NAMES ENGRAVED ON THE PERSONAL SEALS
Inara SAFIEVA

The article “Names Engraved on the Personal Seals” talks about sphragistics – the study of seals, the first state and personal seals as well. Being a subsidiary branch of the science of history, spragistics is the science of the study of seals. Emblems and every detail described on the seals are related to various types of writing, as well as the history and art of those writings, at least the symbols and seals are valuable monuments of material-cultural history. The first seal in history belongs to the period of Amunhotep III in ancient Egypt and they were used to certify documents. The oldest Azerbaijani book seals that come down to the modern period belong to approximately XIII-XV centuries. The first variants of stamps on ancient Azerbaijani books were decorated with some descriptions and writings on precious stones and materials. Obviously, personal seals printed on manuscripts provide information about their owners. Most of these seals consist of beautiful calligraphic samples and patterns. There are different seals among the memorial things, personal belongings of the prominent poets and writers of Azerbaijani people demonstrated in the exhibition of the National Museum of Azerbaijani literature named after Nizami Ganjavi. The article is about the seals belonging to M.F.Akhundov and his family, Ali Nazmi, N.Narimanov, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, E.Aghaev, Javad Heyat. These seals cause great interest in each visitor to the museum. Although centuries have passed regardless of whom and what period of history they belonged to, they are preserved as a material-spiritual treasure of our people. In the present-day investigation of stamps is widespread and the number of people who are interested in them and the makers of stamps has increased. However, there is almost no scientific literature on seals as an object of research. Investigation of this spiritual treasure is one of the important tasks of Azerbaijani science of research.

Keywords: seal, sphragistics, M.F. Akhundov, J. Mammadguluzade, A. Nazmi