Institute of Manuscripts, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Tahira Hasanzade. Khalisagarizade Abdulgani afandi’s pedagogical activity // J. of “Manuscripts Don’t Burn". Special issue, 2019, pp. 65-69. Tahira Hasanzade Doctor of Science in History Institute of Manuscripts named after Muhammad Fuzuli, ANAS 26 Istiglaliyat Street, Baku E-mail: [email protected] KHALISAGARIZADE ABDULGANI AFANDI’S PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITY Key words: Khalisagarizade, pedagogical activities, textbooks, enlightener According to experts, the roots of the history of Azerbaijani pedagogical thought are deeply rooted in past centuries. The history of organized school education is linked to the history of Islam. The issue of relation between the science and religion is not a new issue; its origins go back to the Middle Ages (4, 200). The Qur’an encouraged Muslims to acquire knowledge by preferring "those who knows to ones that does not”. This is one of the sayings of the Prophet (pbuh): “What Allah has created first is the mind. Look for science even in China though.”(4, II) Prior to Islam, there were Zoroaster schools in wire-worshipping (1, 95), followed by Christian schools in the northern part of Azerbaijan, Albania. Azerbaijani teachers in the madrasahs were intellectuals educated in Eastern countries: Baghdad, Damascus. Abul Ula Ganjavi, Falaki Shirvani, Khagani, Nizami, Mahsati were thinker writers and teachers. Maragha science school headed by Azerbaijani scientist Nasreddin Tusi, his works “Akhlag-i Nasiri” (A work on ethics), “Adabul-mutaallimin” reflecting his pedagogical ideas are the sources of the history of Azerbaijani pedagogical thought. The text critic Kamandar Sharifov considers Azerbaijani scientist as a great thinker in science. The people's poet, Molla Panah Vagif, was a talented teacher, and the saying “not every educated person can be Molla Panah” refers to him. The title of "Mullah" was then given in connection with high-level pedagogical activity. M.F.Akhundov, Mirza Kazim bey, S. Shirvani, M.Sh.Vazeh and other thinkers had the great services in the history of Azerbaijani science and pedagogical thought of the XIX century. During this period, science and literature were at a new stage of development. However, there were great difficulties in this period as well. The shortage of staff and lack of teaching aids led to the closure of schools. The manuals prepared and used by Shamsaddin Abdulqani Nukhavi Muhammad Afandi oglu Khalisqarizadeh, the well-known scientist, pedagogue and book writer of the 19th century, who lived in such a complicated period, constitute a new stage in Azerbaijan's pedagogical thought and is of particular importance in learning this historical process. According to the study of the scientist and text critic V.Sha- rifov, we find out that Abdulqani’s father Kamaladdin Muhammad Afandi was educated in Eastern languages and was familiar with the classical heritage. He also gave the first edu- 65 Journal of “Manuscripts don’t burn” / Special issue, 2019 cation to his children, and seeing that his youngest son Abdulqani has special skills, he worked with him more and taught oriental languages. Later continuing his education in national schools and madrasahs, Abdulgani was a student of Abdulla Afandi Akhundzadeh, a well-known master of that era, and studied both classical poets and mastered the art of calligraphy. The madrasahs of Abdulla Afandi Akhundzadeh and Alijan bey Nukhavi in Shaki were enlightenment place giving comprehensive knowledge on everything. It is no coincidence that Abdulgani began his pedagogical activity in the special madrasah of Alijan bey Nukhavi, and turned the well-known madrasah into deep knowledge and science place with his knowledge and pedagogical activity. Nevertheless, many madrasahs were being closed during that time. Engaged in the pedagogical activity for over 35 years, Abdulqani Nukhavi taught his own special training methods in the madrasahs, and prepared a number of tutorials for that. (3,6). They were in the form of collections of the manuscripts and books, and some are currently kept in the Institute of Manuscripts. If we look at the textbooks he compiled, we will see that secular sciences such as linguistics, literary criticism, history, philosophy, logic, mathematics, geometry, astronomy and etc. were taught in the madrasah he worked and that students were gaining comprehensive knowledge. Abdulqani Nukhavi studied artistic and scientific works he had researched for many years, commented on them and widely used his scientific work during teaching and education. Therefore, the scientist worked on it by defining its significance for teaching. He compiled and taught textbooks that provide information about all areas of science to enable students to have