Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev

Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev was born in the village of Agbulag near the city of Shusha.

He studied at Yusif bey's temporary summer school in Shusha (1880), Shusha Realny School (1881-1890), and the Institute of Road Engineers in Petersburg (1891-1899). At the same time, he was a listener of the Oriental Faculty of Petersburg University and was interested in Muslim history and culture.

He returned to Azerbaijan in 1899. On the one hand, he was engaged in teaching, and on the other hand, he directed performances in theaters. Oriental concerts were given under his leadership (1902-1903). After the 1905 revolution, he was elected a representative from the Ganja province to the Russian State Duma (he is considered one of the first diplomats of Azerbaijan). When the opera "Leyli and Majnun" was staged on January 12, 1908, he conducted the choir and orchestra, as well as the performance, as the first Azerbaijani conductor. During his work in the "Nijat" society and the Kur-Caspian Shipping Department, he traveled to Transcaucasia, Dagestan, Central Asia and the Volga region, publishing stories and feuilletons in the "Molla Nasreddin" magazine under various pseudonyms. While living in Astrakhan, he worked in the cultural and social life of the city (1910). Then he lived in Agdam (1911-1915). In Tbilisi, he was the director of the monthly magazine "News of the Caucasian Branch of the Union of Cities" (1916-1917), and after the February Revolution, he was elected a member of the Tbilisi Executive Committee and its central council (1917). In March of that year, he was appointed a commissioner for the Borchali district (1918). After the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he was appointed an inspector of state theaters. He headed the jubilee held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Azerbaijani National Theater. He gave lectures on literature at Azerbaijan State University and participated in the training of scientific personnel. Here he was the chairman of the local committee (1922), deputy chairman and then chairman of the Society for the Study and Propagation of Azerbaijan (1923-1925). This was the first scientific research institution. He actively worked as a representative of the first Azerbaijani regional studies congress convened in Baku (1924). He began his literary activity while studying at the Shusha Real School and is the author of many works. He translated the works of foreign authors into Azerbaijani. At the fifth scientific session of the regional studies bureau under the Russian Academy of Sciences, he was elected a corresponding member of the regional studies bureau of the academy (1924). He was the secretary of the Oriental Faculty (1922-1925), the executive secretary of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union (1931-1932).

Honored Art Worker Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev died in 1933 and was buried in the Alley of Honor.