Given that the same dynamics of Russian expansionism drive the ongoing Chechen war, that the Sunni/Shi’ite division Ali details forms an undercurrent to conflicts in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, and that oil politics still drive Western interests in the region, author Kurban Said unwittingly demonstrates that short-term thinking should not drive American involvement in the region.

Written in 1937, it opens a window onto a part of the world most Americans only became aware of in 2001. There are many remarkable things about this book, the first of which is its timeliness. Knowing that he can be no more happy in Paris than she was in Tehran, and wanting to defend his homeland, Ali stays behind in a desperate and futile attempt to resist the invasion. But when the Red Army invades, Ali sends Nino to Paris to save her and their unborn child. In the aftermath of the Revolution, he helps to form the independent country of Azerbaijan, and even represents its government, along with Nino, to the Western powers. They return to Baku on the cusp of World War I, but Ali’s allegiance is to Azerbaijan not Russia, so he refuses to join the Czar’s army. When they finally are married (after treachery and violence interrupt their courtship), they try living in Tehran among traditional Muslims, but Nino resents the veil and harem, and is upset when she witnesses Ali in the throes of a religious trance. His attraction to Nino Kipiani, a beautiful and wealthy Christian girl from a Georgian family, disturbs him – he loves her and wants to marry her, but finds her (relatively) liberated life both shocking and exhilarating. Early in the book, though, he decides that his heart is pulled to the spiritual and physical purity of his Islamic heritage. Unfortunately, two young lovers are caught in the destruction.Īli Shirvanshir, a romantic young man from a wealthy and influential Persian family, is educated in a Czarist academy which introduces him to the technological and intellectual advantages of Western culture.

When combined with Azerbaijan’s oil resources and the heat of nationalism that fueled World War I, that mixture explodes. The influences of traffic between those regions gives Azeri culture a rich, sometimes volatile, mixture. Often called the national novel of Azerbaijan, Ali and Nino explores the extraordinary conflicts that plague this country sitting astride the border between the Christian West and Muslim East. Except in Ali and Nino, getting the girl back involves committing murder, the boy and girl struggle with their differences, and they do not live happily ever after. It’s an old and familiar story: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.

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