Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Mirza Fatali Akhundov (1812–1878), also written Akhundzade, was an Azerbaijani writer, philosopher, and reformer regarded as the founder of modern Azerbaijani drama and literary criticism. His plays were the first written in the Azerbaijani Turkic vernacular and circulated widely in Russian and Persian translation.

Akhundov was born in Nukha, in present-day Azerbaijan, and educated in the traditional Islamic curriculum in Ganja. In 1834 he moved to Tiflis, where he served for more than four decades as a translator of Oriental languages for the Russian viceroy of the Caucasus. The post gave him steady income, access to European literature, and a position from which to address audiences in three imperial cultures at once.

Between 1850 and 1855 he wrote six comedies, including The Adventure of the Vizier of the Khan of Lankaran, Monsieur Jordan and Dervish Mast Ali Shah, and The Bear, the Robber Slayer, which together opened the modern Azerbaijani theatre. His novella The Deceived Stars followed in 1857. His critical and philosophical writings, especially the Letters of Kamal-ud-Dawla, advanced rationalist arguments against religious dogma and called for the reform or replacement of the Arabic alphabet for Turkic languages.

He campaigned for women's education and against polygamy and corresponded with reformers across the Russian, Ottoman, and Iranian worlds. He died in Tiflis and was buried there.

The given name Fatali is an Azerbaijani form of the Arabic compound Fath ʿAli, combining fatḥ 'opening, victory' with the name of the fourth caliph Ali, and is generally read as 'victory of Ali'. The honorific Mirza marks descent from a learned family. He bore both as a pioneer of his nation's modern letters.