Mehseti Ganjevi, an outstanding Azerbaijani poetess of the end of the XI and the beginning of XII centuries, is à bright representative of Azerbaijani and Muslim Renaissance, à representative of the new urban poetry, glorifying in her verses images of inhabitants of urban craftsmen, poets, singers and mutribs. Mehseti was first ø almost everything. She was the first known Azerbaijani poetess, the first woman chess player, the first famous Azerbaijani musician, and is quite possibly the first female composer.

Her biography is surrounded by mystery and the only known facts of her life, as well as her verses, differ with extreme extravagance, at least in the Muslims understanding of life of that time, especially if one accepts them literally rather than figuratively.

According to these legends, she lived in the Ganja Kharabat quarter, and spent time drinking, singing and dancing. She poeticized wine and sensual love. A series of verses, devoted tî the young craftsmen from Kharabat quarter in Ganja: tailor, spinner, butcher, gold-digger etc., were particularly famous:

Your face, the son of à tailor, is similar to the moon,
A hundred Mesheti will want to become the slave.
As threads in your hand, I'd like you to lead my path
To you lips every day à hundred times.

Young man knitting wool is my soul.
À gap on his chin is my prison.
Î God, give me his kiss.
Because these lips are my medicine.

I am in love with an ash seeder.
I cannot though reveal my secret to him.
He is searching for gold, while seeding ashes.
I am searching for him with gold in my hands

Little of Mehseti's biography is reliably established.

Mehseti-Khanum was born in approximately 1089 in Ganja where she lived to à very old age. Her real name was Manija. The name Mehseti was her poetic pseudonym. Mehseti was very well educated, and she had well traveled which is apparent from her, work. She visited areas such as Rum, Merv, Balkh, Nishapur, Herat, Ganja, Horasan, Iraq, Zuzan, Arran etc. For à while she lived in the great Sultan Sanjar's palace. She participated in receptions and literary mejlises (meetings). She spent à significant part of her life in Ganja, where she participated in the palatial life of Sultan Muhammed and his son Sultan Mahmud.

The basic facts of the life of the great poetess came from the Dastan of the ÕIII century Mehseti and Amir Ahmed, the manuscripts of, which are stored in the Institute of Azerbaijani Manuscripts and in Istanbul and London. Recent findings of Azerbaijani scholars proved, that the Dastan's author is an Azerbaijani poet and scientist of the ÕIII century, Abdulla Jovhari Zargar Tabrizi, and that his heroes are real persons. They include à poet Amir Ahmed, first Shah of Ganja (Sultan Muhammed) and the second Shah of Ganja (Sultan Mahmud). À large number of Mehseti's rubaies are included in the Dastan.

The contents of the Dastan in brief are reduced to following. A daughter was born in to à family of à theologian in Balkh City. He went to astrologers to find out the future of his daughter. After the astrologers appealed to the stars they predicted à great future for her, and love of people. Simultaneously they declared that eventually she would end up in à kharabat (Arabian - Saloon, pub). The father sent his daughter to school, which she graduated in eighteen years with honors. Following that, the father took her to experts and asked them to teach her twelve mugams and their twenty-four sections. He also asked musicians to teach her to play the chang, ud and berbed. His friends were surprised: "How come first you educate your daughter, teach her Koran, and then prepare her for a professional dancer career, unless you want to make her à whore?" His answer was that if she was going to end up in Kharabat, she should be prepared. After the death of her father Mehseti moved to Ganja and settled in Kharabat's quarter.

It is known from the same Dastan that by twenty years of age Mehseti gained acceptance and love in many countries of the Muslim world through her accomplishments, beauty, fine voice and poetic talent. Both nobles and merchants came to Kharabat in Ganja to listen to her sing. Even the ruler of Ganja, who was called Shah Ganja in the Dastan, could not stay away.

Khatib (ecclesiastic) of Ganja finally had à son after many years. He named him Amir Ahmed. À boy was educated by wet nurses, and at four years of age he was sent to school. Amir Ahmed proved himself as à very skillful and talented young man and the glory about his gifts was spread far beyond Ganja, though he spent all his time studying and not leaving the school. Once Amir Ahmed had à dream. He dreamt that he entered Paradise, where met à houri with à cup of wine in her hands. Amir Ahmed drank the wine and got drunk with the beauty of the houri. The following morning Amir's father found him very sad. To dispel the boy' s grief, his father allowed Amir Ahmed to take à walk through Ganja with 400 horsemen accompanying him. In one of the city quarters Amir Ahmed heard à beautiful singing and learned, that this quarter was known as Kharabat. There, in one of the taverns he found à beauty, lying on four pillows. It was Mehseti Ganjevi. Amir immediately recognized his houri. The young couple fell in love and started exchanging quatrain (rubai).

