Mahammad Hadi

Mahammad Hadi or Agha-Mahammad Haji-Abdulsalim oglu Abdulsalimzade (Azerbaijani: Məhəmməd Əbdülsəlimzadə Hadi Şirvani; 1879, Shamakhi - 1920, Ganja) was an Azerbaijani romanticist poet.

Founder of progressive romanticism in Azerbaijani literature, Mahammad Hadi was born in 1879, in Shamakhi, into a family of a merchant. He received his primary education in a mosque, at mullah. Later he studied at Abbas Sahhat’s father mullah Aliabbas’s school. Losing his father at early ages, Hadi continued his education himself, learning Arabian and Persian languages excellently. An earthquake in 1902, demolished Hadi’s house in Shamakhi. Looking for a shelter and work, Hadi went to Kürdəmir, where he taught for some period of time. In 1906, at insistence of his teacher and relative Mustafa Lutfi, he moved to him, to Astrakhan. But he didn’t stay there for a long time and returned to Baku and worked in editorial office of “Fiyuzat” and “Irshad” magazines and “New life” and “Taraggi” newspapers.

In 1910, Hadi went to Turkey, where he worked as a translator of eastern languages, in editorial office of “Tenin” newspaper. Here he acted against Muslim orders, particularly, against oppression of women. He was exiled to Thessaloniki for that. After some period of time he was exiled to Istanbul and then to Baku. The exile shook Hadi’s health, but he continued to work at “Igbal” newspaper and to publish his poems.

After beginning of World War I, Mahammad Hadi went to front within “Savage Division” of Muslims and was in Poland and Galicia until the end of the war. After the Russian Revolution in 1917-1918, Hadi returned to Azerbaijan, where he died in May, 1920 in Ganja.