A TRIBUTE TO THE MASTER

If you enter the Old City through the large Gosha Gala gates and pass through a small shopping area, you will exit to Boyuk Gala Street. Just walk along the Encyclopaedia building on your right hand and the Museum of the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute (the former Stock Exchange) on your left walking up the street and you will reach the house Number 28. It is a historical monument in the Old City, a cultural heritage protected by the state. On the façade, there is a memorial plaque informing you that this is the Magsud Ibrahimbayov Centre.

A starting point

Listed as a historical monument inside the Old City, this house is 104 years old. It was built in 1914 and belonged to the grandfather of Magsud Ibrahimbayov, an oilman, Alakbar Mashadibayov. The Bolsheviks shot Mashadibayov in 1924, expropriated the house, and populated it with Soviet citizens. However, historical justice triumphed in 1978, when the city authorities decided to evict the dwellers and hand over the building to the Peace Committee, chaired by our great writer Magsud Ibrahimbayov, the grandson of Mashadibayov during 1983-2016. Interestingly, when Magsud was invited to head the committee, he did not know that the day he accepted the proposal was a starting point for returning to the patrimonial nest.

From now on and until his last breath, he will come here, to his ancestors' house, to fill it with atmosphere of creativity. His novels, stories, essays, plays, screenplays, and articles bear a sign of highly motivated spiritual sense. His works are filled with goodness, morality, and infinite love for the people of his homeland, Azerbaijan. His works are written in Russian but in essence, they are national and international simultaneously. He thought like a man of the world, and lived as a great humanist of the two centuries – 20^th and 21^st.

But in order to understand the personality and citizenship of the national writer Magsud Ibrahimbayov, in order to appreciate his artistic heritage, his contribution to national art, one must reread all his books! Also, it is necessary to include the study of Ibrahimbayov’s works in educational programs of schools and universities to contribute to the upbringing of the younger generation, in order to preserve our cultural and moral values!

But let us go back to the end of the 70's! Let us go for a short time travel to witness how Ibrahimbayov first entered the house where his mother Fatima grew up and a large family gathered around the dinner table. One would certainly ask him what he is feeling and thinking about as he walks through the rooms of this large house, and steps out onto a small beautiful terrace. But an encounter with the ancestral nest is quite an intimate moment, which you do not want to intrude into even in your fantasies.

Perhaps, it was a heavenly decision when the descendant of Alakbar-bay, engaged in creative and social activities, which would later become an integral part of his life, was assigned a mission to promote humanistic ideas, moral principles, and sublime ideals. Since 1993, Ibrahimbayov has chaired the Azerbaijani branch of PEN Club, an international organisation uniting writers from all over the world, and the Noble Assembly revived by the writer with the support of President Heydar Aliyev.

Magsud Ibrahimbayov was also a member of the parliament, Milli Mejlis, in 1985-2010, honorary Senator of the State of Louisiana, honorary citizen of Minneapolis, MN, President of the Azerbaijan-Russia Society, and a Goodwill Ambassador.

Magsud’s House

Magsud’s House is a museum where his personal belongings, library, household items, fine arts, and a conference hall are on display.

Here is the personal library of the writer with a huge number of books on the shelves. It looks like they were highly demanded and loved. One can hardly find a book here unread by the owner. His own works are also here. And in the room, which can be called Creativity, one can find the magazines containing his works and books translated into different languages and published in many countries, as well as the stands depicting the selected filmography of Magsud Ibrahimbayov and his awards.

You can come here, and after walking through the museum rooms saturated with atmosphere of open communication and creativity, have a sit and read any book! You can enter his office and wait for the owner to return because the desk lamp is still on, the computer is open, the cigar lies where it is supposed to lie. There are his spectacles and magnifying glass on the table: everything whispers about a soon return! But if you feel uncomfortable after a long sitting on a white comfortable couch just opposite the owner's workplace, you can go out and get into the next room where you can admire the collection of weapons, countless awards and certificates confirming that our national genius was a very modest person throughout his lifetime. He has never boasted of titles, awards, glory, or his origin.

M. Ibrahimbayov was awarded the orders of the Red Banner of Labour (USSR), Shohrat, Istiglal, Friendship (Russia), the Pope, Glory and Honor (ROC), and Sharaf.