a comprehensive knowledge. For example, he translated the preface of the famous scientific encyclopedia, Katip Chalabi's novel, “Kashf az-Zunun ‘an ‘asami l-Kutub wa’l- funun” (‘Opinion’s Scrutiny of the Names of Books and the Sciences’) and parts related with the various sciences, and included it into the curriculum. Here, he wrote the definitions of all sciences and gave information about the works of the famous scientists and writers on the edges of the text. He extracted some of the information about scientists from “Kashf az- Zunun” and some from other sources. In short, this teaching material was useful both as school supplies and a reference book. Along with the textbooks he had prepared and written, Abdulqani Nukhavi met with the advanced educators, discussed the problems of the educational institutions, and utilized the textbooks they compiled and expressed his attitude towards them. Copying the book of A.Bakikhanov “Qanuni-Qudsi” (The Holy Law) published in 1831 and using it was a manual at the school, the young teacher Abdulqani also made his critical remarks about the work. (3.17) It is known from sources that Abdulqani Afandi continued his education in Turkey. By the way, it should be noted that the language of textbook “Farsi takallum risalasi” (A tract on conversational Farsi) is very close to Ottoman Turkish. This work is one of the many textbooks prepared by Abdulqani Afandi Khalisaqarizadeh and is a valuable source for studying the pedagogical ideas and progressive teaching methods of the scholar. In his work, the scientist who proposed his new pedagogical methods criticized the teaching methodology of the Oriental languages, including the Persian language, and showed its defects. Seeing the main disadvantage in the teaching methods of the teachers who made the pupil whose speaking skills were primitive to read the Hafiz, Sadi, Abdulqani, for example, suggested to teach the dictionary of the preface, method of dialogue, and then pupils learnt the Persian can read the simple texts that did not have Arabic compositions. The educator, who prefers conversation, has expressed his opinion on this in the “Farsi takallum risalasi”. The work is valuable because it presents students with a number of pages of Azerbaijani history. Examples: “Question: How many cities Azerbaijan have? 66 Institute of Manuscripts, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Answer: Previously, Azerbaijan had many towns. Now most of the cities have passed to the Russian government. The cities that passed to Iran are Tabriz, Ardabil, Maragha, Salmas, Hoy and Urmia. Katip Chalabi gave wide information about this country in the book “Cihannuma” (View of the World). (3.62) Like Azerbaijan, they know Turkish language everywhere in Iran. (3.69) The paper written by the shahs is called a figure, and the paper written by the rulers and Emirs were called taliga (memorandum)” (3, 71-72). By this information, he informs the students about the archaeological documents. The book advises the students to read many works related to history, including the “Alamarayi-Abbasi” and Durreyi-Nadiri. The 19th century was also faced with the closure of a number of schools due to financial difficulties and lack of pedagogical staff. Nevertheless, intellectuals like Abdulqani Afandi did their best, compile the textbooks, and open the doors of their private libraries to the people. Abdulqani Afandi Nukhavi enriched his library with his own funds, and his notes on the white pages of these books reveal that their geography is based on Istanbul, Alexandria, Cairo, Mecca, Medina and other cities. Firidun bey Kocharli called him “teacher of the Azerbaijani people with flaring heart” in the nineteenth century (5). The scientific foundations of the Institute of Manuscripts named after Mohammad Fuzuli, ANAS had rich examples which do not wholly cover Abdulqani Afandi's wealthy manuscript and printing book collection. Among the encrypted book over 200 in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages, the book coded as V-411 attracts attention. This is the Tiflis publication of the “Muallimul-atfal” of Akhund Ahmad Huseynzadeh, the third Sheikh-Islam of the Caucasus, in 1879. The manuscript copy of the work is dated to 1874. Most likely Abdulqani Afandi was acquainted with the handwritten copy of the masterpiece. “Muallimul- atfal” is an alphabetical textbook written in the method of voice. Being written in 1874, this textbook is the first textbook for Azerbaijani schools. Yaqubi Asad Rza criticized Huseyn Ahmadov, the well-known teacher, the researcher of the Azerbaijan pedagogical history, for avoiding this fact. (2). As it is known, Q.Chernyayevski published his book “Mother language” in 1883 with method of voice. Ahmad Huseynzadeh thanked Consul General Mirza Mahmud khan Tabrizi,