has been put for-ward in the late XIX – early XX century and adopted by all the leading scholars of the country already by the middle of the XX century; this concept is aimed at studying the poet’s work in three historical and geographical aspects: Middle Eastern (Turkic), Azerbaijani and, finally, Shirvan context, in order to communi-cate to the world Oriental Studies the indisputability of the poet’s belonging to the Azerbaijani people.