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Exhibition “Shah Ismail I – commander and king” opened in the museum of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences caused a great stir in Azerbaijan pouring out a wave of insults to its organizers, Yenicag.az reports.

According to the report, Shah Ismail’s portrait by an unknown Florentine artist of the 16th century is used on the brochure of the exhibition with the expression "Sophy Pers" written on it. “That is, Shah Ismail is presented as a Persian king,” the website writes.

In this regard, the director of the museum, academician Nailya Velikhanli, told Aznews.az that the criticism towards them has an ill-intentioned nature.

“ShahIsmail’sportraitcorrespondstothetimeofitscreation. Itsoriginalis keptintheUffizimuseum, andthe painter isItalian. It is a world famous portrait, it is not new, and was not created in our museum. The word ‘Pers’ is written in Latin in the upper corner of the portrait to show that Shah Ismail was a Persian monarch. We used the original version of the portrait,” Velikhanli said adding that various scientists’ information claiming that  “Shah Ismail has Turkic roots ” are also presented in the exhibition.

Velikhanli noted that the ANAS museum only has the copy of the portrait, therefore, they cannot “distort the copy” by erasing the inconvenient inscription because of the thought that people may have a wrong opinion of them. She also noted that to this day, researchers do not have a single opinion about Shah Ismail’s origin. He is considered to be Kurd, Arab, or Turk.

In its turn, Aznews.az criticizes the museum because the organizers of the exhibition have ignored Ramiz Mehdiyev's book “Shah Ismail Sefevi: the portrait of the governor and the soldier” published in 2014, where he “studies” works of Azerbaijani, Turkish, Iranian, Russian, and European authors and “proves” that Shah Ismail, the founder of the Azerbaijani statehood, is one of the most prominent people in the Azerbaijani history both as a great commander and as a monarch.

The head of the Azerbaijani Studies Department of the University of Tabriz, Ahmad Farshbafian, had earlier commented on Ramiz Mehdiyev’s "historical" books saying that “one should not have expected more from him.” Referring to Azerbaijan’s policy of falsifying the history at the state level and appropriating Iranian cultural values and historical figures, the Iranian scholar noted, “There is a group of historians in Azerbaijan, which is fully politicized and looks at the history through the prism of politics. They try to create a national identity for Azerbaijan and consider that process an efficient and effective instrument.”

Shah Ismail Khatai was born in 1487 in Ardabil, Iran. He defeated the Turkic state Ag Qoyunlu. In 1502, he proclaimed himself the shah of Iran and founded the Safavid Dynasty. In 1514, Shah Ismail’s troops were defeated by sultan SelimYavuz’s Ottoman army. Shah Ismail died in Tabriz in 1524.