After all, the real noblemen who genetically inherit a code of self-sufficiency, nobility, and dignity behave that way. They live without creating fuss around their personality. Being real aristocrats, they believe that an unselfish service to the Fatherland is as natural as breathing. They forever remain patriots without false pathos and self-promotion but confirm their devotion and love to the native land by their deeds. They form the essence, conscience, and soul of their own people. Let us recall all the representatives of our nobility in the Savage Division! They served the Fatherland by adhering to the code of honour, which allowed them to affirm their love for native land by their deeds without breaking away with ancestral roots. People like this always return to their native land as birds.

Magsud Ibrahimbayov, the son of Fatima Mashadibayova and Mammad-Ibrahim Ibrahimbayov, has never been fond of long trips. If he had to leave home for some reason, he has tried to return as soon as possible. There, in distant foreign lands, he has felt uncomfortable. He could not live apart from his native space, his friends, his house off the coast of the Caspian Sea, his vocation, his dogs, whom he adored from early childhood. Do you remember his story Goodbye, Milady? It always seemed that the author himself felt that he was suffering from pain, like that dog and passed this pain onto his readers. An eleven-year-old girl would cry sobbingly while reading Milady. Looking at her, I recalled how we were crying in our twenties! However, this is not the only work of Magsud where a dog becomes one of the acting characters!

He was fond of gardening, old weapons, and pug-dogs.

Centre of attraction

On February 1, 2018, the Magsud Ibrahimbayov Centre was opened in the house Number 28 along the Boyuk Gala Street according to the decree of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. The opening ceremony has lasted two days (March 30-31), as the big house of the Mashadibayovs could not accommodate all those who wanted to visit the centre on the same day. Guests wishing to communicate with Magsud saw a wonderful room in which, with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a major restoration was carried out. At the opening of the centre, the First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva delivered a heartfelt speech about the national writer. Mikhail Gusman, the First Deputy General Director of RIA TASS, addressed directly to Magsud, as if confirming aloud what everyone thought and felt: the presence of the Master. The next speaker, Ogtay Mir-Gasim recalled his youth with Magsud and made a proposal to the audience: "Let us come here for tea, to Magsud, as often as possible. I think he will be happy to see us here!". Anna Ibrahimbayova, the writer's wife, supported this idea assuring those present that she would be as pleased with it as Magsud. Because he always liked friendly gatherings and conversations - communication, which is a regular thing only in the circle of interesting people. You can always come and talk with Magsud, and with each other. Anna-khanim expressed the hope that the Ibrahimbayov Centre would become not just a centre for promoting the writer's works but also a hotspot attracting those who want to engage in creative work: literature, theatre, researches.

“I would like to see uninterrupted creative life inside the house where Magsud continues to live in his favourite books, his work, in things that gave him an aesthetic pleasure, where his invisible presence is felt in the very atmosphere of the house. I and the staff of this centre are working on a project to preserve the writer's creative heritage; we think about holding educational and educational events: poetry and literary evenings, meetings with creative people, discussions and reading the author's works. We have many plans and ideas...” said Anna Ibrahimbayova.

"My friends Magsud and Anna"

Anna Ibrahimbayova has shared her plans for the future. Meanwhile, in the beginning of April, an event dedicated to Magsud Ibrahimbayov’s poetry took place on the ground floor of the house with a cosy and beautifully decorated hall for creative events. The guests of the centre were the participants of Nigar Hasan-zadeh’s literary project Söz. Farhad Badalbayli opened the ceremony. Unexpectedly for many connoisseurs of his musical talent, it turned out that Farhad was also a poet! His first poem read at the event was dedicated to Magsud’s wife, Anna.

The guests also discovered new talented and young poets such as Atiga Aliyeva, Mehman Rasulov, and Saida Subhi. It was their first public appearance, which was a pleasant gift for the connoisseurs of real poetry. Nevertheless, the beginning poets did not seem lost on the background of the experienced and well-known poets like Nigar Hasan-zadeh and Leyla Aliyeva, who, to the delight of the audience, read both famous and unknown poems...

Time lost its meaning giving way to poetic words that revealed the souls, thoughts and feelings of poets. The evening smoothly flowed into a casual dialogue of both poets and listeners. It seemed that this space gathered people who had known each other for long time but had rarely met before. They wanted to communicate with each other, to talk about everything at once and about anything specifically. Leyla Aliyeva, expressing her general opinion, said that she did not want to leave this house. Everyone supported this idea and continued talking in conversations about the creation of a joint project of young poets and artists. By attending poetry events like this one, they could realise their artistic impressions, as did the young artist Fidan Kim. Her miniature painted in graphic tones could be called Impression...

I wonder what would be Magsud’s reaction to such parallel creativity? What would he say about this? And what would he say seeing how people do not want to leave his house, where there is so much light and so much love?..