Hatib was very surprised to find his son reading rubai instead of Koran before sleep. Íå was worried by his son' s behavior, which started after his trip to Kharabat. Hatib even sent him to doctors, and they promised to espouse him. But all efforts were in vein. Amir Ahmed, however, was determined and went to visit Mehseti in Kharabat without servants. Once Mehseti's mother learned about the boy' s family, she asked Mehseti to send him home away from troubles. The young couple did not listen to her. Hatib tried to return his son and even complained to the Shah of Ganja, but his son was firm. Then he sent several people to catch and imprison his son. On the third day of lengthy conversations about morals and peccadillo, Amir Ahmed agreed that his father was right and got his freedom. The father was so excited that he started dancing and gave à big party to celebrate the joyful event. When the party was over and the visitors went home, Amir Ahmed left as well in the expected direction of Kharabat.

There he found Mehseti surrounded by 40 girls. They played on ney, chang, and daf, danced and sang. Mehseti was giving à music lesson. Here he saw Mehseti in à new light. Not only did she write poems, sing, and play on many instruments, but she also was à teacher.

To better understand the musical sphere of the time, one of the Shah's receptions in Mehseti's honor would be very descriptive. Music was played on the following instruments: chang, ud, bar- bat, abrishami, ney and tanbur.

In was also mentioned later in the Dastan that Mehseti was the strongest chess player in Ganja. À match between her and the Shah of Ganja at à party as described. In another match Shah of Ganja bet thousand dinars with Amir Ahmed. Amir Ahmed won and Shah of Ganja had to pay with gold coins.

The headstrong Shah demanded that the lovers part and Mehseti to remain in his palace. Mehseti offered Amir Ahmed to run to the city of Balkh. Mehseti got there first. The entire Khorosan and the poets of Balkh gathered in her honor. A poetic competition began. Mehseti offered à poetic riddle. Nobody could find the answer. Suddenly à wanderer entered the competition and answered Mehseti in à graceful verse. Everybody guessed that this was Amir Ahmed. In the end of the Dastan - Mehseti and Amir Ahmed the lovers came back to Ganja were officially married and had two children.

After the death of his father, Amir Ahmed became the Hatib of Ganja. Mehseti survived her husband by two years. She lamented over his death so much that by the end of her life she lost her sight. It is emphasized in the Dastan that she was buried near Nizami Ganjavi. Indeed, when in 1923 the grave of Nizami was dug up, to move him to the honorable cemetery of Shah Àbbas mosque, there was à woman' s grave. The academician Arasli does not exclude the possibility that the two outstanding persons met, although the times of their lives are difficult to connect.

The Dastan is written very well and is interesting to read although it is paraphrased. However, it is difficult to believe in all of this. The reader is left with à feeling of reticence. There is an impression that the author hid facts of her biography, as he used à number of allegories clear only to à reader of his time.

Indeed it is very difficult to believe that à respectable theologian in those times could send his very talented daughter to study music and dance, in order for her to prepare for à tavern of Kharabat (meykhana). The same is with Hatib's son Amir Ahmed, who after receiving à magnificent theological education went to Kharabat to follow Mehseti. It is yet difficult to believe that the poetess who was accepted to à court of the Sultan numerously declared her love to young handicraftsmen: à spinner of à wool, baker, tailor, butcher, jeweler and many others. Riddles, riddles and riddles.

However, everything becomes extremely clear and logical, if only to assume, that Mehseti was à member of à secret Sufi Order and that her biography was written with allegories, accepted by Sufies in order to defend themselves from the orthodox Muslims.

Sufies considered that à prime goal of person's life is love to God. The ecstatic condition of Sufi was considered intoxication by wine (mast, mey), and à place of gathering of Sufies was identified with à tavern (Kharabat, Meykhana), and so on. Instead of à mosque, some Sufi attended the assemblies, where the reading of hadises was replaced with the reading of verses, singing and dancing in Sufic tenement -Kharabat. Doctor Javad Nurbahsh, the head of Sufi, Order Nematullahi in London translates "Kharabat" in English as the 'Tavern of Ruins', meaning Sufi tenement. He writes that Sufi after passing all purifying stages, becomes an Accomplished Person and reaches à threshold of True (Hagigat): "This last trip in Hagigat could be associated with studying Truth in à Divine University, in 'Tavern among Ravages' (Kharabat). There are no professors in this true center of unsurpassed education, and the only preceptor is the Absolute Sanctity and Perfect Love. The only teacher is Love, instead of the textbooks there Love and the Accomplished is also Love ". This was the Kharabat where the theologian sent his daughter Mehseti. And, indeed, interpretation of the Dastan, using of the Sufies allegory will make the biography of Mehseti look much more plausible.

Shall we begin with the birthplace of the poetess, which was specially transferred to the north east of Iran - the center of early Sufis? This was the birthplace of one of the first sacred Sufi Abu Sayid Ibn Abi-l-Khayr and the scientist and poet Omar Khayyam, who had done so much to spread the rubai genre out. A famous Sufi poet Jalaladdin Rumi and many others came from here.

