One of the ideologues of the Turkic movement in Azerbaijan. Prominent socio-political figure, publicist, writer, lawyer, orientalist-Islamic scholar.
He was born in a noble family; His parents are descendants of Panahali Khan, the founder of the Karabakh Khanate. He received his primary education at the Russian school in Shusha and the Tbilisi gymnasium. He entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Engineering, but dropped out of school, went to Paris and graduated from law school and the Sorbonne University. Here he studied the history of the peoples of the East, Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages, and in 1890 published his first scientific article on Eastern philosophy and literature. After that, other articles were published in various journals. Ahmad Bey Agayev spoke at the International Congress of Oriental Studies in London in 1892, at the age of 23, on "Sources of the Shiite Religion." The report was published in several Western languages by the decision of the Congress and the University of Cambridge. For this work, the Shah of Iran gave him a turquoise ring. At that time, Ahmad Bey Agayev got acquainted with the "Young Turks" of the future living in France, as well as the great thinker of the East, socio-political figure, Sheikh Jamaladdin Afghani, whom Europeans called "the great face of the Muslim world." This acquaintance had a strong influence on his worldview and socio-scientific activity. During these years, Agayev did not cut ties with the homeland, and consistently published articles in the Russian-language newspaper "Kavkaz" in Tbilissi (Georgia). Returning to his homeland in 1894, Ahmad Bey Agayev asked the government for permission to publish the Mashrig newspaper in the Azerbaijani language, but was refused. In 1896, he went to Shusha, taught French at a real school, opened a reading room-library, and organized the first theatrical performances. In 1897, at the invitation of the famous millionaire-philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev, he came to Baku, worked as a French language teacher at a real school, cooperated with the "Kaspi" newspaper, and was the head of the newspaper's literary department under Alimardan bey Topchubashov (1898-1907). Ahmad Bey Agayev analyzes the plight of Muslim peoples in his books "Women in Islam and the Islamic World", "Islam, Akhund and Hatif al-Ghayb", as well as a series of articles published in "Kaspi" entitled "Muslim Conversations" and "The Situation of Muslim Peoples". He spoke about the poets, scholars and thinkers of the Islamic world, giving appropriate answers to foreign authors who slandered the Muslim peoples. During these years, articles were published in the "Eastern-Russian" newspaper published by Mohammad agha Shahtakhtli in Tbilissi (Tbilisi), as well as in the press of Calcutta and Cairo. He was closely involved in the organization and activities of such charitable societies as "Nijat", "Nashri-maarif", "Saadat". From June 1905, together with Ali bey Huseynzadeh, he was the editor of the Hayat newspaper, which played an important role in the formation of nationalist thought in Azerbaijan. From December 19, 1905 he published the newspaper "Irshad", and in 1907, at the same time, the newspaper "Progress" in Russian. He started publishing the newspaper "Taraggi" in June 1908 and was its publisher until he left for Turkey (1909). Ahmad Bey Agayev was the real culprit of these tragedies in his articles published in 1905 during the genocides committed by Armenian-Dashnak bandits against the Azerbaijani people. revealed the inside of the tsarist authorities and the Armenian Dashnaks. Together with Alimardan bey Topchubashov, Gara bey Garabeyov and Iskander bey Hajinski, he participated in the "conciliation congress" convened by the Caucasian deputy in Tbilissi (Georgia) on February 20, 1906 in connection with the escalation of national massacres as a representative of the higher social strata of Baku. stated. In his speech at the congress, Ahmad Bey Agayev boldly demanded the equality of peoples, the release of the Dashnaktsutyun party and other Armenian organizations to immediately end the genocide against the Azerbaijani people, otherwise allow the Azerbaijani side to create an army for defense. , silenced Armenian leaders responsible for national massacres After these events, Ahmad bey Agayev founded the "Difai" party in 1906 in order to protect the rights of the Azerbaijani people. He twice went to see Nicholas II and his ministers at the request of Muslim entrepreneurs in Baku, and tried to prevent oil tycoons such as Rothschild and Nobel from owning Baku's oil fields. Due to these visits and activities of Ahmad bey Agayev, the resettlement of Azerbaijanis from the oil lands around Baku was stopped. Ahmad Bey Agayev, who emigrated to Turkey in 1909 due to persecution, became "close to the Young Turks here and joined the" Unity and Progress "party. He continued his scientific, public and journalistic activities."