Hasan bey Zardabi ( az, Həsən bəy Zərdabi ), born Hasan bey Salim bey oghlu Malikov ( az, Həsən bəy Səlim bəy oğlu Məlikov, links=no ; 28 June 1842 — 15 November 1907), was an Azerbaijani journalist and

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

, founder of the first Azerbaijani language newspaper '' Akinchi'' ("The Ploughman") in 1875.

Early life

Zardabi was born in Zardab, then a small village on the Kura River to the west of Baku. He had studied in the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

school in the city of

Shamakhi Shamakhi ( az, Şamaxı, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving it ...

and later (after receiving a government

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

) in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

before being admitted to the department of mathematics and physics at Moscow University in the 1860s (his relative Lieutenant general Faraj bey Aghayev helped him get an education). Upon graduating he was appointed administrator in the Land Survey Administration in Tiflis and afterwards in the judiciary in Guba. He quit that position to become a science teacher at a secondary school in Baku, where he established a benevolent society to help raise money to make it possible for children of Muslim parents to receive modern education at Russo-Muslim schools. by Evan Siegel. Originally published in Michael Ursinus, Christoph Herzog, & Raoul Motika (ed.), Heidelberger Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des modernen Vorderen Orients, vol. 27 (Frankfurt am Main, etc.: Peter Lang, 2001)

Contributions

Throughout his life, Zardabi fought for the enlightenment of

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

. Zardabi was a proponent of

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

and education among Muslim population in the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

. Initially he supported the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n rule but later re-evaluated his estimation of Russia and the benefits of imperial rule. The emerging Azeri intelligentsia regarded Russia as channel to the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an Enlightenment, criticized Islamic practices, and promoted the use of Azeri as a vehicle of local cultural expression. In their struggle for change and transformation, as Audrey Altstadt explains, the Azerbaijani intelligentsia grew to understand that it need not, indeed could not, reject its own cultural heritage. Zardabi came to such a conclusion as a result of his long years in exile in the small village of Zardab. In 1873 Zardabi with another intelligentsia activist Najaf bey Vazirov staged the first Azerbaijani theatrical production based on the play by Mirza Fatali Akhundov, ''The Adventure of a Miser''. In 1875, he founded ''Akinchi'', the first independent newspaper to appear in Azerbaijani language in the Russian Empire. Naming itself as Akinchi (ploughman), this paper addressed itself primarily to the peasant reader in accordance with Zardabi's Narodnik(Populist) ideas, that was dominant in universities of Russia in that era .The preferred language of expression among literate people was

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and they reacted with hostility to using "unprintable idiom of common folk" (

Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numer ...

). The circle of its contributors consisted mainly of Sunnis like Zardabi, whose innuendos that Persia was a backward and inhuman country provoked widespread indignation. This newspaper was shut down several times by the Russian authorities as "harmful and politically unreliable". "In Azerbaijan in the fall of 1877 the police were busy arresting a large number of educated "

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

" (Russian administration referred to Azeris as "Tatars") for such activities as forming circles and distributing anti-government propaganda." After the closure of ''Akinchi'' in 1877 Zardabi was exiled to his native village. In 1905, however, he resumed his cultural activities by becoming a reporter for the progressive ''Hayat'' newspaper. In his articles, he called upon cultural unification of Muslims in Russia and the establishment of a unified Turkic language that will ensure progress and social development by helping Muslims move away from the tradition of writing in

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

which, in Zardabi's view, were used by the power-hungry Muslim clergy to spread

reactionism In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...

and

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

. Zardabi died in 1907 in his home town. Today he is regarded as one of the founders of modern Azerbaijani journalism and theatre.

Ganja State University Ganja State University (GDU, Azerbaijani: ''Gəncə Dövlət Universiteti'') is a public university in Ganja, Azerbaijan. Officially accredited and recognized by the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan), Ganja State University is a med ...

was named after Hasan Bey Zardabi.

References

Notes Bibliography *Austin Jersild. Rethinking Russia From Zardob: Hasan Melikov Zardabi And The "Native" Intelligentsia. Nationalities Papers, Volume 27, Issue 3 September 1999, pages 503 - 517.
Hasan bey Zardabi
article from the ''Russian Literature and Folklore'' encyclopædia *Ф. Агазаде «Экинчи», Баку, 1925. *Ш. Ф. Мамедов. Мировоззрение Гасан-бека Меликова Зардаби. Москва, 1960 *Б. З. Геюшов. Мировоззрение Г. Б. Зардаби. Бaky, 1962

External links

Ailə həyatını mətbuat vasitəsilə quran ilk azərbaycanlı - Həsən bəy Zərdabi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zardabi, Hasan Bey Azerbaijani journalists Azerbaijani schoolteachers Azerbaijani theatre directors Moscow State University alumni Azerbaijani nobility 1837 births 1907 deaths People from Zardab