Azerbaijani Enlightenment at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries: East–West Intellectual Dialogue and Cultural Modernity

Abstract

This article examines the Azerbaijani Enlightenment of the late 19th–early 20th centuries as representing a distinct intellectual formation that emerged from sustained dialogue between Eastern traditions and Western modernity. It argues that Azerbaijani enlighteners did not merely obliviously assimilate European Enlightenment ideas, but actively reinterpreted them through the prism of local cultural, religious, and socio-political frameworks. Drawing on a comparative East–West perspective, the article analyses the philosophical writings, literary texts, and satirical journalism associated with such intellectuals as Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh, Hasan bey Zardabi, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, and Mammad Amin Rasulzade (Georgeon, 1996; Habibbayli, 2014; Swietochowski, 1995). Methodologically, the study combines historical-comparative analysis with intellectual history and discourse analysis. It demonstrates that the Azerbaijani Enlightenment constituted a hybrid form of cultural modernity that contributed to debates on nationalism, secularism, education, and statehood in the Caucasus during the latter period of the Tsarist Russian Empire. Positioning this movement amidst broader discussions of multiple modernities, the article highlights its relevance for understanding the intellectual transformations in Central Eurasia immediately after the fall of the Russian Empire and prior to incorporation into the Soviet Union.