Kamal Abdulla

(Kamal Mehdi Abdullayev)

1950

Azerbaijani scientist, writer, public figure, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Honorary Scholar, Full Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (NASA), Chairman of the Creativity Foundation, Full Honorary Member of Turkic language Society. Full Member (academician) of the International Personnel Academy of the Ukraine, Honorary Doctor of Moscow City Pedagogical University, and Russian Yekaterenburg University, Honorary Professor of Poltava University of Economy and Trade. He was given the Supreme award – “HONORARY BLUE RIBBON INSIGNIA” of Sofia University. He is the member of Russian PEN-Club (Moscow).

Scientific interest sections – Linguistics, Literature, Turkology, Culture Studies.

He studied in the Faculty of Philology at Azerbaijan State University during 1968 – 1973.

He was a full-time postgraduate in the department of “Turkic Languages” at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR during 1973 – 1976.

In January, 1977 he defended his PhD dissertation entitled “Syntactic Parallelism”( on the epos “The Book of Dada Gorgud”) in Moscow.
Later during 1977 – 1984 he took the positions of junior scientific researcher, senior scientific researcher and head of the department of “Comparative Research of Turkic Languages” at the Institute of Linguistics of NASA.

In 1984 he defended his doctoral thesis on “Theoretical Issues of Syntax of the Azerbaijani Language” in Baku.

During 1984 – 1987 he worked as a head and Professor in the department of “General and Azerbaijani Linguistics” at the Institute of Foreign Languages.

In 1988 – 1990 he worked as the First Deputy Chairman in Culture Foundation (now Azerbaijan Creativity Foundation), in 1990 was elected the chairman of the Foundation.

In 1990 he was elected the head of the department “General and Russian Linguistics” at the Institute of the Russian Language and Literature named after M.F. Akhundov. From 1993 up to 2000 he worked as the head of the department “General and Azerbaijani Linguistics” at the Institute of Foreign Languages again.

In 1994 – 1995 he worked as Professor in the department of “The Turkish Language and Literature” at Uludag University in Bursa (the Republic of Turkey).
In May, 2000 he was appointed as the Rector of the Institute of the Russian Language and Literature named after M.F. Akhundov.

He was appointed as the Rector of Baku Slavic University which was newly-established by the President Heydar Aliyev`s Decree (2000-2014).

He was the academic-secretary of the Humanitarian and Social Studies Section of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (2010-2014).

In February, 2014 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev he was appointed the State Councilor on multiethnic, multicultural and religious affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
He is the Chairman of the Guardianship Council of Baku International Multiculturalism Center, and of Azerbaijan Creativity Foundation. (former Azerbaijan Culture Foundation).

His books on Linguistics are: “Problems of Syntax of the Simple Sentence in the Azerbaijani Language” ( Baku, Elm, 1983) “Theoretical Problems of the Syntax of the Azerbaijani Language” (Baku, Maarif, 1999), “The Russian Language in Azerbaijan” (in co-authorship with Prof. Ilyas Hamidov) ( Baku, 2005), “ The Journey into Linguistics or Linguistics for Non-Linguists” ( Baku, 2010), “Compound Syntactical Wholes in Azerbaijani“ (in co-authorship with other linguists) ( Baku, 2012). “Let’s Speak Azerbaijani” (Paris 2008; Bucharest 2010; Budapest 2011; Abu-Dabi 2012).

His books on Literature studies, Literary criticism and Essay studies, such as, “ Author-Novel-Reader” (Baku, Yazichi, 1988), “What is Written Nevertheless’(Baku, Yazichi, 1990), “The start and the End of the Road”(Baku, Azerbaijan State Publishing-House, 1993), “ 300 Azerbaija-nis”(Baku, Mutarjim, 2007) reflect the problematic aspects of World Literature and shed light on the invisible sides of the ancient and contemporary literary processes.

Some of his books on Gorgud studies were also published in different years. They are the followings:” Mysterious Dada Gorgud’(Baku, Yazichi, 1991), “The Epos in Mystique or Mysterious Dada Gorgud – 2 “ ( Baku, Elm, 1999), “Mysterious Dada Gorgud” ( Baku, Mutarjim, 2006), “From Myth to Writing or Mysterious Dada Gorgud” (Baku, Mutarjim, 2009), Introduction to "The Book of Dada Gorgud" poetics" (Baku,2017).His book “Mysterious Dada Gorgud” was translated into Turkish and published in Bursa (Bursa, Ekin Publishing-House, 1995) and in Istanbul (Istanbul, Otuken Publishing-House, 1995) and then in Istanbul the book ‘From Myth to Writing or Mysterious Dada Gorgud” (Istanbul, otuken Publishing-House, 2013 ) was translated into Turkish and published separately again.
His book “Lectures in Baku Slavic University “ (in co-authorship with acad. A. Mirzajanzade) (Baku, Mutarjim, 2003) was devoted to the issues of Literature and Poetry.

