"Karabagname" ("The ruler and his daughter")

Age limit: 13+

Author: Ilyas Efendiyev

Genre: Tragedy in Two Parts

Founding director and artist: Marahim Farzalibayov (people's artist)

Designer: Ismayil Mammadov (honored artist)

The play "Karabakhname" is based on the play "The Ruler and His Daughter" by People's Writer İlyas Afandiyev. The stage production tells the story of historical events that took place in Shusha, the center of the Karabakh Khanate, in the 18th century, as well as the social-political and family life of Karabakh ruler Ibrahim Khan.

The dramatic work is an artistic and symbolic representation of our people’s struggle for national freedom and independence, as well as national unity.

Ibrahim Khan, establishing his power in the Shusha fortress, attempts to strengthen political and economic ties and friendly relations with both Iran and Russia. His policy causes hidden, and then open, discontent in other khanates of Azerbaijan. Taking advantage of the situation, the Armenian community escalates the discontent between the khanates to the level of hostility and discord. All of this leads to great disasters in Azerbaijan. Ibrahim Khan believes in the sincerity of the tsar’s policy, but in the end, he realizes he has been deceived.

In the play, Ibrahim Khan is portrayed as a complex, contradictory, and tragic character caught in the whirlpool of social-political and family events. Ibrahim Khan even sacrifices his daughter Agabeim, marrying her off to the Iranian ruler Fath Ali Shah. However, this separation cannot tear Agabeim’s love for Karabakh from her heart.