50 Manat Məhəmməd Füzuli

Issued in the first years after Azerbaijan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, this coin honors Məhəmməd Füzuli, the 16th-century poet who wrote primarily in Azerbaijani, Persian, and Arabic and is considered foundational to Azerbaijani literary identity. The National Bank's early commemorative program was partly a deliberate act of cultural assertion — establishing a distinct national heritage at a moment when the new state was simultaneously fighting the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Füzuli spent most of his life in Ottoman-controlled Iraq, dying in Karbala around 1556, likely from plague.