By Laman Ismayilova

Ali bey Huseynzade was the great personality of the Turkic world, and one of the most interesting and influential artists of Azerbaijan to have lived and worked in exile.

Ali bey Huseynzade was prominent Azerbaijani writer and literary figure, philosopher and doctor, who designed the national flag of Azerbaijan and played an important role in forming a national Azerbaijani ideology.

His personal belongings and documents have recently been transferred from Turkey to Azerbaijan upon the initiative of his daughter Feyzever Alpsar, who lives in Istanbul.

More than 100 works created by Ali bey Huseynzade and his children Salim Turan and Feyzever Alpsar, over fifty personal items, photos, awards and medals, the newspaper “Həyat”, woven on silk are now put on display at the Independence Museum of Azerbaijan, Trend Life reported.

Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev, addressing the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition, stressed the great significance of the event and thanked Turkey for assistance.

Feyzever Alpsar couldn’t attend the ceremony for health reasons, but welcomed all participants in a video message. The daughter of Ali bey Huseynzade said that her father till the end of his days believed in the independence and prosperity of Azerbaijan.

Turkish Ambassador to Baku Erkan Ozoral, President of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva, Director of the National Museum of History academician Naila Velikhanli and others highlighted the role of Ali bey Huseynzade in promotion of the ideas of independence and statehood in the Turkic world and unity of the two brotherly peoples of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The speakers stressed Huseynzade’s exclusive contribution to the development and formation of the Azerbaijan national identity. All expressed sincere gratitude to Feyzever Alpsar for such valuable gifts.

Ali bey Huseynzade’s surviving works are portraits and landscapes. Just three of Ali bey Huseynzade’s works have been on display in Azerbaijan so far. One is a portrait of Ali’s grandfather, Sheikh ul-Islam Ahmed Salyani, which is in the Azerbaijan National Museum of Arts, according to visions.az.

Another of his paintings depicts the Bibiheybet Mosque in approximately 1905-07. It’s a valuable record, as the mosque was blown up in 1936 as part of the communist authorities’ anti-religion drive. The work now hangs in the National Museum of Art.



The third picture remaining in Azerbaijan is a portrait of an old woman and a young girl. Drawn in pencil in Salyan in 1910 just before the artist left Azerbaijan for good, the subjects of the portrait are Nisa, the 75 year-old cousin of Ahmad Salyani’s wife, Husniye, and Boyukkhanim, the 11 year-old daughter of Ali bey's brother, Ismayil bey.

Ali Bey Huseynzade was born in 1864 to a family of Muslim religious cleric in Salyan.

Upon graduation in 1889, Huseynzade moved to Istanbul, where he entered the Medical faculty of Istanbul University (IU). After graduation, he served as a military doctor in the Ottoman Army, and subsequently as an Assistant Professor at IU.

In 1903, Ali bey returned home and spent the next 7 years in Baku. During this period of time, he engaged in scholarly and publishing activities, edited the "Heyat" newspaper, and served as a chief editor of "Kaspiy" newspaper.

In 1905, he joined Alimardan Topchubashev, Farrukh Vezirov, Adil Khan Ziyadkhanov and Ahmed bey Aghayev as a part of Azerbaijani delegation to an all-Russian convention of Muslims, where an agreement was reached on establishing of a single Muslim party in Russian Empire. In 1906, Huseynzade started publishing the "Fiyuzat" magazine, financed by famous philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, and harshly criticized the Tsarist government in his writings.

In 1910, Huseynzade moved to the Ottoman Empire, where he was elected a presiding member of the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1918, he returned to Azerbaijan to participate in the formation of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR).

After the fall of ADR in April 1920, Huseynzade permanently settled in Turkey and became a citizen of this country, receiving the surname Turan. Huseynzade died in 1940 at the age of 76.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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