Manaf Faraj oglu Suleymanov ( az, Manaf Fərəc oğlu Süleymanov; 3 March 1912, Lahich – 12 September 2001, Baku) was an
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 t ...
i
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
,
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
.
Life
Manaf Suleymanov was born in 1912, in the village of Lahich in
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 t ...
. He graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute with honours and worked in the Azerbaijan Institute of Industry as an assistant professor. In 1942 he completed his PhD in
Geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
(kandudat geologo-mineralogicheskikh nauk). Mr. Suleymanov then lectured at several Azerbaijani universities.
As well as for his academic contributions Manaf Suleymanov is well known in Azerbaijan for his literary work. He wrote several acclaimed novels. Mr. Suleymanov also translated from English to Azerbaijani literary works by
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
,
Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
, O. Henry, John Steinbeck, Peter Abrahams and many others.
Manaf Suleymanov undertook historical studies as well. His renowned book ''What I Heard, What I Saw, What I Read'' (''Past Days'' in Russian) remains one of the best accounts of the history of Baku at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. He studied and published biographical articles on many Azerbaijani industrial magnates, oil tycoons and philanthropists such as
Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
, image = Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev.jpg
, image_size = 250px
, caption =
, birth_date = 25 January 1823
* ''Bir kitabdan birgac sətir'', 1989.
* ''Zirvələrdə. Roman və hekayələr'', 1988.
* ''Azərbaycan diyarı. Lahıc'', 1994.
* ''Son bahara çatdıq'', 1996.
* ''Neft milyonçusu'', 1996.
* ''Şərqdə ilk demokratik cumhüriyyət'', 1999.
* ''Şagirdlik illərim'', 2001.