The Ittihad Party () was an Islamist party in the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

that existed from 1917 to 1920. It was formed after the groups Ganja Ittihad-i Islam and Rusyada Muslumanliq merged in September 1917 in opposition to the secular

Musavat The Müsavat Party (, from ''musāwāt'', ) is the oldest existing political party in Azerbaijan. Its history can be divided into three periods: Early Musavat, Musavat-in-exile and New Musavat. The party was prohibited from contesting the 1995 ...

, and proposed political unity of all of the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(''ittihad'' in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

means "union"). In addition to propagating the legalization of the

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

law within the Muslim communities, the goal of the Ittihadists was to prevent the formation of independent

nation-states A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) con ...

by the Muslim ethnic groups of the Russian Empire. In 1918, Ittihad won 11 seats in the

Azerbaijani parliament The National Assembly (), also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat co ...

, becoming the second largest party in the legislature by number of seats. The Ittihadists' vehement opposition to Musavat, which formed the minority government in Azerbaijan in 1918–1920, led to their collaboration with the White Russians under

Anton Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of Sout ...

. Upon the defeat of the latter, Ittihad started leaning politically towards the approaching

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

who eventually Sovietized Azerbaijan on 28 April 1920. By that time, the Ittihad leaders had made a statement declaring the fulfillment of their goals and urging their members to join the newly formed

Azerbaijan Communist Party The Azerbaijan Communist Party (; ) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was formed on 20 February 1920, when ...

.Islam in Modern Azerbaijan
by Ali Abasov. The leader of the party, Dr. Gara Garabeyov, eventually émigrated to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

References

Defunct political parties in Azerbaijan Islamic organizations based in Azerbaijan Islamism in Asia Islamism in Europe Political parties in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Political parties of the Russian Revolution Pre-1920 political parties in Azerbaijan {{Azerbaijan-party-stub

See also

References