Звездный персонаж Шах Аббас, жертвоприношение и звездные метаморфозы в повести «Обманутые звезды» М.Ф. Ахундова
Stellar personage Shah Abbas, sacrifice motiff and star metamorphose in Mirza Phatali Akhundov’s story “The Decieved Stars”

Summary/Abstract: Contents of the papers highlights the following angles: introduction concerning gtghe place of Azerbaijani philosopher M.F. Akhundov among his contemporaries; history and history-making in ‘The Deceived Stars’ and the representation of historical star Shah Abbas in literature; the motif of sacrifice for the sake of another: Shah Abbas- Yakub-Yusif the Saddler (Sarraj); metamorphoses, the Nuqtavi ‘star’ theory and the deceived heavenly bodies as a link between them ; speculum of princes, Julius Caesar- Alexander-Yusif the Saddler or the genuine shah as an illusory hero. M.F. Akhundov’s work was popular in the Soviet period because of his ideas of enlightenment, criticism of the clergy, support for reform of the Arabic alphabet and his role as a colonel and translator in the service of imperial Russia in the Trans-Caucasus. His works are still included in school and university textbooks in Azerbaijan. But the contemporary political structure in the poet’s homeland allows a reinterpretation of his legacy; in particular his atheism, like that of Sabir and Jamil Mammadguluzada, cannot be taken at face value, because criticism of the clergy and attempts to rethink the prophet do not amount to atheism. The same can be said of his contemporary, Voltaire, who criticized clerics but was not an atheist.

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