Today marks the birthday of Khurshidbanu Natavan, an outstanding Azerbaijani poetess.
Sea-news.az reports that Khurshidbanu Natavan, the daughter of Mehdigulu Khan, was born in Shusha in 1832. Her father named her after his own mother, Khurshidbanu. Since Khurshidbanu was the only child in the family and the last heir of the Karabakh khans, she was called “Dürrü yekta” (Single Pearl) in the palace and “Xan qızı” (Khan’s Daughter) among the people.
According to historians’ assumptions, due to the severely tense external and internal situation during this period, control over the khan’s family was tightened, and Khurshidbanu was forced into marriage with Khasay Khan Usmiyev. There is also an assumption that Khasay Bey, the personal adjutant of Vorontsov, helped them with property claims in Tiflis and, in return, proposed to Khurshidbanu. In the autumn of 1850, Khasay Bey arrived in Shusha, held a wedding, and took Khurshidbanu to Dagestan—his native village—and from there to Tiflis.
In 1855, Khurshidbanu gave birth to a son, and in 1856, to a daughter. They named their son Mehdigulu and their daughter Khanbike.
Khurshidbanu Natavan was a personality with brilliant talent and progressive ideals. She left deep traces in Azerbaijani culture and public life. There are several main reasons for the emergence of this phenomenon. One of them is the poetess’s pedigree. That is, Natavan carries the blood of two great lineages—the Javanshirs and the Ziyadoglu Qajars.
Natavan’s daughter, Khanbike Khanum, also continued her mother’s path, writing ghazals and rubaiyats. Several of her ghazals were published in Vasif Guliyev’s book “The Path Leading to Yesterday.”
Natavan began her creative work around the 1850s. Initially, most of the poems she wrote under the pen name “Khurshid” were lost, and only a negligible part has reached us.
Natavan was also a talented artist. Her artistic embroidery and the drawings in her album titled “Gül Dəftəri” (Flower Notebook, 1886) are proof of this.
The lineage, roots, and family to which she belonged also had a great influence on Natavan’s self-affirmation as a personality and her attachment to her homeland and birthplace. She is etched in the memory of the people as a philanthropist, patron of the arts, and active public figure. Khurshidbanu Natavan organized the “Majlisi-uns” literary assembly in Shusha. In 1873, she had a water pipeline laid to Shusha: this water pipeline is still famous today as the “Xan qızı bulağı” (Khan’s Daughter Spring). Natavan also initiated the construction of a water pipeline from the Araz River to the Mil plain.
The injustices of personal relationships, the cruelty of the times, and the oppression of tyrants aged the poet prematurely, depriving her of the light of life. The sight of her eyes faded from crying, and her body grew weak.
Khurshidbanu Natavan passed away on October 1, 1897, and was buried in the “Imarat” cemetery in Aghdam.
Streets, clubs, a library, and a school are named after her. The manuscripts, personal clothing, and belongings of the Khan’s Daughter are preserved as rare exhibits in our archives and museums.
