Mammed Said Ordubadi

Mammad Said Ordubadi (Azerbaijani: Məmməd Səid Ordubadi; 24 March 1872, Ordubad - 1 May 1950, Baku) was Azerbaijani writer, poet, playwright and journalist.

He was initially educated at religious school, medrese, and later studied at Mahammad Sidgi's secular school "Əxtər" (Star). Mahammad Sidgi was well-known intellectual for his enlightenment activity in Russian Azerbaijan and the rest of Caucasus in the beginning of the XX century.

Mammed Said lost his father at early age and had to work in a textile factory.

He started writing in the 1890s. His first writing was published in Tbilisi (then Tiflis) in a newspaper "Shargi-Rus" (Oriental Russia) in 1903. In his early publications Ordubadi criticised ignorance, backwardness and religious fanaticism. In 1906 in Tbilisi he published his poetry book "Qəflət" (Ignorance) and in 1907 "Vətən və hürriyyət" (Fatherland and Freedom). He wrote for several Azerbaijani publications, including "Molla Nasraddin", "Irshad", "Sada" and others. Ordubadi covered various political, social and educational issues. He firmly stood for the necessity of the enlightenment of the Azerbaijani society under the Russian rule. In 1911, Ordubadi published a book "Qanlı sənələr" (Bloody years) - collection of first hand accounts of the Armenian-Tatar massacres in 1905-1906. In the 1910s Ordubadi published several plays, stories and novels. In 1915 Russian authorities arrested him and exiled to Tsaritsin (Volgograd). In 1918 he joined the Communist Party and returned to Baku in May 1920, after the Bolshevik conquest of Azerbaijan.

Ordubadi became the editor-in-chief of "Əxbar", "Yeni yol", "Molla Nasraddin".

During the Soviet time Ordubadi wrote extensively novels, satiric stories, plays, librettos (to operas - "Koroğlu", "Nərgiz", "Nizami"). His famous works include "Dumanlı Təbriz" (Misty Tebriz) (1933-1948) and "Qılınc və qələm" (Sword and Quill)(1946-1948). He wrote novels about poets and writers - Nizami Ganjavi, Fuzûlî, Molla Panah Vagif, Mirza Alakbar Sabir and other literary figures of Azerbaijan.

External links

• Ordubadi's "Bloody Years" in Russian