Mahammad Amin Akhund Haji Molla Alakbar oghlu Rasulzade (31 January 1884 – 6 March 1955) was an Azerbaijani politician, journalist and the head of the Azerbaijani National Council . He is mainly considered the founder of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 and the father of its statehood. His expression " Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz! [ az ] " ("The flag once raised shall never fall!") became the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the early 20th century.
25-910: Born on 31 January 1884 to Akhund Haji Molla Alakbar Rasulzadeh in Novkhany , near Baku , Mahammad Amin Rasulzade received his education at the Russian-Muslim Secondary School and then at the Technical College in Baku. In his years of study he created "Muslim Youth Organisation Musavat", first secret organisation in Azerbaijan's contemporary history, and beginning from 1903 Rasulzade began writing articles in various opposition newspapers and magazines. At that time, his anti-monarchist platform and his demands for
50-685: A meeting with the German leadership in May 1942, Rasulzade attempted to form a strategic alliance with Nazi Germany in order to restore Azerbaijan's independence. Rasulzade demanded that Nazi Germany announce its absolute commitment to the restoration of the Transcaucasian states, however, due to the evasive nature of the Reich in the conversation, he left Berlin. Finally, after World War II , he went back to Ankara , Turkey in 1947, where he participated in
75-673: Is a Persian title or surname for Islamic scholars, common in Iran , Afghanistan , Tajikistan , Pakistan , Bangladesh , and Azerbaijan . Other names for similar Muslim Scholar include Sheikh and Mullah . The Standard Chinese word for Imam ( Chinese : 阿訇 ; pinyin : āhōng ), used in particular by the Hui people , also derives from this term. Other similar Chinese terms ( Chinese : 阿衡 ; pinyin : āhéng and Chinese : 阿洪 ; pinyin : āhóng ) also exist. Akhunds are religious and spiritual leaders. They lead
100-626: Is considered a more polite term for Muslim clerics, used by Iranian national television and radio and by devout Muslim families. Akhund is increasingly outmoded in Iran, usually with only the older clerics having the title as part of their name. It has not been used widely as a title since the Qajar dynasty . In Afghanistan , and among the Pashtuns of the Afghan-Pakistan border region, the term
125-477: Is still current in its original sense as an honorific. The Azerbaijani surname Akhundov (as in e.g. Mirza Fatali Akhundov ) is formed from the word akhund. Akhand is used as a surname among Bengalis . Zeeshan Akhwand Khattak also uses this title with their personal name. Zeeshan Akhwand is a journalist and social worker from Karak, Pakistan. Party of Turkic Federalists The Turkic Federalist Party ( Azerbaijani : Türk Ədəmi-Mərkəziyyət Firqəsi )
150-555: The 26 Baku Commissars shot during the civil war. During the First Russian Revolution (1905–1907), Rasulzade actively participated in revolutionary developments. As the story goes, it was Rasulzade who saved young Joseph Stalin in 1905 in Baku , when police were searching for the latter as an active instigator of riots. In 1909, under the persecution from Tsarist authorities, Rasulzade fled Baku to participate in
175-702: The Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911. While in Iran , Rasulzade edited Iran-e Azad newspaper, became one of the founders of Democrat Party of Persia and began publishing its newspaper Iran-e Now which means "New Iran" and which has been described as "the greatest, most important and best known of the Persian newspapers, and the first to appear in the large size usual in Europe". In 1911, Rasulzade also published his book " Saadet-e bashar " ("Happiness of Mankind") in defense of
200-667: The Iranian Turks . After the Amnesty Act of 1913 , dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty , Rasulzade returned to Baku , left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secret Musavat (Equality) party in 1913, established in 1911, which initially promoted pan-Islamist, pan-Turkist and Socialist ideas, or more precisely Pan-Islamism yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with
225-468: The Caucasian problem), in which he firmly stated his view: Pan-Turkism was a cultural movement rather than a political program. Thus, he went to Poland in 1938, where he met his wife, Wanda, niece of Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski , then to Romania in 1940. During his exile in 1942, Rasulzade was contacted by the leadership of Nazi Germany , who, when forming national legions from representatives of
250-706: The Darkness was staged in Baku in 1908. Rasulzade and his co-workers were representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia. Most of them, including Rasulzade himself, had been members of the Baku organization of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party ( Bolsheviks ) in 1905. A photograph is extant in Soviet archives, showing Rasulzade with Prokopius Dzhaparidze and Meshadi Azizbekov , Bolsheviks who later became famous as two of
275-706: The Turkic world, and which eventually became Azerbaijani nationalist party, and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish the party's newspaper " Açıq Söz " (Open word) which lasted until 1918. When the February Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in the Russian Empire, were quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged with Party of Turkic Federalists headed by Nasib Yusifbeyli . The October Revolution in 1917 lead to
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#1732775469129300-711: The city of Yelisavetpol by an organisation which referred to itself as the Turkic Revolutionary Committee of Social Federalists. The leaflets listed continuing Russian occupation of the Caucasus and heavy taxes imposed by the Czarist government as main arguments for secession. In the same year, members of the Committee announced the formation of the Geyrat party of social federalist nature. The party
