Kurban Said – författare

Ali Khan and Nino Kipiani live in the cosmopolitan, oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is a melting-pot of different cultures. Ali is a Muslim, with his ancestors' passion for the desert, and Nino is a Christian Georgian girl with sophisticated European ways. Despite their differences, the two have loved each other since childhood and Ali is determined that he will marry Nino as soon as she leaves school. But there is not only the obstacle of their different religions and parental consent to overcome. The First World War breaks out. As the Russians withdraw, the Turks advance, and Ali and Nino find themselves swept up in Azerbaijan's fight for independence.

''In der russischen Stadt Baku, auf der Grenze zwischen Orient und Okzident, verlieben sich am Vorabend der Russischen Revolution der temperamentvolle Muslim Ali und die schöne Christin Nino ineinander. Die Hochzeit rückt trotz aller Widerstände in greifbare Nähe - da wird Nino entführt ... Zum ersten Mal seit über 60 Jahren liegt jetzt die Originalfassung der tragischen Liebesgeschichte vor, die ''nichts von ihrem Charme und ihrer Brisanz verloren hat.'' (Brigitte)

Lichnost'' Kurbana Saida zagadochna, kak ego knigi. Podlinnoe imya avtora, skryvayushchegosya za ehtim psevdonimom, do sih por vyzyvaet spory. Ne menee temna istoriya romana "Ali i Nino»: izdannaya v 1937 godu kniga byla krepko zabyta vplot'' do 1970 goda, kogda, posle odnovremennogo izdaniya v Amerike i Anglii, ee personazhi triumfal''no vernulis'' na prilavki knizhnyh magazinov, chtoby stat'' samymi populyarnymi vlyublennymi dvadcatogo veka. Segodnya roman pereveden na tridcat'' tri yazyka, po nemu stavyat p''esy, snimayut fil''my, a v Baku ego geroyam ustanovili pamyatnik. Rasskaz o lyubvi musul''manina Ali i hristianki Nino na fone burnyh sobytij istorii ne ostavit ravnodushnym ni odnogo chitatelya.