Hasan bey Zardabi

Hasan bey Zardabi (1837–1907), born Hasan bey Salim bey oghlu Malikov, was an Azerbaijani journalist, educator and enlightener. ^{1 2} In 1875 he founded Akinchi (The Ploughman), the first newspaper in the Azerbaijani language, and in 1873 he had staged the first Azerbaijani theatrical production. ¹ He took his pen surname, Zardabi, from his birthplace, the village of Zardab. ²

He was born at Zardab in Baku Governorate, and even his birth year is split in the sources: the Azerbaijani article gives 28 June 1837 while noting that some sources give 1842, the Russian article's lead agrees on 28 June 1837 (its biography section gives 12 November 1837), and the English article and its Arabic translation give 28 June 1842; his data record follows 1837 at debated status and discloses every reading. ^{2 3 1 4} He studied physics and mathematics at Moscow University. ¹ In 1873, with Najaf bey Vazirov, he staged a play by Mirza Fatali Akhundov — the first Azerbaijani theatrical production. ^{1 2} In 1875 he founded Akinchi, the first Azerbaijani-language newspaper, which ran until 1877 and carried the enlightenment programme of a generation of Caucasus Muslim writers. ¹ He spent his later career teaching in Baku and serving in its city duma. ¹

He died at Baku in 1907: the Russian article gives 28 November 1907, and the English article's 15 November 1907 is the same day in the Old Style calendar then in use in the Russian Empire; his data record gives the New Style date with the calendar split disclosed. ^{3 1 4}

His life's work was Akinchi (Əkinçi, "The Ploughman"), published at Baku in 1875–1877 as the first newspaper in Azerbaijani, whose contributors formed the core of the Azerbaijani enlightenment movement. ^{1 2} The 1873 staging of Akhundov's comedy with Vazirov is remembered as the founding act of Azerbaijani theatre. ^{1 2}

This section sets out positions as reported in the sources; it is not a verdict by the museum.

His confession. Two independent sources name Sunni Islam for Zardabi himself. ^{3 1} The Russian article states, of his confession, that he was a Muslim-Sunni, citing the contemporary survey Periodical Press in the Caucasus (Tiflis, 1901, p. 50). ³ Independently, the English article quotes Tadeusz Swietochowski (Russia and Azerbaijan, Cambridge University Press, 1985) describing the circle of Akinchi's contributors as "mainly Sunnis like Zardabi". ¹ Neither source names a legal school, so his faith is recorded as sunni, documented, without a madhhab qualifier. ^{3 1}

Enlightenment and secularism. Zardabi argued in print for modern schooling, for science and for the cultural modernisation of Caucasus Muslim society, positions carried by Akinchi and by his teaching career. ^{1 2} The museum records that advocacy as a position he argued; it is not a counter-attestation of affiliation, and it does not displace the two Sunni attestations above. ^{3 1}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.