His book “The Russian Language in Azerbaijan” (Baku, Mutarjim, 2005) ( c0-authored by Prof. I.Hamidov) discusses the history of the Russian language in Azerbaijan, its today’s and future perspectives.
Kamal Abdulla’s literary works – plays, short stories, novels, essays and poems are published in Azerbaijan and abroad.

Kamal Abdulla is the author of the novels, such as, “The Incomplete Manuscript”, “The Valley of Wizards”, “There is Nobody to Forget…”, “The Diary Without Dates” and the collections of poems and short stories. He has drama works, such as, “There is Nobody to Forget…” (Baku, Azerneshr, 1995), “The Ghost” ( Baku, Azerneshr, 1997), ‘The Spy” (Baku, Mutarjim, 2004), “The Ghost” (Ankara, 2006), “All My Sadness”(Baku, Mutarjim, 2009) published in Azerbaijani, Russian and Turkish.

His translations from the Silver Age poets of Russian poetry were gathered in the book of translations “The Mystery of the Silver Age” (Baku, Mutarjim, 2001).

His poems are collected in his books “ It is Strange, isn’t it?” (Baku, BSU Publishing-House, 1998) and “ Pomegranate Flowers” ( Baku, Mutarjim, 2014).

The book “Sad Selections” (Baku, Mutarjim, 2002) consists of all his essays, poems, short stories, translations and plays.

His novel “The Incomplete Manuscript” was first published in 2004 in Baku. It was republished in Azerbaijan in 2013. Afterwards it was published in France with the title” Le Manuscript Inacheve” (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2005; republished in 2013), then in Turkey under the title “ Eskik El Yazmasi” (Istanbul, Otuken, 2006; republished in 2014); then in Russia entitled “ Неполная рукопись” (Moscow, Xroniker, 2006; republished in the book entitled “Novels”, Moscow, Khudojestvennaya Literatura, 2013), then in Brazil entitled “O Manuscrito Inacabado “ (Jaoa Pessoa, Ideia, 2009), then in Poland entitled “ Zagadkomy Rykopis” (Torun, 2009); then in Egypt entitled ( Cairo, 2012), then in America entitled “ The Incomplete Manuscript” (Houston, 2013), then in Kazakhstan entitled “ Толык елис колжазба” ( Astana, 2013 ), then in Austria entitled “ Das unvollstandige manuscript” ( Vienna, 2013), in Kirghizia entitled “ Толук елис колжазма” ( Bishkek, 2014), then in Italy entitled “ Manoscritto Incompleto” (Rome, 2014) and then in Montenegro entitled “ Nepotpuni rukopis” (Podgorika, 2015), in Japan ……

His novel “ The Valley of Wizards” devoted to the life of Sufi santons was published in Baku in 2006, then in Turkey entitled as “ Büyücüler deresi” in 2010, then in Russia entitled as “ Долина кудесников” in 2010 ( reprinted in the book of “ Novels” in Russia, Moskva, Xudojestvennaya Literatura, 2013), then in Lithuania entitled as “ Stebukladariy slenis” in 2013, then in Kazakhstan entitled as “ Сикыршылар ангары” in 2013, then in France entitled as “ La valee des magiciens” in 2013, then in Japan entitled as 魔術師の谷 in 2013, then in Iran entitled as in 2014, in the United States of America entitled as “ Valley of the Sorcerers” in 2015.

In 2013 his novels “ The Incomplete Manuscript” and “ The Valley of Wizards” were published in one book entitled “ Novels” by one of the most remarkable Publishing Houses of Moscow “ Xudojestvennaya Literatura”.

“There is Nobody to Forget” by Kamal Abdulla was published in Baku in 2011. It was also published in Baku in 2015 entitled as “И некого забыть…” in Russian in the “Ganun” Publishing House.

