Khurshidbanu Natavan – The last princess of the Karabakh Khanate

Khurshidbanu Natavan (1832 – 1897) was a prominent Azerbaijani poetess and philanthropist of the 19^th century. She was the daughter of Mehdigulu Khan Javanshir, the last ruler of the Karabakh Khanate. Natavan is famous for her lyric verses which speak about the picturesque views of nature, the breath of spring and the scent of the earth. Her creativity is equally full of love and drama. Her poems were written in Azerbaijani, as well as in Persian, in the genre of ghazal, writes Narmin Hasanova.

Early life in Karabakh and influences

The name of Khurshidbanu Natavan has long been on the lips of people, and it is remembered with respect and love. She was born into the family of a Khan on August 15, 1832, in Shusha, called the “conservatory of Transcaucasia”. As Natavan was the only child in the family, she was named “Dürrü yekta” (“The only pearl” / “The rearest pearl”), and “Khan’s daughter” among the Karabakh people. Natavan was raised at a palace and took lessons from famous scientists and artists of that time. Her literary environment played a significant role in her development as a literary figure.

The House of Natavan in Shusha

Khurshidbanu mastered the verses of the Holy Quran and religious teachings, as well as became acquainted with world sciences. In the 19th century, as a rule, children of noble families were taught Arabic and Persian along with their native languages. Hence, the Khan’s daughter acquired these languages ​​and mastered the rules of classical poetry through them. Rare books and valuable manuscripts of oriental poets linked Khurshidbanu with classical literature.

Close and distant relatives of Natavan significantly influenced her worldview and artistic taste. The creativity, literary conversations and debates, as well as wise pieces of advice of such respected and famous personalities, as Gasim bey Zakir, Mirza Adigozal, and Ahmed bey Javanshir, strengthened the sense and passion for poetry and art in Khurshidbanu Natavan.

Mirza Fatali Akhundov, the founder of literary criticism in Azerbaijani drama and literature, played a crucial role in her life and work. Khurshidbanu’s personal acquaintance with Akhundov aroused wide interest in social issues and charitable activities.

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Natavan began her creativity in the 50s of the 19th century. At first, most of the poems she wrote under the signature “Khurshid” were lost and only a small part of them has reached us. Beginning in 1870, the poetess took the pseudonym “Natavan” (helpless, weak, sick) and created her deep ghazals.

When Natavan was 18, she got married to the Dagestan prince Khasai Khan Utsmiev. The reason for this was tension in foreign and domestic politics. Thus, her dream of building a happy family also came to naught. Natavan expressed dissatisfaction with the humiliation of human dignity and personal dreams; in her poems, she bitterly complained about her fate and accused her era of disloyalty and betrayal.

In the fall of 1850 Khasai Khan and Natavan got married in Shusha, then they departed from Karabakh for Dagestan and then to Tiflis. In connection with the service of Khasai Khan, Khurshidbanu stayed in Tiflis for four to five years. This situation influenced her formation as a poet and artist. In Tiflis, the Khan’s daughter got an opportunity to get acquainted with the multinational culture of the Caucasus and derive an advantage from this stay. Natavan joined the Russian and Georgian cultural societies and her national tradition, behaviour, and freedom of speech in three languages aroused interest in these societies. She travelled a lot with Utsmiev, and these trips broadened her horizons. During Princess’s visit to Vladikavkaz, Dagestan, Shirvan, Baku, Ganja and Nakhchivan, she witnessed the colonial policy pursued by tsarism in remote areas and met with high-ranking government officials, writers, scientists and travellers. In 1858, Khurshidbanu met the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas in Baku. Thanks to Khasai Khan’s excellent knowledge of French, they became friends. This meeting is also mentioned in the “The Caucasus and Travel Impressions” (Impression de Voyage Le Caucase) by A. Dumas.

Khurshidbanu Natavan with her son Mehdigulu Khan and daughter Khanbika

Natavan did not have any children for four years. The Khan’s daughter and her husband arrived in Baku in 1854 and then she visited the Bibiheybat mosque, located in an area called the village of Shykh. A year after this visit, she gave birth to her son Mehdigulu Khan in 1855, and then her daughter Khanbika in 1856.

In 1864, Khasai Khan was sent into exile as a result of a conflict with Knyaz Loris-Melikov and committed suicide there in 1866. This event gave Khurshidbanu a legal reason for divorce.

