CITIZEN ISRAFIL HACIYEV

One of the colourful figures of Baku's socio-political life at the beginning of the 20th century was a merchant, ship owner and hereditary honorary citizen Karbalayi Israfil Haci Cabrayil oglu Haciyev. Unfortunately, little is known about this authoritative person of that period. However, the documents we found in the archives and local newspaper files allow us, though not fully, to recreate the image and character of Karbalayi Israfil Haciyev.

Prominent public figure

At the beginning of the last century, Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev, Ali Mardan Topcubasov, Hasan Zardabi, Ahmadbay Agayev and other prominent figures shone in the economic, political, social and cultural life of Baku and enjoyed enormous prestige not only in their hometown and in the Caucasus, but also in the Muslim regions of the Russian Empire. Nonetheless, today it is hardly possible to say with certainty that the lives of even the abovementioned well-known personalities have been studied very well. For example, few researchers know that the founder of the Azerbaijani press, Hasan Zardabi, represented the interests of citizens in the courts as a proxy. So the lack of information regarding Karbalayi Israfil Haciyev is not surprising. It is known that he was a ship owner and was engaged in the transportation of crude oil on the Volga. He owned House №12 on Samaxi Street (now Cafar Cabbarli Street). In the final years of Soviet rule, this building housed the Executive Committee of the Oktyabr District of Baku and in the years of independence - the Yasamal District executive authorities. He had another house on Kladbishenskaya Street (now Mehdi Huseyn Street), but it was demolished.

On 10 October 1905, the viceroy of His Imperial Highness in the Caucasus, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, approved the Charter of the Islamic Charitable Society in Baku. The founders of the society were 21 persons from among prominent Azerbaijanis. Among them, we see Israfil Haciyev. The first constituent assembly of the society was held on 15 November 1905 in the hall of the Baku City Council. 136 people expressed a desire to become members of the society. The same meeting elected its first board. The chairman of the board was Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev and his deputy - Haciyev. The latter was also elected a deputy of the Baku City Council several times. Many electors voted for him. For example, about 500 electors participated in the elections to the City Duma in 1907. After the vote-counting, it was reported that of the 80 elected members, only 20 received more than 300 votes. It was Tagiyev, Muxtarov, Hacinski and others, including Haciyev who gained 337 votes.

Note that the 1907 election to the Baku City Council was the first election in which there was a departure from the rule according to which the indigenous population, i.e. Azerbaijanis had no right to hold more than half of the seats. Ahmadbay Agayev and Karbalayi Israfil Haciyev advocated the abolition of the existing rules most actively. The persistence with which the Azerbaijanis called for the abolition of this directive alarmed prominent representatives of other peoples inhabiting Baku, first of all Armenians. It was the assembly of Azerbaijanis that was charged with negotiating with the Armenians in order to assure them that really decent persons will be elected to the Duma and nationality will not matter. Whatever it was, as a result of the elections under the new rules, Azerbaijanis got 50 of the 80 seats in the Duma and the Armenians - 20.

Haciyev was nominated to the State Duma of Russia in the 1907 elections. But he dropped out in favour of Ismayil Aga Tagiyev (son of Haci Zeynalabdin Tagiyev), who was elected to the Second State Duma.

Inconvenient speaker

Haciyev's speeches in the Duma differed with their directness and abruptness. For example, in 1907, the City Duma considered an official notice from St. Petersburg ordering the expulsion of Ali Mardan Topcubasov from the Baku City Council as a State Duma deputy who signed the Vyborg Manifesto - a protest of deputies against the tsar's decree to dissolve the legislature. Council member Mammad Hasan Hacinski, who made a report on this matter, expressed the hope that the deputies would respond properly to this news. Haciyev was the first to take the floor: "... Let the government consider him expelled, let them persecute him by whatever means, but we, his friends, knowing him very well, cannot exclude him from our circle... The deputies cannot sign the decision to expel him, I personally cannot do that."

He spoke no less abruptly when the Duma discussed the issue of costs on the Baku city government: "... They know very well that we are unable to pay 100,000 on time, and how will we give twice as much... Do they want to take our last shirt? Today and tomorrow we will have to close schools, hospitals, orphanages and other institutions because of the lack of funds, and now they are increasing the spending on the police every day." Perhaps such speeches served as a pretext for A. Novikov, who served as mayor of Baku in 1902-1904, to make very unflattering comments about Haciyev in his book "Notes of a Mayor".

Family

Regarding the family life of Haciyev, we know that in 1892 he married Uma Salma Khanum Agabay qizi Salimxanova. At that time, the girl was 17 years old. From this marriage, son Iskandar was born in 1896. During World War I, he was a law student at the University of Petrograd. Like many wealthy people of that time, Haciyev had a second wife - Sona Haciyeva. Sona Haciyeva was an illegitimate daughter of Azerbaijani Rza Abdullayev and Russian Irina Gerasimova. She was born on 19 May 1873. At birth, she was named Mary and was baptized in the Orthodox faith. At four, she lost her mother and a year later - her father. The girl was taken care of by the wife of her paternal uncle Umleyla Said qizi. Haciyeva noted later that she was brought up by her aunt "in the spirit of the Islamic religion". In 1898, she contracted a temporary marriage - sigya - for a period of 50 years with Karbalayi Israfil Haciyev, becoming his second wife. In society, Haciyeva was called "the Russian wife" of Haciyev. Two girls - Zuleyxa (13 November 1900) and Mina (31 August 1901) were born from this marriage. In 1908, Haciyeva officially converted to Islam. She was one of the most active members of the Baku Women's Muslim Charity. She participated in raising funds and collecting things for Muslims affected by the war. She went to Nargin Island where Turkish prisoners were kept. In 1915, on suspicion of involvement in the escape of eight Turkish captive officers from the island, she was interrogated by the police.

Karbalayi Israfil Haciyev died on 17 October 1916. After his death, the question of dividing the property of the deceased between his wives and children was raised. And then it turned out that neither his marriage to Sona Haciyeva nor the birth of children in the marriage was put in the registers kept at the mosque. To eliminate these shortcomings, she appealed to the District Court of Baku in November 1916. Haciyev's first wife Umu Salma and his son Iskandar Haciyev called for the suit to be rejected and asked the court not to recognize the marriage of Israfil Haciyev and Sona Haciyeva as legitimate and thus deprive her daughters of the right to the inheritance. However, the court backed Sona Haciyeva.