ONE THOUSAND LIVES FOR THE PEOPLE

His contemporaries used to say that he was crazy about the stage. For only a person who has everlasting love for it, like Karbalayi Cahangir Zeynalov can serve the theatre so selflessly. He would essentially have had a quieter life had he not gone into theatre.

A source of goodness and theatre

Karbalayi Cahangir Zeynalov was born into a merchant's family in Baku in 1865. He received an elementary education, mastered Russian and Persian and read many books. In Baku he became well-known as a wealthy merchant and was respected. He was famous for his generosity in his native city, helping the poor and the needy. "If I had a thousand lives, I would sacrifice them for my people," the patron of the arts Karbalayi Cahangir would say, when he had put a great deal of effort into developing education and culture.

In a conversation with Regionplus his grandson, Merited Artiste Cahangir Novruzov recalls the words of his grandmother, the wife of Karbalayi Cahangir, Husniya xanim [term of respect for Azerbaijani women]: "My grandmother used to recount that Karbalayi Cahangir would always help the Cuma school which had been opened in Baku to provide poor and orphaned children with an education. In spite of the fact that there were six female servants at home, he put a 'Singer' sewing machine in front of me and said 'Husniya khanum, you will sew with this, to please God'. Husniya sewed 300 sacks, and Karbalayi Cahangir put material in them to make new clothes for the schoolchildren and sweet things for Novruz bayrami as well as books and added to them 100 roubles in gold."

Among those to whom he constantly rendered assistance were the actors. Cahangir Zeynalov not only helped the theatre and the actors financially, but his enormous house was also a focus of the theatre. The spacious hall was offered for rehearsals of the productions. He even put up a stage at one end of it. Here those whose heart and soul was in the theatre rehearsed, actors like Mirzaaga Aliyev, Haciaga Abbasov, Mahammad bay Alvandi, Huseyn Arablinskiy, Mirmahmud Kazimovskiy, Soltanmacid Hanizada, Habib bay Mahmudbayov, Badal bay Badalbayli and others. After each rehearsal he invited all of the participants for a meal at the expense of Karbalayi Cahangir. 

Cahangir Zeynalov's love for the theatre was not moreover limited solely to the above-mentioned deed. Spellbound by the theatre, Cahangir bay became an actor himself. At the time, it needed a certain amount of boldness to become involved in acting. Actors were regarded as "jesters", they were mocked and even insulted. In addition, the tsarist government did not pay any attention to the development of the theatre and did not render it any financial assistance. Patriots of their nations like Cahangir Zeynalov were promoting this form of art and took it upon themselves to support it. Well-known actors and directors like Cahangir Zeynalov, Mahammad bay Alvandi, Abulfat Vali, Huseyn Arablinskiy, Mirzaaga Aliyev, Abbas Mirza Sharifzade, Guseynoglu Sarabski and Sidgi Ruhulla spread the reputation of our theatre far beyond Azerbaijan. Our actors went on guest tours to Georgia, Dagestan, Turkmenia, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, the Volga region, Crimea, Ossetia, Iran and Turkey.

A man's profession 

Cahangir Zeynalov went on the stage for the first time in 1885, playing the part of a girl. In the early days he acted in productions put on by Habib bay Mahmudbayov and Soltanmacid Hanizada. The organisation of the Corporation of Muslim Dramatic Actors at the beginning of the 20th century owes much to Cahangir Zeynalov. He put a lot of effort into organising the "Safa" society library set up in 1910, to the fund of which he gave many books. Samad Mansur, Abbasmirza Sarifzada and Safa Bunyatzada, as well as Cahangir Zeynalov, taught at the "Safa" school which was considered one of the advanced seats of science, 

He was both an actor and production producer in the theatre troupes of the "Nicat" (1906), "Safa" and "Nasri-maarif" (1912) cultural and educational societies. He was repeatedly elected the head of the presidium of the "Safa" theatre department and in 1914 he was elected its chairman.

He went to see the productions of all visiting troupes to Baku. His reviews of them and thoughts on the art were reflected in the "Teatralnaya Tetrad" ["Theatrical Exercise-Book"] which came out in 1916.

Cahangir Zeynalov is the first Azerbaijani actor to be given a jubilee celebration. On 30 November 1910, on the day of the holy festival of Gurban bayram the "Nicat" society held a festive event at the Tagiyev Theatre to mark the 25th anniversary of his acting career. Mugham singers performed in the intervals in the official part of the celebration. Cahangir Zeynalov himself played Mirza Habib in a production of Mirza Fatali Axundov's comedy "The Vizir of the Lankaran Khan". The "Gunas", "Nicat", Sada", "Baku", "Burhani-taraqqi" and "Kavkazkaya Kopeyka" ["Caucasian Kopeck"] newspapers published the congratulations of Nariman Narimanov, Mehdi bay Hacinskiy and the actors of the Boyarskiy troupe and of the editorial offices. 