Khasai Khan with his son Mehdigulu Khan

The enemies of the Khan’s daughter tried to use this situation as she was helpless and without support. Spiritual leaders did not like the fact that the poetess spoke openly in front of the public and was interested in poetry, painting and music. Since she was left without a husband, she heard caustic words addressed to her from ignorant people. In 1869, Khurshidbanu decided to get married to Seyid Huseyn Aghamirov, a man from Shusha, to put an end to the reproaches. Seyid Huseyn is said to have been an ordinary hatter. With this act, Khan’s daughter angered the beys and landowners and faced criticism for the rest of her life. The city’s nobility called her husband the servant and coachman of Natavan. Due to these rumours, Mehdigulu Khan, her son from the first marriage, left home. He was only 14 years old at that time. It was Mehdigulu Khan whose wedding ceremony was later celebrated by Khurshidbanu for 40 days and 40 nights. The wedding was remembered for the generosity of the Khan’s daughter. She distributed food to all the poor villagers of Karabakh and gave gifts to each guest. Natavan’s famous poem I’m Dying was written under the influence of this separation.

In 1870-1880, a new stage began in her life and work. The poetess contributed to disseminating knowledge and culture, and actively participated in social and cultural events. Natavan allocated a budget from her annual income to construct roads, bridges and schools. Moreover, she organised banquets and conversations where intelligentsia and representatives of various arts took part. Azerbaijani students studying in distant cities, poor scientists, poets and artists received help from Khurshidbanu. Along with Karabakh, art workers from all over Transcaucasia took refuge under her patronage. The news about Natavan’s innovations in her homeland, she was doing with pleasure and enthusiasm, spread everywhere. Natavan seriously thought about the improvement of Karabakh and the cultural appearance of Shusha. In 1873, due to Natavan’s efforts, drinking water was provided to Shusha from a distance of seven kilometres, and nowadays it is called “Khan gizi Spring” (also known as Khan’s Daughter’s Spring).

The brightest times of Natavan’s creativity are closely connected with the period of activity of the Karabakh literary collections. F. Kocharli, the prominent literary critic, called this period “the happy time of literature of the 19th century.” The literary association “Majlisi-uns” founded in 1872 on the initiative and financial support of Khurshidbanu united about thirty poets. In the Majlisi-uns led by Natavan for 20 years valuable poems were created in the Chagatai language along with Azerbaijani and Persian. The literary community was active in translations of classical works and in writing tributes to the works of such influential literary figures as Khagani, Nizami and Fuzuli.

The Meeting of Natavan with Dumas

The world-famous French writer Alexandre Dumas also visited the territory of Azerbaijan during his stay in the Caucasus in 1858-1859. Soon after his return, in April 1859, a three-volume work by A. Dumas (1802-1870) The Caucasus and Travel Impressions (1859), (Impression de Voyage Le Caucase) was published in French in Paris. The work also describes how he became acquainted with Khurshidbanu Natavan and her husband Prince Khasai Utsmiev, when he was a guest in Pigulievsky’s house, the chief of the police of one of the Baku districts. A sincere friendship was developed between them. Dumas played chess with Natavan, and the game result was very memorable. Dumas was stunned by Natavan’s skilful play as she was much younger than him. She was only 26, and Dumas was 56 years old. After Dumas had lost in the chess game, he presented her a small bust of Napoleon and an elegant chess piece made of ivory and brought from Paris, as a sign of admiration for Natavan’s intelligence. Alexandre Dumas’ father was a general in Napoleon’s army. For this reason, Dumas had a special sympathy for Napoleon. Khasay Khan Utsmiev in his turn, presented him with a purse and an arkhalig (a long tight-waist traditional jacket) handmade by Natavan.

The first information about the stone road construction from Baku to the village of Shykh is also reflected in Dumas’s book. More than half of the book, consisting of 68 chapters, is dedicated to Azerbaijan. In the chapters devoted to Georgia and Dagestan, entire pages and numerous episodes talk about Azerbaijanis. Dumas was impressed by the hospitality of the locals, offering travellers free food, water and rest; he writes about the weapons of the Azerbaijanis, falconry, ram fights, and the destructive attacks of the Russian army in these places. He describes 20 cities, mountains, rivers, and forests. Carpet weaving in Guba, Shamakhi and Nukha, the colours and patterns of carpets fascinate Dumas.

