Ali bey Huseyn oğlu Huseynzade ( az, Əli bəy Hüseyn oğlu Hüseynzadə; tr, Hüseyinzade Ali Turan; Salyan, February 24, 1864 – Istanbul, March 17, 1940) was an

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

writer, thinker, philosopher, artist, doctor, and the creator of the modern Flag of Azerbaijan.

Early years

Ali bey Huseynzade was born in 1864 to a family of Muslim religious clerics in Salyan, in the present-day Azerbaijan. His grandfather

Mahammadali Huseinzadeh Akhund Mahammadali Huseinzadeh () — first shia Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus from 1823 to 1852. Maternal great-grandfather of Ali bey Huseynzade. Early life Mahammadali Huseinzadeh was born in Salyan, Shirvan Khanate in 1791. He got his pri ...

was the

Sheikh ul-Islam Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

(Supreme religious leader) of the Caucasus for 32 years. Ali bey received his primary education at the Tiflis Muslim school followed by the Tiflis Classical Gymnasium. In 1885, he entered the Physics and Math Department at

Saint Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. Upon graduation from there in 1889, Huseynzade moved to Istanbul, where he entered the Medical faculty of

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

(IU). After graduation from IU, he served as a military doctor in the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

, and subsequently as an assistant professor at IU. Huseynzade was one of the founders of the

Committee of Union and Progress The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقه‌سی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...

Ziya Gökalp Mehmet Ziya Gökalp (23 March 1876 – 25 October 1924) was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and politician. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution that reinstated constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire, he adopted the pen name Gökalp ("cel ...

, was influenced by his

Pan-Turkist Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim be ...

ideology, and referred to Huseynzade as one of his most important teachers.

Public activity

In 1903, Ali bey returned home and spent the next seven years in Baku. During this period of time, he engaged in scholarly and publishing activities, edited the "Heyat" newspaper, and served as a chief editor of the "Kaspiy" newspaper. In 1905, he joined Alimardan Topchubashev, Reşit Ibragimov, Ferruh Bey Vezirov and

Ahmet Ağaoğlu Ahmet Ağaoğlu, also known as Ahmet Bey Ağaoğlu ( az, Əhməd bəy Ağaoğlu; December 1869 – 19 May 1939), was a prominent Azerbaijani and naturalized Turkish politician, publicist and journalist. He was one of the founders of Pan-Turkism a ...

as a part of the Azerbaijani delegation to an all-Russian convention of Muslims, where an agreement was reached on establishing of the Ittifaq al Muslimin a single Muslim party in Russian Empire. In 1906, Huseynzade started publishing the magazine ' ("''Fusion''"), financed by the famous philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, and harshly criticized the Tsarist government in his writings. In 1910, Huseynzade moved to the Ottoman Empire. And in 1911 he was elected a presiding member of the

. From 1915 to 1916 he travelled to several European capitals to reach out for support for the Pan-Turkish movement. In 1918, he returned to Azerbaijan to participate in the formation of

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), or simply as Azerbaijan in Paris Peace Conference, 1919–1920,''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7''125 H.C.Debs.'', 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467. Caucasian Az ...

(ADR), and participated in negotiations for the Ottoman support of the ADR against the Baku Commune. After the fall of ADR in April 1920, Huseynzade permanently settled in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and became a citizen, receiving the surname Turan.

Memory

One of the streets in the Yasamal district of Baku is named after Ali bey Huseynzade and there's a statue of him in the center of his hometown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huseynzade, Ali Bey 1864 births 1940 deaths Azerbaijani artists Azerbaijani philosophers Azerbaijani physicians Azerbaijani professors Azerbaijani journalists Azerbaijani magazine editors Azerbaijani nobility People from Salyan, Azerbaijan Turkish people of Azerbaijani descent Flag designers Pan-Turkists Azerbaijani emigrants to Turkey 19th-century Azerbaijani philosophers 20th-century Azerbaijani philosophers