Ali and Nino

Ali and Nino is a 1937 novel by the pseudonymous author Kurban Said. Set in Baku, Azerbaijan, during the war-torn period of 1914 to 1920, the novel concerns the passionate romance of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a young Muslim nobleman, and Nino Kipiani, a Christian noblewoman from Georgia. Ali and Nino is regarded internationally as a major literary achievement, and in Azerbaijan, it is considered the “national novel.” However, the author’s identity remains a mystery. Most scholars believe the novel was written by Lev Nussimbaum, a Jewish convert to Islam, although others argue that Nussimbaum plagiarized the work of Azerbaijani author Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli.

Ali Khan is the eighteen-year-old son of an illustrious Muslim family in Baku. Although his primary allegiance is to his family’s Islamic faith, Ali is increasingly drawn to Western ideas. He attends a Russian boys’ school, and he is passionately in love with Nino Kipiani, a seventeen-year-old Georgian woman. Nino’s family is as respectable as Ali’s, but they are Christians who live in the “English way.”

Ali has just finished his final school exams. As a graduation present, his father promises to grant Ali three wishes. For his first wish, Ali asks to be allowed to spend the summer holiday in Shusha, a disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, by himself. His father grants his wish.

Ali wants to go to Shusha because Nino’s family is spending the holiday there. Now they have a chance to be alone together to discuss their futures. Both lovers want to marry as soon as Nino graduates from school, but they know there will be many hurdles to overcome. Nino worries that Ali will expect her to take the veil or be part of a harem. Both Nino and Ali want to raise their children in their own religion.

While they are still enjoying their holiday, the First World War breaks out. Karabakh is precariously positioned and the holidaymakers quickly return to Baku, where Azerbaijani men, proud of their martial history, are joining up to fight. Ali wants to stay in Baku to marry Nino, so he claims his second wish: that he be allowed to “draw his sword when he wants to.” Ali’s father is obliged to grant the wish, but he makes it clear that he believes his son is “sitting on the carpet of cowardice.”

Ali and Nino ask their parents’ consent to their marriage. Ali’s father grants permission, but he stipulates that first Nino must finish school and that Ali must “not let her bring the foreign faith into our home.” Nino’s father has a different requirement: he asks the lovers to wait until the war ends. Ali is distraught at the prospect of such a long wait. His friend, Melik Nachararyan, an Armenian from one of the region’s most respected families, brokers a deal between the lovers’ families, and Nino’s father agrees that the lovers may marry as soon as Nino finishes school.

A year later, Nino finishes school, and the lovers travel to Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia, to make arrangements for their wedding. Georgia becomes a battleground, trapped in the “red-hot tongs” of war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Nachararyan, confessing that he loves Nino, “rescues” her from the war by abducting her in his lacquered boxcar, to take her to a neutral country.

Ali chases down his former friend on horseback and stabs him to death. Ali’s friend Mehmed Haidar has urged him to follow the tradition of honor killing and murder Nino too, but he is unable to do so. He flees to Dagestan, knowing that Nachararyan’s powerful family will seek revenge.

Nino spends months searching for Ali, finding him in an isolated mountain town near Makhachkala. The lovers finally marry, and for a few months, they live happily and simply, sharing the poverty of the villagers. However, as the Russian Revolution collapses into chaos, the lovers are forced to consider their next move. The Bolsheviks have captured Baku, so Ali and Nino flee to Tehran, Iran, where they must live as orthodox Muslims. Ali feels invigorated by this return to his roots, but Nino chafes against the confines imposed on Iranian women.

Azerbaijan establishes itself as an independent republic, and Ali and Nino return to their home. Nino arranges for Ali to be appointed Ambassador to France, but Ali refuses, not wishing to stray so far from his roots. The Red Army invades Azerbaijan, and Ali chooses to draw his sword and fight for his country. Nino flees to Georgia with their newborn child, while Ali is killed in battle as the Soviets retake Azerbaijan.

Ali and Nino explores themes of love across cultures, Azerbaijani nationalism, and the nature of heritage. A statue in Batumi, Georgia, commemorates the love of Ali and Nino. Created by Tamar Kvesitadze, it is seven meters high, of steel and lights, and every ten minutes the figures move toward each other and merge as one.