Igrar Habib oglu Aliyev ( az, İqrar Əliyev) (14 March 1924,

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

– 11 June 2004,

) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i historian. Aliyev was the author of 160 peer reviewed journal publications and books. Many of his books are devoted to the

Medes The Medes (Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, the ...

and Median Empire. Among his writings are: "The History Of Media"(Baku, 1960), "A Historical Survey of Atropatena" (Baku, 1989), "History of Azerbaijan (Baku, 1993, and in Russian, 1995). "Nagorno Karabakh: History, Facts and Events", No. 22-34 (Baku: Elm, 1982), "On Problems Related to the Ethnic History of the Azerbaijani People" (Baku: Nurlan, 2002), "The History of Aturpatakan" (also translated into Persian, published in Iran in 1999). Aliyev was a director of the Institute of History of the

National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) ( az, Azərbaycan Milli Elmlər Akademiyası (AMEA)), located in Baku, is the main state research organization and the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activities in the fields of ...

. He followed the methodology of the world-famous Soviet academician V. V. Struve, who was a leading specialist in the field of ancient

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studi ...

. Aliyev knew ancient dead languages including Sumerian,

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

and

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

. His works specialized in ancient

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

, Atropatena and

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

and are cited by Western experts''Encyclopedia Iranica.'' M. L. Chaumont. ''s.v.'' "Albania'.
in the relevant fields.

Controversy

A pamphlet written in 1997 on architecture in Artsakh by Aliyev and Kamil Mamedzade, the two authors also asserted that the celebrated thirteenth century Gandzasar monastery, built by the Armenian prince Hasan-Jalal Dawla, was built by Caucasian Albanians.De Waal. ''Black Garden'', pp. 154-155. The pamphlet, which refers to the Armenians of Karabakh as "so-called Armenians" because of their alleged descent from the purported Albanian population of the region and which others have pointed out fails properly to show readers the medieval Armenian inscriptions of the monastery,de Waal. ''Black Garden'', p. 155. goes on to claim:

Works

* The History of Media, Baku, 1960. (Also translated into Persian, Published in Iran) * The Survey of History of Atropatene, Baku, 1989. * Nagorny Karabakh: history, facts, events. "Elm", Baku, no. 22-34, 1982. * The History of Azerbaijan, Baku, 1993 * The History of Azerbaijan, Baku, 1995. * The History of Aturpatakan. (Also translated into Persian, Published in Iran) * The History of Azerbaijan, 1st volume of seven.

Notes

External links

Remembering Igrar Aliyev: Historian of Ancient Azerbaijan in Azerbaijan International Online, Autumn 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aliyev, Igrar 1924 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Azerbaijani historians Writers from Baku Soviet historians