Igrar Habib oglu Aliyev (; 14 March 1924, in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

– 11 June 2004, in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

i historian. Aliyev was the author of 160 peer reviewed journal publications and books. Many of his books are devoted to the

Medes The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...

and

Median Empire Media ( Old Persian: ''Māda''; Greek: ''Mēdía''; Akkadian: '' Mādāya'') was a political entity centered in Ecbatana that existed from the 7th century BCE until the mid-6th century BCE and is believed to have dominated a significant por ...

. Among his writings are: "The History of Media"(Baku, 1960), "A Historical Survey of Atropatena" (Baku, 1989), "History of Azerbaijan (Baku, 1993, and in Russian, 1995). "Nagorno Karabakh: History, Facts and Events", No. 22-34 (Baku, 1982), "On Problems Related to the Ethnic History of the Azerbaijani People" (Baku, 2002), "The History of Aturpatakan" (also translated into Persian, published in Iran in 1999). Aliyev was a director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. He followed the methodology of the world-famous Soviet academician V. V. Struve, who was a leading specialist in the field of ancient

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

. Aliyev knew ancient dead languages including Sumerian, Akkadian and

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

. His works specialized in ancient

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

, Atropatena and

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

and are cited by Western experts in the relevant fields.

Controversy

A pamphlet written in 1997 on architecture in Nagarno Karabakh by Aliyev and Kamil Mamedzade, the two authors also asserted that the celebrated thirteenth century Gandzasar monastery, built by the Armenian prince Hasan-Jalal Dawla, was built by Caucasian Albanians.De Waal. ''Black Garden'', pp. 154-155. The pamphlet, which refers to the Armenians of Karabakh as "so-called Armenians" because of their alleged descent from the purported Albanian population of the region and which others have pointed out fails properly to show readers the medieval Armenian inscriptions of the monastery,de Waal. ''Black Garden'', p. 155. goes on to claim:

Works

* The History of Media, Baku, 1960. (Also translated into Persian, Published in Iran) * The Survey of History of Atropatene, Baku, 1989. * Nagorny Karabakh: history, facts, events. "Elm", Baku, no. 22-34, 1982. * The History of Azerbaijan, Baku, 1993 * The History of Azerbaijan, Baku, 1995. * The History of Aturpatakan. (Also translated into Persian, Published in Iran) * The History of Azerbaijan, 1st volume of seven.

Notes

External links

Remembering Igrar Aliyev: Historian of Ancient Azerbaijan in Azerbaijan International Online, Autumn 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aliyev, Igrar 1924 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Azerbaijani historians Writers from Baku Soviet historians