Music and Time Annotation << Back «The Songs of Mirza-Schaffy»: the History of the Creation of the Poetry Collection (1851) and the Operetta of the Same Name (1887) S. Fuchs This article explores the history of the creation of the popular poetry collection by the German poet and translator Friedrich Bodenstedt (1819– 1892) entitled «The Songs of Mirza-Schaffy» («Die Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy», Berlin, 1851), which served as the basis not only for the operetta of the same name, but also for numerous classical European and Russian romances. Particular attention is paid to the fi gure of the Azerbaijani poet Mirza Shafi Vazeh (1794–1852), under whose guidance the twenty-four-year-old Bodentstedt studied Tatar (i.e. Azerbaijani) and Persian in Tifl is (1843–1845). The poetry collection «Die Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy» was translated into many European languages and went through 142 editions during Bodenstedt’s lifetime. Twelve poems from this collection, translated by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, were set to music by Anton Rubinstein under the title «Persian Songs», Op. 34 (1855). This song cycle gained fame in Russia through performances of Fyodor Chaliapin. The article also examines the history of the creation of the operetta «Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy» (Berlin, 1887) by the Austrian composer Louis Roth (1843–1929), based on a libretto by the German writer Emil Pohl (1824–1901). Keywords: Friedrich Bodenstedt, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, the collection of poems «Die Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy» (1851), Anton Rubinstein, «Persian Songs», Op. 34 (1885), Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Fyodor Chaliapin, the operetta «Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy» (1887), Louis Roth, Emil Pohl. DOI: 10.25791/music.7.2026.1417 Pp. 13-22.