Khatai Arts Center has hosted an exhibition dedicated to Shah Ismail Khatai (1487-1524), who laid the foundation for a single Azerbaijani state.

The exposition entitled "The Legend of Khatai" includes art works of the People's Artist Ashraf Geybatov, dedicated to the life and work of the great personality, Azernews reports.

The central place of the exhibition was occupied by the panel "Legend of Khatai" by the master of the brush.

Shah Ismail has left a deep mark in Azerbaijan's rich history. He declared Azerbaijani as the state language, and wrote beautiful epic poems under the name Khatai.

Ismail was only a year old when his father was killed by Aq Qoyunlu.

For six years Ismail was hiding from his enemies in the palace of Mirza Ali, who was faithful to Safavids.

Within years of hiding, Ismail studied science and military affairs before emerging at the age of 12 years to take over Azerbaijan.

Soon young Ismail took control the territories of today's Iran, as well as Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, and western Afghanistan.

Shah Ismail Khatai also wrote beautiful poems like "Dehname", beits in the masnavi genre "Nasiyatname". His Divan (collected works) includes gazelles and other poems written in various genres.

"Dehname" is considered one of the first in the Masnavi genre in the Azerbaijani literature. Khatai wrote it at the age of 20.

"Dehnameh" means "Ten Letters" because the mesnevi contains ten love letters between a young man in love and his beloved. There are more than 1400 couplets in the poem.

The love poem reflects the influence of folk poetry and dastan - oral epic narration. The work is also Sufi in nature and contains praises to Imam Ali and padishah.

It was published independently, but most often it or excerpts from it appear in works dedicated to it or poetry collections published in Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkiye.

The exhibition highly appreciated Ashraf Geybatov's art works. Ashraf Geybatov is a member of the UNESCO Federation of Artists, the Russian Academy of Arts and the German Association of Artists. He is the holder of the international diploma "Ambassador of Peace".

His multifaceted art works have been exhibited in Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, India, Egypt, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Malta and other countries. For more than 25 years, the artist lived and worked in Germany.

Moreover, Ashraf Geybatov's art pieces have been successfully showcased at the UN Palace in Geneva, the Romanian President's Palace, the NATO Headquarters, the Jordanian King's Palace, the residence of the Duke of Luxembourg, the Chancellery of the Vatican, as well as in the famous salons of Malta.