In his memoirs, Dumas writes: “Two Tatar (Azerbaijani) princesses and the younger one’s husband were present in the house where I was invited that evening. I must clearly say that they welcomed us with joy because they had been waiting impatiently for our arrival. One of the princesses was the wife of the last ruler of Karabakh, Mehdigulu Khan, and the other one was his daughter. Her mother was 40, and her daughter was about 20. They were both wearing a traditional dress. The daughter looked very attractive and charming in her expensive dress. A three-four-year-old girl, dressed like her mother, was looking at us in wide-eyed amazement. Besides, a five-six-year-old boy was sitting on his grandmother’s knee, instinctively holding on to the handle of his dagger, ready for any eventuality… A French mother would never give a real dagger to her child. I was kind of surprised that it was a child’s toy for (Azerbaijani) mothers. Their father was Prince Khasai Khan Utsmiev, a 35-year-old handsome man who spoke French like a real Parisian. He wore a black suit and a gold-embroidered pointed hat. A dagger with an ivory handle and a gold sheath were hung from his waist.”

The work was published in Russian in Tiflis in 1861, and in English in New York in 1962.

This real historical event was skilfully transferred to the canvas by an artist Chingiz Mehbaliyev in the painting The Chess Game of Khurshidbanu Natavan and Alexander Dumas.
The Painting by Chingiz Mehbaliyev

The Flower Book, 1886

Monument in Waterloo, Belgium

Monument In Evian-le-Ban, France

Monument in Shusha, Azerbaijan

The death of Natavan’s son, and her literary works

Part of Natavan’s creativity is a series of poems written in 1885-1886 concerning the poetess’s tragedy. After the death of her 16-year-old son, Natavan wrote pessimistic poems, such as To My Son Abbas, Grief, Don’t Go Away, Without You and so on. Her poetry stands out for its deep sincerity and delicate lyricism. Artistic means such as repetition, radifs, qoshma, metaphors, and allegory are used skilfully. In these works, the grief of the unhappy mother, deeply saddened by the death of her son, and drowned in tears, can be heard. As Khurshidbanu’s pains and sufferings increase, they go beyond the circle of personal tragedy and reach the limit of anguish which is common to many mothers:

“To my son Abbas

Parted with you, I burn night and day,

Like a thoughtless moth in a candleflame.

Like a rose you were destined to fade and die;

Like a nightingale mourning its rose sing I.

My heart aches with longing to see you, my star,

I roam like Medjnun in search of Leili.

I whisper your name, for your presence I sigh,

Like a grief-stricken dove on a bough sing I.

Like Farhad from the source of my happiness banned,

At the foot of the mountain of parting I stand.

Your name all these days I have chanted and sung

Like a parrot with sugar under its tongue.

Haunted with sorrow, all day I wander;

Burning with grief like a Salamander.

My heart, that once soared in a heaven of love,

Broke its wings and was dashed to the earth from above.

Blind to the light of the sun and the moon,

Like a moon eclipsed, I am shrouded on gloom.

Through my tears your image I always see,

You dried up so soon, o my cypress-tree!

Oh, would I were blind not to see you dead.

The sun now scorches the earth, your last bed.

My hopes were frustrated; you left me and died,

I did not live to see you join your bride.

Your brown eyes expectantly looked at me;

Was it only that mine your shrine should be?

I weep tears of blood, to sunlight I’m blind,

As a lost soul I wander, Abbas, my child.

The anguish of losing your gnaws at my breast,

Tears flow from my eyes without respite or rest.”

(Translated by Dorian Rottenberg)

The poetess did not accept the death of the son and tried to keep alive the image of a lost child in her ghazals. Natavan fell ill and was laid up for a year. Even after recovery, moral upheaval and woe did not leave Khurshidbanu alone. This hardest period of her life strongly influenced her inner world and creativity, reflecting her emotional crisis and hopelessness in such poems as My Soul, Goodbye, I Wish It Were and The Left Woman:

“Beloved, how could you break the oath to me you swore?

Beloved, am I today not the same as I was before?

You seek new company, love, with other women you meet,

Have you forgotten me, the one that you once called sweet?

Yes, you have found another before whom you bare your soul;

She is receiving the joy which from my life you stole.

