Agha Musa Naghiyev ( az, Ağa Musa Nağıyev) (1849-1919) 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 ...

industrial oil magnate in late 19th - early 20th century. He was also an adherent of the Baháʼí Faith and served on the Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of

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 ...

Life and career

He was born into a very poor family near

and started working as a cargo carrier (''hambal''), but thanks to his natural wit and business abilities, he progressed to accumulate a vast amount of wealth. Musa Naghiyev was one of the richest oil industrialists in Baku, next to

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

brothers. His assets were worth 300 million rubles. Later, he began investing in real estate so as to guarantee himself a source of regular income and became the largest rental property owner in Baku owning more than 200 buildings. He was considered in Azerbaijan as one of the most stingy, tight-fisted millionaires. However, despite such claims, it was Agha Musa Naghiyev who built one of the most wonderful palaces in the entire city and offered it as a gift to the Muslim Charity Society. This palace, modeled on

Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace ( it, Palazzo Ducale; vec, Pałaso Dogal) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme auth ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

now houses Presidium of

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 ...

. Another gift from Naghiyev to the city was the city's largest hospital which was built in 1912 and is still used today by the Ministry of Health. The building is designed in the shape of an "H" (Cyrillic "N") for Naghiyev's name. The owner of dozens of magnificent buildings in Baku, Agha Musa Naghiyev himself lived in the area outside of Icheri Sheher called Bayir Sheher, in the two-floor building behind Qasim-bey Mosque, on the crossing of Spasski (present Zargarpalan) and Gymnasist (Leo Tolstoy) streets. Actively involved in the work of the Baku Muslim Charitable Society, Musa Nagiyev was a philanthropist during his lifetime. Naghiyev's will was to be buried next to Ismail oglu in Karbala, the totalitarian regime did not allow it, so he sent his relatives to Karbala with the hope of taking him to Karbala. The architectural elements of stone clocks designed on the top and a stone lantern on the edge of that beautiful building erected in 1887, made it a distinctive appearance. The stone lantern called "Seng fanar" was decorated with red, green, blue, turquoise pieces of glass to create colourful illumination effect during the evenings. Every evening kids were gathering around the building to feast eyes on that startlingly impressive view of street lighting. Such a colourful lit of the stone lantern in Baku at the fin de siècle used to create an amazing and spectacular attraction. Naghiyev was the main sponsor and trustee of one of the largest technical colleges, "Real College", the building now houses the Azerbaijan State Economic University. He died of a heart attack on 4 March 1919.

References

External links

Azerbaijan International

Musa Nagiyev.az
* Miryusif Mirbabayev. Concise history of Azerbaijani oil - Baku, 2008, SOCAR Publishing House, 340p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagiev 1849 births 1919 deaths Azerbaijani businesspeople in the oil industry Azerbaijani businesspeople Azerbaijani philanthropists Azerbaijani Bahá'ís 19th-century philanthropists Azerbaijani humanitarians