1) The document summarizes a poem called "Heydar Babaya Selam" written by Mohammad Hossein Behjat Tabrizi, known as Shahriar. 2) The poem was published in 1953 in Azerbaijan as a new year's gift and became instantly popular, learning by heart among the public and spreading across Azerbaijan. 3) The poem was inspired by Shahriar's childhood memories in Azerbaijan and experiences there, and came to represent a turning point in Shahriar's career and in the literature of Azerbaijan.

1. In God We Trust
Heydar Babaya Selam: New Year's Gift
Dr. H. Pouralifard
World's Great Poets
2018
Haleh Esmailian
Abstract
It was sixty-five years ago in March, 1953 just a few days before
Nowruz when the people of Azerbaijan and almost everyone who had
the slightest passion for poems were offered their new year's gift by
publication of a versified story called Heydar Babaya Selam, (Hail to
Heydar Baba), the latest masterpiece created by Mohammad Hossein
Behjat Tabrizi, Known as Shahriar.
keyword: Azerbaijan's Literature, Inspiration, Homeland
Not too Lengthy but very rich in content, the book was prepared to be
published by the intense cooperation of a great team made up of the
best of the world of Literature and culture. Providing the most powerful
photographic facilities of the time, the book was nicely written by the
artist called Morteza Nakhjavani who also took the responsibility for
designing the illustrations for the cover. Hossein Zafiri's Publication
House was fully equipped with all that was necessary being filled with all
requirements by a friend called Hassan Taqvimi. Mehdi Roshan Zamir
and Abdul Ali Karang contributed to the work by writing an Introduction
each, and an explanatory preface was provided by Shahriar himself
about the creative process he had gone through to get the work done
and altogether the book was given precedence to the people of
Azerbaijan.
It would be worthy to mention that long before having this beautiful
work composed, Shahriar had already gained fame and popularity
among the Iranians and that fame was achieved by the glamorous wit

2. and creative imagination that would catch the eyes of any reader at the
first sight of reading his poems. And this national fame earned him the
title of Hafez of the time, a title he truly deserved.
Heydar Babaya Selam was written after the above mentioned period
during which Shahriar had gone through some unique experiences and
events altering his poetic vision in some deep and positive sense among
which his beloved mother's enthusiasm about the poem was one of the
inspiring elements backing him up in writing a poem about the place
where he had spent most of his childhood.
The poem was defined by Shams Gheis Razi as an opening for a
prosperous and lucky period to begin in his life. It was shortly after the
publication of Heydar Babaya Selam that the poem was learned by heart
and committed by the memories of the public, gained fondness and was
circulated among people having it outstretched even to the furthest areas
of Azerbaijan and in sooner than no time it had conquered the hearts of
millions of Turkish speaking people.
The sprawl of the masterpiece did not stop at that point and songs
were composed by many great musicians having the poem as their
source of inspiration, which were sung by well-known singers, minstrels
and folklore performers of Azerbaijan province.
Shahriar had taken his chance in writing many other poems in his
mother tongue after this nation-sweeping sensational event but had also
clearly noticed the fact that none of those works had gone anywhere
near the summits of fame won by Heydar Babaya Selam.
Being aware of this fact, perhaps, was the reason for the poet to claim:
" I turned an ordinary Mount into a legendary one through my poem."
And the Mount of Heydar Baba owes its mythical fame to Shahriar who
embraced it like a loyal son, strained it to his breast and uplifted it gift-
wrapped with his magical words, to be represented to the lovers of
Nature and Nostalgia.
This miraculous event, of course, was sensed to be a probable
political threat and the Turkish language was banned by the Regime of
the time, having set some new rules declaring it to be illegal to write in
the Azeri language.

3. Shahriar, prior to anything, is recognized as the creator of Heydar
Babaya Selam, when it comes to Azerbaijan's Literature. Any other
associations or relations come later. The reason for such a concrete
priority is simple. It is an undeniable fact that the creation of Heydar
Babaya Selam co-created a turning point in both the personal life of the
poet and the history of Azerbaijan's Literature. As for the poet, it was
within the lines of this immortal masterpiece that his true poetic potency
and artistic talent got identified and was thoroughly recognized by the
people of his mainland and earned the deep and unshakable
compassion and love of the people of his country. Just as the poem
turned out to be the milestone for the definition of a literary revival and
resurgence, a fact that almost every respected literary figure in
Azerbaijan's Literature, has doubtlessly agreed upon ever since.
It was after the publication of this poem that a more serious
wonderment, concern, and care was paid to the mother-language of
Turkish by both the young and inspired poets and the masters of the
Literature of Azerbaijan.
It was not just his name and fame that were brought back with dignity
to his homeland, with Heydar Babaya Selam; but also the poet himself
was taken back to that memorial land of his ancestors by the magical
bounds of affection that were being invisibly created alongside the
creation of every single line by the poet at the time. The bounds so real
and irresistible that had him return to the small village in his poem once
later on, giving him the opportunity of having an imaginary way back
towards his childhood years through his memories that were revived
once again by sitting at the green foot of the Mount of Heydar Baba after
so many years. The poet later described the experience in a few lines of
a poem in which the land of Azerbaijan is personified to be the Jacob
having lost his son Joseph ( Shahriar ), but finally reunited by the divine
powers of nature reflected in Heydar Babaya Selam poem.
Reading the first half of Heydar Baba one might believe that the
many tubes of color consumed by the poet to illustrate the magnificent
portrait of his childhood in his homeland did nearly come to be emptied
and only left enough of some basic colors of green, blue, yellow and red
to complete the painting of the green trees, ever sunny sky and the
spring flowers that promised summer fruits to be nearly seen on the final
picture as a whole when done reading the poem to its final page.

4. Reading the second and final half of the poem, on the other hand,
would prove the above-mentioned assumption to be wrong. The second
part would very soon seem to be as neatly presented as if the poet has
given more of his care in setting the pearls of words next to one another
and reading the poem till the end, a brilliant hand-made necklace is what
the reader is gifted with. And it would be obvious for any reader that the
whole picture observed, was a complete portrait of the cycle of a man's
life from his childhood to the years of senility expressed in its full beauty.
Conclusion
Perhaps it wouldn't be wrong to say that the reason for the depth and
strenght of the roots of respect and love that has run deeper and deeper
in the hearts of millions of people throughout the years regarding
Shahriar and his poems, specifically Heydar Babaya Selam, from the
ordinary to the ellite, is that he has in its truest sense, dwelled among
those people and has tasted with them all the pain, sorrow, happiness,
distress, pennilessness, blissfullness and any other universal feelings
that human beings can go through experiencing during their life time.
Maybe the only difference other than the ability to convey those
experiences in its best poetic and artistic form, between Shahriar and his
fellow countrymen was that he did not ever stop to be hopeful and
rejected to overlook the pain, unjustness, and inequity if there were any,
and chose to look for cure and remedies and therefore, invited his
readers to never give up on being hopeful by cultivating faithfulness and
belief in their hearts. He doubtlessly thought his lovers that one could
always rupture tyranny and finally bring the lost happiness and meaning
back to his life.