À reader is literally warned that the creativity of Mehseti is related to the circle of Sufi poets and while reading the Dastan the amendments on Sufi parables should be made. I.å., the pious theologian, when he found out about his daughter' s unusual poetic gift and musical abilities, decided to send her to follow his own path. He addressed an astrologer for an advice, who one predicted for the girl à bright future in the Sufi brotherhood. The fortuneteller certainly had his wisdom, as women in those days could only feel relatively free among Sufies. As wrote J. Spencer Trimingham "the mysticism was the only religious sphere where à woman could manifest herself. There were many Sufi women among which the most known was Rabiya Al-Adaviya". The fact that the author of the Dastan referred to the gathering of Sufies comes from the following verses of Mehseti:

The moon has risen above Kharabat.
She stretched à tent in à heavenly hut.
And suddenly à voice came from nowhere:
"This World is not worth à straw ".

Don't come to Kharabat without à desire,
If you don't know the symbols of Dervish,
do not come.

The path here belongs to the brave ones.
Do not come if you can not sacrifice yourself.

Kharabat is à place for brave men,
There is no place for low souls in here,
Pay respect to this path you've chosen
As this is not à place for sly souls.

The fact that the Kharabat quarter was represented by craftsmen and that Mehseti expressed love to à number of them: tailor, jeweler, wool spinner, etc. in stead of Yar (God), may mean that she belonged to some group of craftsmen and used special symbols accepted by them.

Such à corporation could have been the Turkic organization Akhi, similar to Sufi, to which Nizami belonged as well. Members of this group were young men of different trades. It becomes completely clear that the verses dedicated to young craftsmen were written specifically for performances at the Sufi gatherings and are not love lyrics as we understood them. It is interesting that the arrival of Amir Ahmed just, like Mehseti, to the Kharabat was predetermined from above. To him the prediction was passed through an angel and her fortune was predicted by an astrologer. It would also be impossible to explain another episode without à reference to à prediction. In his dispute with his father, Amir Ahmed said he would close his eyes and asked to be tied up to à mule. If à mule would carry him to à mosque, he would never go to the Kharabat. If, however, the mule would take him to the Kharabat, Hatib would have to sell the mule and with the money he and Mehseti would organize à Sufi mejlis. The mule, of course, came to the Kharabat and the money went to singers and musicians at the next gathering of the Sufis with singing and dancing. This episode described an eternal dispute between Sufies and Muslim Orthodox as to where à faithful Muslim should direct his feet - to à Mosque or to à Kharabat. Fizuli wrote: "I will not go to à Mosque and I shall not listen to those preaching. Better move your boots to à Kharabat-Meykhana - you will find à winery there. À sight is radiant and wine is effulgent".

Another Azerbaijani poet Khabibi, who fancied philosophy of Sufi, called Kharabat his 'Friend'. Another episode from the Dastan proves once again that Kharabat is not à tavern or à quarter of craftsmen, but it is the gathering of Sufies. À pious uncle of Amir Ahmed, Pir Osman, undertook to rescue him from the Kharabat. Amir Ahmed agreed to leave the Kharabat upon one condition, that Pir Osman would drink à glass of wine. The old man could not stop after only one drink and left the Kharabat completely drunk. It was impossible to recognize Pir Osman after that episode. He became à habitue of Kharabat. Without à doubt, this episode described the eye-opening of Pir Osman, and intoxication stood for religious ecstasy.

Old men and preceptors in Sufi were called 'Pir' and 'Sheikh' ('Murshid'). Amir Ahmed's uncle Osman apparently became à 'Pir' once he passed all stages of spiritual perfection in Kharabat required by Sufi and became à spiritual preceptor.

In Mehseti's poems there are many verses, in which the poetess expresses her deep feelings to the beloved without any symbolism:

Her love to Amir Ahmed was à highest profane Love. This Love poetess took to measure profane passion. But there is another even higher love, and that is love to God, hidden behind symbols and under names such as friend, yar, old man, dervish, beggar, butcher or à members of Akhi's order - young craftsmen. As the poetess wrote, this love could be "two thousand times stronger than her love to the Khatib's son" and "especially under the influence of wine (in ecstasy)" when she could come close to God. The end of the Dastan is typical for Sufi. Mehseti lost her sight from tears and was buried near à man of great worship, à huge authority among Sufies, famous poet and great Sheikh Nizami Ganjavi. The Rubai of Mehseti Ganjevi are close to Azerbaijani folk tales and carry deep philosophical meaning. They left à deep trace in the poetry of Azerbaijan and the entire Middle East. Many scholars consider her poetry close to the rubai by Omar Khayyam, however the majority of modern critics are inclined to connect them with the Azerbaijani poetry school, founded by Qatran Tabrizi and Izaatdin Shirwani.