On March 12, 2021, Mevlana Center for Literary and Philosophical Studies (MƏFAM) held an international conference dedicated to the philosophy and poetry of Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi. The conference was moderated by Dr. Rustam Lazimov and organized online through Microsoft Teams.

Professor Hamlet Isakhanli, Founder of Khazar University and Chairman of the Board of Directors and Trustees, Irada Khalilova, Rector of Khazar University, and Shahram Oromi, President of NAB Holding, spoke at the opening ceremony of the conference. Highly appreciating the importance of the international conference, H. Isakhanli stressed that it would be an impetus for future research on Mevlana's work. I. Khalilova spoke about the missions of MƏFAM and shared her wishes on the conference. Shahram Oromi spoke about the importance of philosophical and literary research of Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi's works. After the opening ceremony, a presentation video about MƏFAM was shown. It should be noted that MƏFAM started operating on November 19, 2019 at Khazar University. MƏFAM is organized by Khazar University and sponsored by NAB Holding. The main purpose of the center is to properly present Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi to the Azerbaijani public, to conduct research on his philosophy, literature and other fields of activity, to establish cooperation between universities, institutes, libraries, educational centers and literary research centers in the country and abroad.

Then the floor was given to the speakers of the conference. One of the keynote speakers at the international conference was Heydar Abbasi, a poet, writer, translator and researcher of Azerbaijani literature from Iran. It should be noted that Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi’s “Masnavi” was translated into Azerbaijani for the first time by Heydar Abbasi, a poet from Maragheh.

Professor Cihan Ozdemir, Head of the Turkish Language and Literature Department of the Faculty of Science and Literature at Bilecik Seyh Edebali University (Turkey) was one of the guests of the conference. He shared his wishes about the conference through a video.

About 100 abstracts from many countries around the world were sent to the international conference “Mevlana’s Philosophy and Poetry”. Only the abstracts of 44 participants were selected and presented. They joined the sessions moderated by PhDs Nazakat Mammadli, Dilbar Zeynalova, Khatira Yusifova, Rustam Lazimov and Saadat Shikhiyeva and presented their abstracts.

At the end, the conference participants were awarded certificates. A collection of abstracts for the international conference “Mevlana’s philosophy and Poetry” will be published.