Drawing his strength from the land and from the people, the poet deeply assimilated the folkloric worldview of our nation, the core ideas of written literature, and the rich artistic possibilities of our language, devoting his life to the glorification of our homeland and our national and spiritual values. Zalimkhan Yaqub is a poet–thinker. He traveled across Azerbaijan—region by region, village by village, clan by clan—lovingly learning about the people to whom he belonged and, in his own words, “standing breath to breath with the people, entering into dialogue with them, becoming a companion to the sorrowful and a conversational partner to the sociable.”
One of the most important hallmarks of Zalimkhan Yaqub’s творчество is its ethnographic character. Knowing his people to perfection at the level of a professional ethnographer-researcher, the poet’s work is profoundly national in everything from its content and meaning to its form and intonation. The contemporary literary and social environment perceives his творчество as a phenomenon of oral folk literature. According to the poet’s own deep conviction, his poetry responds to the demands of the era and the times, and possesses the power to exert a significant influence on the national social consciousness, to stir feelings and emotions.
To determine Zalimkhan Yaqub’s place in Azerbaijani literature, it is necessary to study in depth his immense talent, rich language, and multifaceted creativity. His work does not fit neatly into the genre classifications of poetry: in the broadest sense, he is a poet of love. If his œuvre is viewed as a whole, there may not be a large number of poems devoted directly to romantic love, yet those that exist are perfect, dignified, and imbued with modesty and moral grace.