Famous People From Azerbaijan

I have developed this list and presented it first in November 1995, as one of the few webpages that made up the Virtual Azerbaijan website at the time. Over the years it has evolved and grew in size, as well as recognition, as all other similar webpages on the Web are either identical or modified versions of this list.

• Garry Kasparov
  

  World Champion Chess Player Garry Kasparov learned to play chess in Azerbaijan where he grew up as a child. It was Azerbaijan’s current President Aliyev who arranged for him to compete in international competitions when Russian chess organizers were supporting Karpov and blocking Kasparov from competing internationally. Garry earned his world title while in Azerbaijan. Story tells about his background.

• Teymur Rajabov (chess prodigy, became the youngest International Chess Grand Master ever at 13 years of age)
• Chingiz Abdullayev (writer)
• Rustam Ibragimbekov (Oscar-winning screenplay writer for “Burn by the Sun” and other films, member of the Oscar committee)
• Murad Ibragimbekov (Venice Film Festival Silver Lion prize winner for Best Short Film (Neft/Oil), nephew of Rustam Ibragimbekov)
• Banu - French writer, emmigrated to France after 1920 Soviet takeover.
• Sami Yusuf - British singer, born in 1980, who is ethnically Azeri.
• Yusif Chemenzemenili (Kurban Said, Asad Bey, Lev Nissimbaum) — author of several bestseling books, including Ali and Nino.
• Muslim Magomaev (singer, idol and icon for millions of people in USSR and abroad)
• Rashid Behbudov (singer and actor, idol and icon for millions of people in USSR and abroad)
• Fidan Kasimova and her sister, Huraman (Khuraman).
• Haji Zeynalabedin Taghiyev (philanthropist, oil magnate)
• Vagit Alekperov (”Oil General,” President of LUKoil, 4th largest oil & gas corporation in the world)
• Igor Ashurbeyli (general director of Antey-Almaz, named one of 50 most influential businessmen by Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russia) in July 2003)
• Shirin Ebadi (2003 Nobel Peace Prize, an ethnic Azerbaijani from Hamadan, Iran)
• Shohreh Aghdashloo (actress, “The House of Sand and Fog”, Oscar nominee. The award went to Renee Zellweger)
• Farah Pehlevi, queen of Iran until the shah was overthrown in 1979.
• academician Andrey D. Mirzabekov (1937-2003, named in 2002 by The New York Times as the second most influential person biotechnology in the 20th century)
• Mstislav Rostropovich
• Farman Salmanov (Hero of Socialist Labor, member-correspondent of the Russian Academy of Sciences, legendary pioneer developer of the Western Siberian oil and gas fields)
• Togrul Narimanbekov (famous painter, and occassional opera singer)
• Tahir Salakhov (painter, chairman of Russian State Association of Painters, first Azerbaijani to receive honorable Russian aristocratic title of “Knyaz”)
• Babek Khuramide (according to the 19th century German scholar Mueller, Babek was the primary figure in the downfall of the Arab Caliphate in the 9th-10th centuries)
• Natavan (19th century poetess, hereditery princess of Qarabag/Karabakh)
• Mehseti Ganjevi (12th century poetess)
• Nizami Ganjavi (12th-13th century poet)
• Muhammad Fizuli (16th century poet in what is now Iraq)
• Nasir al-Din Tusi (13th century astronomer/scientist)
• Kara Karaev
• Arif Melikov
• Alem Qasimov (mugham singer, winner of 1999 UNESCO International Music Prize)
• Musa Manarov (First cosmonaut in the world to stay over a year in space!)
• V. Janibekov (another cosmonaut)
• G. Mamedov (until 2004 Deputy Foreign Minister of Russian Federation in charge of nuclear disarmament, currently Ambassador to Canada)
• Tofiq Bakhramov (famous soccer referee, linesman in the Germany-England ‘66 game)
• Geidar Jemal (Chairman of the Islamic Council of Russia, political commentator and scientist)
• Alekper A. Mamedov (Legendary 4-time Soviet and Europe championship soccer player and coach)
• Namiq Abdullaev (Gold and Silver medal wrestling winner in Atlanta and Sidney Olympics)
• Shirali Muslimov (lived 168 years!)
• Freddy Mercury (real name: Faroukh Bulsara, legendary rock group Queen’s vocal)
• Ghaffar Pourazar (first foreigner to complete the arduous training at the National Academy of Beijing Opera in China, leader of the Beijing Opera and its International Monkey King Troupe)
• Robert Hossein (famous French film actor)
• Max Black (philosopher, inspired the “fuzzy logic” scientific concept articulation)
• Prof. Lotfi Zadeh (the father of “fuzzy logic”, former dean of University of California at Berkeley School of Information Sciences)
• Academician Hasan Abdullayev (longest serving President of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, pioneering research of the Selenium and semiconductors)
• Academician Ziya Buniyatov (Hero of Soviet Union for the contribution in WWII, done a lot for the research of Azerbaijani history, from pre- and Albanian times, to the Armeno-Azerbaijani war for Karabakh)
• Aziza Mustafazade (jazz singer, daughter of no less famous Vagif Mustafazadeh)
• Fikret Amirov (the title song from “Pulp Fiction” has motives from “1001 nights” play by F.A.)
• Uzeyir Hajibeyov (composer)
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (present Supreme Leader of Iran)
• Mir Hussein Musavi (former Prime Minister and candidate for president of Iran in 2005)
• Ali Abdol-Alizadeh (Iranian Minister of Housing and Urban Development)
• Issa Kalantari (Iranian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development)
• Qolam Reza Shafei (Minister of Industries of Iran)
• Eldar Efendiyev (former mayor of Narva and the new population (ethnic affairs) minister, is the first minister of Azeri origin in Estonia, 2001-)
• Elbrus Farman oglu Abdullayev (State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine (2002-present)
• Shah Ismail Khatai (poet as a hobby, and founder of the powerful XVI-XVIII centuries Safavid dynasty and empire, as a profession)
• Prof. Dr. Ali Javan (inventor of gas laser)
• Academician Prof. Azad Mirzajanzade (one of pioneering scientists in various important oil-related inventions)
• Kerim Kerimov (Soviet space Lt-General, only of its kind, passed away in 2003)
• General Maksud Alixanov (Russian Tsarist general)
• Lt-General Ismail khan Naxcivanskii (hero of Bayazet defense, descendant of the Naxcivan khans, one of 6 generals in his family)
• Hazi Aslanov (Maj-General, twice hero of Soviet Union in WWII, killed in 1945)
• Vasiliy Vasilevich Vereshagin — famous Russian painter whose grandmother on father’s side was Azerbaijani. Born in 1842, visited Azerbaijan in 1863.
• Richard Sorge (famous spy, who fortold the start of WWII, executed in 1941)
• Yuli Gusman (Captain and mentor of Baku’s KVN team; host of popular Russian analytical program, TEMA)
• Larisa Dolina (famous Russian pop, soul and jazz singer)
• Academician Prof.Dr. G.A. Ilizarov (famous orthopedician, surgeon)
• Academician Prof. Lev Davidovich Landau (Nobel Prize in Physics)

