Zeynalabdin Taghiyev
Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev , dt too. Sejnalabdin Tagiev or Taghioff ( Azerbaijani Zeynalabdin Tağıyev ; Russian Гаджи Зейналабдин Тагиев Gadzhi Sejnalabdin Tagiev , * 25. January 1821 , 1823 or 1838 in Baku ; † 1. September 1924 near Baku), was a Azerbaijani industrialist and philanthropist .
Life
Zeynalabdin Taghiyev was born the son of the poor cobbler Taghi and his wife Anakhanim in the old town of Baku ( İçəri Şəhər ). In order to support his family, he began to learn masonry after the death of his mother and the second marriage of his father. He started working as an entrepreneur at the age of 18. In the middle of 1873 he and two partners bought land near the town of Bibi-Heybat, southeast of Baku, which was then profiting from the oil boom , in order to find oil wells. After a while, his business partners sold him their shares and moved back to Baku. With the proceeds of an oil well discovered in 1877, Zeynalabdin Taghiyev quickly became one of the wealthiest men in the Russian Empire .
Taghiyev was married twice. His first wife was his cousin Zeynab, with whom he had three children. After her death in 1896, he married Sona, the youngest daughter of a general named Balakishi Arablinski, to whose older daughter Nurjahan Taghiyev's son Ismayil was married.
Economic activities
Taghiyev invested his fortune not only in the oil business, but also in many other projects, such as a textile factory and fisheries along the Caspian Sea coast. He arranged the construction of a mosque and evening training courses for the employees of the textile factory, a school for their children, a pharmacy, a first aid station and a mill. In total, his projects cost him more than six million gold rubles. He invested significant sums in textiles, food, construction, shipbuilding, and fishing. In the 1890s he bought the Caspian Steamship Company, renewed it, and created a fleet of ten steamboats. Taghiyev owned properties in Moscow , Tehran , Bandar-e Anzali and Rasht .
Charitable projects
Despite decades of anti-bourgeois propaganda in the former Soviet Union that followed his life, Taghiyev continues to be worshiped in Azerbaijan for his charity.
He sponsored the construction of the first Azerbaijani National Theater in 1883 and helped restore it after an arson attack by reactionaries in 1909.
Between 1898 and 1900, Taghiyev gave 184,000 rubles to build the first secular Islamic school for girls in the Middle East. He received personal permission to build the school in an exchange of letters with Empress Alexandra.
He also sponsored the construction of an agricultural school in Mərdəkan in 1894 and the construction of the first technical school in Baku District in 1911.
As a devout Muslim, he advocated the translation of the Koran into the Azerbaijani language. This was resolutely rejected by the local clergy, who believed that the content of the Koran was sacrosanct because of its divine origin and that no one had the right to translate it. Thereupon he sent a person authorized by a mullah to Baghdad, who brought back the official permission to translate the Koran from the Muslim scholars there. Taghiyev requested the necessary equipment for the translation from Leipzig and financed it and its publication.
He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus twice for his extraordinary achievements .
Web links
- Information about Zeynalabdin Taghiyev In: Aserbaijan International, Summer 2005
- Information about Zeynalabdin Taghiyev In: Aserbaijan International, Summer 2002 (engl.)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taghiyev, Zeynalabdin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Taghi oglu Taghiyev, Hajji Zeynalabdin; Tağıyev, Zeynalabdin (Azerbaijani); Тагиев, Зейналабдин (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Azerbaijani industrialist and philanthropist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 25, 1821 or January 25, 1823 or January 25, 1838 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baku |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1, 1924 |
| Place of death | near Baku |