325-533: The establishment of Baku State University together with Rashid Khan Gaplanov , minister of education with the funding of oil baron Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1919. Rasulzade taught Ottoman literature at the university. Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz! The flag once raised will never fall! After the collapse of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in
350-615: The mountainous village of Lahıc, Ismailli to direct the resistance to Sovietization. But in August 1920, after the Soviet Russian army crushed the rebellions of Ganja , Karabakh , Zagatala and Lankaran , led by ex-officers of the Azerbaijani National Army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to an earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin, as Rasulzade hid Stalin from the police, that Rasulzade
375-425: The national autonomy of Azerbaijan , aligned him with Social Democrats and future Communists . In 1904 he founded the first Muslim social-democrat organisation " Hummet " and became editor-in-chief of its newspapers, Takamul (1906–1907) and Yoldash (1907). Rasulzade also published many articles in non-partisan newspapers such as Hayat , Irshad , and the journal Fuyuzat . His dramatic play titled The Lights in
400-532: The peoples of the Soviet Union, relied on well-known and authoritative representatives, such as Rasulzade and other leaders of the 1918 Caucasian republics. Hitler tried to recruit Rasulzade as a leader of a German-occupied Caucasus. Rasulzade was convinced of the close connection between Musavatism and Nazism . He noted that the social program of the Musavat party was of a national socialist nature. During
425-569: The politics of the marginal Pan Turkic movement. Due to sensitivity of his presence in either Turkey or Iran, and being often exiled, Rasulzade "cherished bad memories of both Iran and Turkey". In his appeal to Azerbaijani people in 1953 through Voice of America , he stressed his hope that one day it will become independent again. He died in 1955, a broken man according to Thomas Goltz , and was buried in Cebeci Asri cemetery in Ankara. Rasulzade
450-806: The prayers in the mosques , deliver religious sermons, perform religious ceremonies such as marriage rituals, birth rituals etc. Many of them were magistrates or justices of Sharia courts who also exercised extrajudicial functions, such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. They also often teach in Islamic schools known in Iran as hawzas and in other countries as madrasas . Akhunds will usually have completed higher studies on Islamic subjects such as Sharia , Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Quran etc. They commonly dress in religious attire. In Iran , they are also called mullah , molavi, sheikh , haj-agha , or ruhani. The word ruhani means "spiritual, holy". Ruhani
475-507: The revolution. Rasulzade was fluent in Persian . After Russian troops entered Iran in 1911 and, in cooperation with British , assisted Qajar Court to put an end to Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Rasulzade fled to Istanbul , then capital of Ottoman Empire . Here, in the wake of Young Turk Revolution , Rasulzade founded a journal called Türk Yurdu ( The Land of Turks ), in which he published his famous article "İran Türkleri" about
500-749: The secession of Transcaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, the parliament of the Transcaucasian Federation . After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation , the Muslim faction re-organized into the Azerbaijani National Council , whose head Rasulzade was unanimously elected in May 1918. On 28 May 1918 the Azerbaijani National Council , headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. Rasulzade also initiated
525-737: Was an Azerbaijani political party established in Yelisavetpol (modern-day Ganja ) and initially known as the Turkic Revolutionary Committee of Social Federalists and later as the Turkic Party of Decentralisation . It was mostly commonly referred to simply as Geyrat (Azeri for "honour"). In summer 1905, leaflets calling on the people of the Caucasus to secede from the Russian Empire were spread in
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#1732775469129550-500: Was commemorated by many memorials throughout Azerbaijan, such as Baku State University , which was named after his honor. Rasulzade was depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 1000 manat banknote of 1993–2006. The Mehmet Emin Resulzade Anatolian High School was named after him and is a public high school at Ankara, Turkey. Rasulzade's works include: Akhund Akhund ( Persian : آخوند )
575-616: Was headed by Yelisavetpol-based lawyer Alakbar bey Rafibeyli. Within the next year, it gained support in Baku and Shusha , but was soon disestablished. Geyrat was revived just after the February Revolution of 1917 by Nasib bey Yusifbeyli . Its main goal was to achieve autonomy for the Turkic-speaking peoples in the new federative Russia . Its political program was proclaimed in Yelisavetpol on 2 April 1917. On 17 June 1917, it merged with Musavat , thus becoming its right wing. This article about an Azerbaijani political party
600-610: Was released and transferred from Azerbaijan to Russia. For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded to Saint Petersburg in 1922 from where he escaped to Finland . For the rest of his life, Rasulzade lived in exile first in Turkey. Between 1923 and 1927, he was an editor-in-chief of the magazine called Yeni Kafkasya (Turkish: New Caucasus ) which
625-572: Was suspended by the Kemalist government by the request of Moscow. Rasulzade continued to publish various articles, newspapers, and magazines from 1928 until 1931 in Turkey. However, the 1931 suppression of the emigre publications coincided with Rasulzade's expulsion from Turkey, and some saw it as the result of caving in to Soviet pressure. In exile Rasulzade published a pamphlet titled O Pantiurkizme v sviazi s kavkazskoi problemoi ( О Пантюркизме в связи с кавказской проблемой , Pan-Turkism with regard to
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