Taghiyev
From a stonemason of the Old City to an oil millionaire; a man who gave his fortune to the enlightenment of his people and built the first school for Muslim girls.
The father of Azerbaijani charity
Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev is the most famous philanthropist in the history of Azerbaijan. Born into a poor family in the Old City of Baku, illiterate, beginning as a simple stonemason, he became one of the richest oil industrialists of his time — and disposed of his wealth as few did before or after him.
He built schools and a water supply, a theatre and hospitals, had the Quran translated into the mother tongue and sent youth to study abroad. The chief work of his life was the first secular school for Muslim girls. Taghiyev was called the 'father of the nation' — this site is about how one man lifted a whole people up behind him.
A fate in numbers
Taghiyev left behind not only wealth — he left schools, a water supply and a people to whom he opened the road to knowledge.
A fortune raised from the earth
Bibi-Heybat, the late 19th century: a forest of wooden derricks by the very Caspian, gushers of oil and swift fortunes. Here, on the fields near Baku, the former stonemason Taghiyev struck oil — and so began his path from poverty to millions and to the work of his life.
Read the biographyThis site is cultural and educational. Most of the photographs are authentic (Public Domain); two atmospheric images of old Baku were created with AI. Some dates are given from available sources.