K. Abdulla’s book “Undated Diary” which speaks about the author’s school life was published in 2005 in Baku. In 2007 it was published in the collection book “Открывая друг друга” under the title “Дневник с заметками на полях” in Russian. His book “Undated Diary” was published in the book ‘Collection of Novels” in 2007 on the initiative of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Head of the Foundation – First Lady of Azerbaijan Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva. At the same time, this book was published under the title “Дневник с бележки в полетата” in the collection entitled as “Един кьм друг” in Bulgarian in 2007.

The book of collections "Master of the Way" consisting of his poems and plays was published in Moscow (Moscow, RifRoy, 2004).

In 2009 his book “Stories” (Baku, Mutarjim) containing ten of his stories was published. In 2012 the book “Labyrinth” containing seventeen of his stories was published. In 2012 his book of stories “The Mystery of Time” was published. One more of his books entitled “Платон, кажется, заболел…” (Khudojestvennaya Literatura, ….) consisting of his stories was published in Moscow in 2014.

The following books about Kamal Abdulla were published in Azerbaijan and Turkey: “ The Mystery of Sadness” (by Elchin Seljug), “ Kamal Abdulla: Morphology of Choice” (by Prof. Asif Hajili), “ Kamal Abdulla: From Writing to Myth” ( by Rustem Kamal), “Kamal Abdulla’s Works in Turkish” ( by Mehman Musaoghlu).

Many scientific articles about Kamal Abdulla’s scholarly and literary activities were published in Russia, Turkey, France, Brazil, Poland, USA, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, and in some other countries.

In 2015 in co-authorship with Prof. E.A.Najafov Kamal Abdulla wrote the syllabus “ Introduction to Multiculturalism” ( for Bachelor degree) and “ Azerbaijani Multiculturalism” ( for master degree).

He lectured on “Azerbaijani studies” in Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA) in 2015.

Kamal Abdulla had been the author and presenter of monthly and weekly literary-artistic, scientific and social TV programs , such as, “ The Azerbaijani Language”, “ Goshma”, “Treasure”, “The Mystery of the Word” since 1983.

He lectured at many Universities in different countries, such as, in the USA (Harriman Institute at Columbia University); in France (INALCO and Strasbourg University); in Germany (University of Mainz); in Russia (Linguistic University, Teachers’ Training University, Linguistic Institute); in Turkey ( Uludagh university); in Poland (University of Warsaw); in Georgia (Tiflis State University; in Italy (Vatikan Sileza University), etc. He also was an organizer and a participant of a good deal of International Symposiums, Conferences and Colloquiums (in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Russia and so on).

He is the author and one of the organizers of the 10-year-International-Project “The Book of dada Gorgud” and “The Song of Nibelungs” (together with Mainz University and Volkenstain Society in Germany) which began to be realized in 2009.

He is the author of more than 200 articles, more than 20 teaching aids and monographs.

For his exceptional services in the sphere of investigation of the epos “ The Book of Dada Gorgud” which is considered to be one of the most important historical and cultural monuments of the Azerbaijani people , Kamal Abdullayev was given the title of “the Honorary Scientist of the Republic of Azerbaijan” by the President of the country Heydar Aliyev.

He was elected as the Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan ( NASA) in April, 2007. In July, 2014 he was elected the Full Member of NASA.

He was awarded with Pushkin Medal by the President of Russia V.V.Putin in November, 2007.

In Azerbaijan he was awarded with: “Humay Award”, “ Novel of the Year” by the 525th Newspaper, “ Literary Man of the Year” by the Monitoring Group.
He was awarded with “Karl Kramej” Medal for his exceptional role in the development of relationships between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic in 2009.

In 2009 he was awarded with “Great Cross” Cavallier Orden by the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski. Besides it, he was awarded with a Special Diploma by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic of Poland for his exceptional services in promoting the positive image of Poland.

In 2010 he was awarded with the “National Dada Gorgud Award” by Dada Gorgud National Foundation and with the Gold Medal “Vatan Ovladi” founded by the International journal “ World of Azerbaijan”.

On May 21, 2015 he was given the “Award for his Scientific Activity” in the V Congress of Qafgaz Universities Union (KUNIB) in Tabriz, Iran.

On September 21, 2015 his book “The incomplete manuscript” was highly appreciated by one of the biggest foundations in Italy – Rikardo Tanaturri Foundation and the book was given a Special Prize on Literature of Scanno Award founded by the Foundation.

On December 3, 2015 he was awarded with “ Shohrat” Orden by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for his useful activity in the field of education in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On February 17, 2016 he was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of “Turkology” in NASA by the Decision of the Presidium of NASA.

SEE MORE AT:

www.kamalabdulla.az