Абай атындағы ҚазҰПУ-нің Хабаршысы, «Филология ғылымдары» сериясы №4(62) 2017 ж.
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more moderate, more quiet, more clean and shiny” [2, 211]. Dumas likened the Caspian Sea to a blue-sapphire
without any ripples or waves” (Elle était d’un bleu-saphir, pas une ride ne courait à sa surface).
The writer describes professionally the characters, the appearances, typical clothing, conversational style
at those times from high society to the poor in a humorous way. The scenes, dialogue and subtle humor are
astonishing while reading the work. Dumas talks about Khurshud Banu Natavan (It is noted after the
information being delivered that she is Khurshud Banu Natavan, even if was not mentioned in the book),
Hassan Khan Usmuyev and Mahmoud Aga with sympathy.
Dumas spoke about Khurshud Banu Natavan and her mother who had dressed in national costumes as a
daughter and a wife of Mehdigulu khan, the khan of Garabagh (Qarabağ), describing them in their twenties
and forties accordingly, and mentioned that the young lady was charming in this national costume especially:
“Les deux princesses tatares étaient, l’une la femme, l’autre la fille de Makthikouli-Khan, dernier khan de
Karaback. La 129ere pouvait avoir quarante ans, la ville vingt. Toutes deux portaient le costume national. La
fille était charmante sous ce costume, cependant plus riche que gracieux” [1, 255]. Mentioning this, the
French writer writes about the five or six-year-old boy there, who cuddled up to his grandmother’s knee and
put his small hand with instinct on the dagger hanging on his belt. I was surprised. It was not a toy dagger
which French woman can allow her child to play with, the dagger hanging from the waist of the boy was a
real sharp dagger. It was firstly considered a toy for Azerbaijani women, or there is no need to ask for a
signed document while making a bargain with Azerbaijanis. A promise is a promise [2, 186].
In the part called “La ville, les bazaars, la mosqué, l `eau et le feu” – “City, market, mosque, water and
fire ” of “Le Caucase” –“The Caucasus”, firstly, Dumas praises the Armenians as an eating and drinking
nation, then once he is getting familiar with them, he describes their arising ugliness pretty well. He
condemns the Armenians as an ungrateful, impolite nation who does not appreciate the people once helped
them and cannot be engaged in anything other than trade using cunning and fraud: “ İl risquaient leur tête à
être reconnaissant envers un protecteur d`hier tombé en disgrace aujord`hui, ils ont été ingrats: enfin ne
pouvait etre ambitieux, puisque toute carrière leur était fermée,excepté celle du commerce , ils se sont faits
commerçants,avec toutes les ruses,et toute les petitesses de l`état” [1, 267].
Let’s overview some false facts mentioned in “the Cauacausus” of Alexandre Dumas. In the book,
mentioning about Azerbaijanis as Shia Muslims, Dumas represents Shiism as a sworn enemy of the
Christians. According to Dumas, this hostility is even to the extent that if a Christian dies of thirst, no one
will pour a glass of water so that he could profane it. In fact, this is a bias toward Muslims, Shia, and an
unfamiliar concept to our religion. To help those who are in trouble, are starving, are the poor or thirsty does
not depend on the religion, language or nationality. Our Holy Book Qur’an (Koran) preaches respect for
other religions.
Let’s consider another issue. The battle for the sake of our religion in which Prophet Muhammad’s
grandchildren Hassan and Hussein were killed and the mourning day of all Islamic world called Ashura was
shown as an exaggerated day which keeps away people from their work by Dumas with Christian cold-
bloodedness. Apparently, Dumas had no information about his predecessor Victor Hugo’s poems, who had
lived in the very same period, dedicated his works to the Prophet Muhammad based on the Qur’an (Koran),
the most authoritative source of those poems.
Thus, taken as a whole, Dumas also mentioned that his work “the Caucasus” can be considered as a
compact encyclopedia for recognition of the five thousand years old Caucasus in Europe as well as in France.
One of the french writers who mentioned about Azerbaijan in his works is Jules Verne, the founder of the
adventure genre in the XIX century French literature. Jules Verne, who was born in the port city – Nantes,
France, was thinking about adventures and journeys in future while observing the sea and ships [3, 420].
It is not a coincidence that the heroes of Jules Verne, are educated and enlightened people who are in
search of innovations and deeply interested in everything.
The well-known French writer Jules Verne is the author of the most read travel and adventure novels by
children and grownups. His book “Claudius Bombarnac” is about Claudius Bombarnac, a journalist and resear-
cher’s impressions about our country who travels from Tbilisi to Beijing by train passing through Azerbaijan.
Dedicating a number of pages on Azerbaijan in his work, Jules Verne mentioned about the railway
stations, such as Naftulug, Poylu, Aghstafa, Dallar, Yelizavetpol (Ganja), Kurdamir, Alat where his hero
stopped by [4, 5-38]. The traveller Stopping by the Ganja train station just for 10 minutes, before his arrival
in Ganja, had mentioned about his special interest in this city, however, regretted not being able to see all
places due to the shortness of his time: I couldn’t see anything out of mud-brick houses, plane trees and XIII
century mosque of the city which located on the banks of Ganja river, one of the branches of the river Kur.
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