In the words at the beginning of his message of congratulations "Dear and Respected Comrade Cahangir Zeynalov". [Azerbaijani revolutionary, writer, publicist, politician and statesman] Nariman Narimanov apologised for not being able to participate in the celebratory event personally and recalled the past: "Dear and Respected Comrade! You have done enormous service to Azerbaijani theatre by serving it for 25 years. It is you who have particularly done a service, for you took the title of artiste at a time when the residents of Baku called artistes "jesters" and looked upon them scornfully… In recognising the benefit that theatre brings to the people, you deliberately took up this cause that was scorned by the people. You thought that 'the time would come when people would realise their mistake. The people who look at me scornfully, call me 'jester', will one day applaud me on this stage and thank me'… And this has actually happened after 25 years. They have applauded you, they have congratulated you. The nation has not forgotten your 25-year-long labour and, in assessing the fruits of this work, has changed its scornful attitude to the theatre."

Nariman Narimanov expressed the conviction that the merits of the person celebrating his 25th anniversary in the name of Azerbaijani theatre would never be consigned to oblivion and that his name would go down in the history of the theatre. In actual fact, the name of Cahangir Zeynalov has gone down in the history of the Azerbaijani theatre as one of the first professional actors and as the founder of the Azerbaijani school of realism.

The father of Nasiba

Cahangir Zeynalov was one of the best performers of many well-known roles. Among them there is Haci Qara ("Haci Qara"), Sahbaz bay and Mastali shah ("Monsieur Jordan and the Dervish Mastali Shah"), Molla Ibrahimxalil ("Molla Ibrahimxalil kimagar"), Tarverdi (Xirs quldurbasan"), Mirza Habib ("The Vizir of the Lankaran Khan"), Haci Qambar ("Haci Qambar") and a whole series of others. Cahangir Zeynalov masterfully played the roles of Rza bey and Rustam bey in Uzeyir Hacibayov's operetta "O olmasin, bu olsun" ("If Not That One, Then This One"). Besides this, he himself put on productions as the director. In 1913, he staged the following productions: "Hajji Gara", "Haci Qambar", "Vatan", "Evliykan subay" ("The Married Bachelor"); in 1914 - "Midlyat dostlyari" and "Zoryan Tyabin" ("A Physician Against His Will"); in 1915, "Ahlya vafa" ("Keeping a Promise") and so forth.

The last time Cahangir Zeynalov acted on the stage, he play the main role in a production of "Haci Qara", staged at the "Ismaiyilliya" Hall. It is much thanks to Cahangir Zeynalov that Mirzaaga Aliyev, Haciaga Abbasov and Mammadali Valixanli became actors. In this period one of the biggest problems was the shortage of actresses on our stage. This why men also acted in women's roles. It required enormous courage for an Azerbaijani woman to go on the stage.

Cahangir Zeynalov did not know the happiness of being a father until he was more than 50 years old. His daughter Nasiba was born on 20 April 1916. Up until that time he had always said: "My only child and descendant is the theatre". From that day onwards, Karbalayi Cahangir began to live with the hope of seeing his only daughter become an actress too, and that day did actually happen. Nasiba khanum made her father's greatest dream come true and became famous as one of the most talented actresses in Azerbaijani theatre, but her father did not manage to see that…

As it did for many others, for him the saddest days began with the bloody carnage perpetrated by the Armenian Dashnaks in Baku in March 1918. Going round the streets, breaking into every house, the Dashnaks brutally made short work of the Turks and set fire to their homes. Those who survived sought refuge by fleeing the city. In those tragic days Cahangir Zeynalov left for Enzeli where his father-in-law lived, taking his wife, Husniya, and little daughter with him. After the relative calm that reigned in October, they decided to return home. The steamship on which they were travelling got into a storm and for eight days they were at the mercy of the elements.

A typhus epidemic broke out on the vessel. Karbalayi Cahangir also went down with it. He managed to get back to Baku with enormous effort. A week later Cahangir Zeynalov, who was only 53 years old, passed away. In the last minutes of his life he passed on his dying wishes to Husniya: "Firstly, give Nasiba an education so that she does not grow up uneducated. Secondly, every year send 300 gold roubles from my estate to the Juma school. Thirdly, all my wealth, except for the bequest I have made to you, to you and my daughter Nasiba, I leave to Azerbaijani theatre."

After Karbalayi Cahangir's death hard times befell the fatherless two-year-old Nasiba, and her mother Husniya. The Soviet authorities that seized Azerbaijan in April 1920 confiscated all their property, just as they did with other well-to-do citizens. Confiscating the father's property which housed 40 rooms and a hall accommodating 300 people, Nasiba and her mother were allocated a little chamber in the attic. But this was not the end of the story. As they were considered to be rich, they were then driven out of this little room. After Cahangir Zeynalov's death, his beloved daughter had to suffer many hardships. She worked as an accounts clerk at the tram park and as an apprentice at the power supply directorate. But the serious trials that she had to put up with in life did not break her will. She lived a life worthy of her father's memory.

The path laid in art by Cahangir Zeynalov and the school founded by him have been worthily kept up by his daughter Nasiba Zeynalova and his grandson Cahangir Novruzov.

The decree of the president of Azerbaijan on holding a celebratory event to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cahangir Zeynalov is proof of the fact that his services to the development of the theatre in Azerbaijan have not been forgotten. The people to whom he devoted his entire life will cherish the memory of this selfless person forever.