Guba, April-May 1918. Documented Pogroms of the Muslims

220

of Central Caspian Dictatorship and was one of the 26 Baku Commissars by the

Socialist Revolutionary (

Esser

) Trans-Caspian Government on September 20, 1918.

Azizbeyov Meshadi Azim-bey oghlu

(1876-1918), a renowned revolu-

tionary and Bolshevik, one of the Baku Commissars born to a family of a stone

mason. A member of the Russian Social-Democratic Working Party as of 1898 and

a graduate of the Petersburg Institute of Technology (class 1908), Azizbeyov was

actively involved in the Revolution of 1905-1907. One of the leaders of

Hummet

social-democratic group, he was elected a member of the Baku Soviet in 1917 and

then the Chairman of the Bureau of the Baku Muslim Socialist Parties on April 5,

1917. On April 15-20 that year, he took part in the 1

Muslim Congress of the

Caucasus. A member of the Bureau of Propagandists and Agitators at the Baku

Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party of Bolsheviks as of April

23, he was holding the position of the Provincial Commissar and Deputy People’s

Commissar for Internal Affairs at the Baku Council of People’s Commissars. Arrested

after the downfall of the Soviet regime, M.Azizbeyov was executed in the group of

the 26 Baku Commissars.

I.e. David Ghelovani

The term applies to the Iranian nationals

of Azerbaijani descent migra-

ting en masse to the Caucasus from the Azerbaijani-populated regions of Iran in

search for work.

Shariah,

a code of legal, moral, ethical and religious regulations in Islam ef-

fecting a significant part in the lives of practicing Muslims and postulated as ‘eter-

nal and unchangeable’ divine adjudjement, one of confessional forms of religious

law. Shariah emerged at the Caliphate back in the 7-12

centuries A.D. Based on the

provisions of Qur’an, Sunna and Fikh, it also encompasses elements of the constitu-

tional, civil and criminal, administrative, family and procedural law, as well as ethical

and behavioral codes of conduct with no significant subdivision. At the moment,

the Maliki, the Khanbali, the Khanafi and the Shafii constitute the four major Sunni

schools of Shariah. In previous periods, the Zahiri was another prevalent school.

Sunni,

the largest denomination in Islam, its adherents supporting the di-

vine origin of the Holy Qur’an and the messianic mission of Muhammad the Prophet,

however, unlike the Shiites, believing that the supreme power in the Caliphate shall

be vested with the Caliphs elected by the whole community. Serious discrepancies

in-between the two leaing schools also exist in legal approaches to certain issues,

nature of fests, attitude towards adherents of different faiths, praying rituals, etc.

Shi’a,

the second largest denomination in Islam, its adherents also suppor-

ting the divine origin of the Holy Qur’anand the messianic mission of Muhammad

the Prophet, however, contrary to the Sunni they believe that the supreme power

in the Caliphate shall be vested not with elected Caliphs but the Imams, the chosen

descendants of the Prophet, i.e. Ali ibn Abu Talib and his posterity from Fatima, the

daughter of Muhammad the Prophet.

Tekinski Mammadkhan

(1880-1938), a public figure of the Democratic Re-

public of Azerbaijan, lawyer by training, attorney at law by occupation, ethnic Turk-

man rescued and adopted by Colonel of Russian Army Ehsan-khan Nakhchivanski in

1881 during the Russian-Turkman clashes in Geytepe following the storm of Ahal-