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On March 5, 2026, a book exhibition titled “Honored Scientist Yashar Garayev – 90” was presented to users at the National Library on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the birth of the prominent critic and literary scholar, corresponding member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, State Prize laureate, and Honored Scientist Yashar Garayev.

The exhibition features the scholar’s works, articles, interviews, selected writings consisting of his reports and speeches, as well as books for which he served as editor, author of forewords, compiler, and reviewer. It also includes publications about his life and his multifaceted literary and scholarly career, along with scientific and journalistic articles and memoirs dedicated to him.

Yashar Vahid oghlu Garayev was born on March 5, 1936, in the city of Shaki. In 1946, he moved with his family to Baku, where he completed his secondary education at School No. 31. From 1954 to 1958, he studied at the Faculty of Philology of Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State University).

Beginning his career at the Academy in 1959, the scholar worked as Head of Department at the Nizami Institute of Literature (1975–1981), Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs (1981–1985), and later as Director. He is the author of 38 monographs, collections of literary-critical articles, and more than 500 articles.

He began his literary activity in 1955 with publications in the newspapers “For Leninist Education” and “Azerbaijani Youth.” His research covered literary studies, literary criticism, literary history, theater studies, aesthetics, and theoretical and methodological issues in the humanities.

The scholar was the initiator, one of the authors, and the responsible editor of the annual scientific-critical collection “Literary Process.” His works such as “The Genius of the East,” “Criticism: Problems and Portraits,” “The Tragedy Genre in Azerbaijani Literature,” and “History: From Near and Far” hold an important place in literary studies. Yashar Garayev was also actively involved in the scientific and literary-cultural life of the republic.

In 1980, he was awarded the Azerbaijan State Prize. In 1982, he received the honorary title “Honored Scientist,” as well as the “Mammad Araz” and “Hasan Turabov” awards, and the medal “For Labor Valor.”