People that were affected by Azerbaijan (famous visitors)

• Alfred Nobel
• Cyrus the Great
• Hannibal Barca (Carthagenian general)
• Alexander the Great (invaded Azerbaijan)
• Pompey the Great (Roman general)
• Genghis Khan and Tamerlane
• Alexander Dumas Sr. (French writer)
• Sergey Esenin (Russian poet, 1895-1925)
• Mikhail Lermontov (Russian poet and writer, 1814 - 1841)
• Academician Kurchatov (lived in Baku in the 1920s)
• Eugene M. Primakov (Russian foreign and Prime minister in the late 1990s, Politburo member, lived and studied in Baku in the 1940s)
• Dmitriy Mendeleev (chemist, inventor of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, worked for the Nobel’s in Baku)
• Marco Polo
• Dr. Thor Heyerdahl Also read about his research here, here, and the latest here.
• Joseph Stalin and Beria (both were in prison in Baku)

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In addition, Azerbaijan can boast the following “first’s” in the region (Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East and the Turkic and Muslim World):

• First republic, a democratic nation-state
• First opera
• First balet
• First cinematography
• First Latin-based alphabet
• First women’s college
• First Christian Church in the Caucasus (Kish village, near Sheki)
• First cosmonaut

First in the world:

• First Space General (see Kerim Kerimov, above)
• First oil well drilled (1848, in Bibi-Heybat)
• First kerosene plant (1863)
• First offshore oil field developed (1923)
• First monotheism (the worship of one God, as in Zoroastrianism/Zoroastrian religion)
• First Christian nation in Caucasus (313 A.D. under King Urnayir)

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For more famous individuals with stories about them visit Azerbaijan International’s World Class.

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