My life is now a nightmare of infinite, black despair.

People talk of my madness always and everywhere.

Your heartlessness, o beloved, is driving me insane.

Have pity on me, have mercy, come back to me again.

O Destiny, how cruel, how ruthless you are to me!

Who does he give his love? ‘Who can the lucky one be?

Life overflows with anguish, with tears overflow my eyes;

But he, my fickle lover, turns a deaf ear to my sighs.

Why, have you been avoiding me all this time,

Me, the unlucky slave of a lord so truly sublime?

Love, you have driven your slave to the limit of desperation,

Gossips are calling me now the victim of sinful temptation.

Have pity on me, your slave, o my lord, my Padishah!

My lamentations echo throughout the world, near and far.

You and your love make merry, carousing day and night,

And I, your unlucky victim, have forgotten what is delight.

There was a time when you wanted nobody else but me.

Now you have changed, and your old love you even refuse to see.

What was the cause, my monarch, explain to your subject, pray?

What have I done that you leave me like a flower plucked and thrown

away?

What shall I do, distraught and unhappy as I am now?

How could I ever have given my heart to you, oh how?

Make merry, my love, with my rival, feast and have a good time,

While I must weep tears of anguish because you’re no longer mine.

Chirp with your newly-found mate like two nightingales on a bough:

And I-remember what I was like, and what have I turned into now?

Kill me, let Allah give strength to your ruthless hand!

What have I done to you that such torture I have to stand?

I sigh and I weep in sorrow, pain is tearing my heart.”

(Translated by Dorian Rottenberg)

However, despite the ups and downs, Natavan never stopped creating and devoting herself to art. She was also a talented artist. Proofs of this are the paintings in her album “Flower Book” dated 1886 and kept at the Institute of Manuscripts named after Mahammad Fuzuli of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Science. On the album cover, on one side, a daffodil, a rose and the AD date “1886”, and on the other, spruce, poplar, pine and the Hijri date “1304” are woven from multi-coloured threads. The paintings are bordered with oriental ornaments. The album consists of paintings of various flowers, plants and landscapes drawn by her with watercolours and pencils. The part of her poetic works is based on the descriptions of nature. She is inspired by every flower, tree, living being and non-living being in the environment. Khurshidbanu shows her talent for describing a flower as an artist trying to depict it on canvas. Her admiration is vividly expressed in her ghazals “Carnation”, “A Nightingale” and “Lilac”, translated by Dorian Rottenberg:

“O flowering lilac, whose was the skilful hand that drew you?

O radiant –featured, was it a loving slave that drew you?

Chancing to penetrate into your palace, garden,

O poppy-cheeked, was it a skilful gardener drew you?

In this flowerbed world there were all too many plain faces:

Was that the reason why the almighty keeper drew you?

The flowers take their colours and fragrance from you,

As a flower the hand of the world’s creator drew you.

What a wealth gentleness shows in your beauty!

With her gift of fancy bestowed by God, perhaps it was

Natavan that drew you?”

Flower Book, 1886

Natavan’s poems are characterized by colourfulness, simple language, playful manner of writing and harmonious meters. She strongly influenced the literary creativity of Azerbaijani poets of the following generations in the 19th and 20th centuries who devoted their works to Natavan imitating her.

The last five years of her life became a difficult and turning point for Natavan. The poetess died on October 1, 1897, in Shusha. As a sign of deep respect, the people participating in the funeral carried the poetess’s body on foot from Shusha to Aghdam. The Khan’s daughter was buried in “Imarat”, the family cemetery. Her death was mourned not only by Azerbaijani but also by the entire enlightened people of the Caucasus. Several streets, libraries and schools are named after Khurshidbanu. Manuscripts, personal clothing and belongings of the Khan’s daughter are kept in the archives and museums as rare exhibits. A statue in Baku, a bust in Shusha, and monuments in Evian-le-Ban, France and Waterloo city of Belgium have been installed. Her creative legacy has been translated into Russian, English, French, Turkish and Persian. The heritage of Natavan is the strong voice of an independent woman, poetess and public figure, who still encourages and inspires women in Azerbaijan.  By the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan on May 7, 2019, her works were declared state heritage. 

The article is prepared and translated by Narmin Hasanova of the Azerbaijan State Translation Centre.

Bibliography

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