biography

Abbasgulu agha Bakikhanov (Azerbaijani: Abbasqulu ağa Bakıxanov) (21 June [O.S. 3 July] 1794, – January 1847), Abbas Qoli Bakikhanov, or Abbas-Qoli ibn Mirza Mohammad (Taghi) Khan Badkubi was an Azerbaijani writer, historian, journalist, linguist, poet and philosopher. He was son of the third khan of Baku Mirza Muhammad Khan II. Served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army and participated in the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, he later retired and settled in Quba. Also known by his pen name Qodsi (Azeri: Qüdsi), many Azerbaijani scholars view Bakikhanov as among their first thinkers and historians. He is credited with being the first person that wrote a "scholarly monograph on the history of greater Shirvan"; the area that would later make up most of the Republic of Azerbaijan. His Qanun-e Qodsi, was the first Persian grammar manual published.