Ahmad Javad
Ahmad Javad (May 5, 1892 – October 13, 1937) was an Azerbaijani poet best known for composing the words of the Azerbaijani National Anthem, which was used throughout the 1918-1920 Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, and again since 1991, as well as another poem titled Chirpynirdi gara deniz.
Ahmad Javad Akhundzade was born on May 5, 1892, in the Shamkir rayon village of Seyfali. He had his primary education at home, where he studied Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Eastern literature. He began working as a teacher in 1912, after graduating from a religious seminary in Ganja. During the Balkan conflict, he served in a detachment of Caucasus volunteers on the Turkish side. He released the poetry books "Goshma" (1916) and "Dalga" (1917). (1919). He joined the Musavat Party in 1918, at the advice of Mammed Amin Rasulzade, and served on its Central Committee from 1920 to 1923, for which he was jailed in 1923 and eventually released. Javad wrote on the ADR in "Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan!" and the Azerbaijani flag in "To Azerbaijan's Flag." Under the ADR, he continued to teach and contributed to the establishment of Azerbaijan University. In his poem "O, soldier!" he praised the Turkish Army, which fought alongside Azerbaijan in 1918. Javad continued to teach after Soviet control was established. He was the headmaster and a Russian and Azerbaijani teacher in the village of Khulug in Gusar rayon in 1920, but from 1920 to 1922 he was the Quba rayon's public education branch manager.
From 1922 to 1927, he studied history and philology at Azerbaijan's Pedagogic Institute while also teaching at the Nariman Narimanov Technical School. From 1924 until 1926, he was the senior secretary of the Azerbaijan Union of Soviet Writers. Javad was detained in 1925 for the poem "Goygol." He relocated to Ganja in 1930. From 1930 to 1933, he worked at Ganja Agricultural Institute as a teacher, then as an associate professor and chair of Russian and Azerbaijani languages. He was appointed professor in 1933. He then became the literary director of Ganja Drama Theater.
Later, he was seized by the Soviet administration and killed on October 13, 1937, accused of spreading Musavat-inspired nationalism among young Azerbaijani poets. Called Yashil Galamlar (Green Pens), he was a leader of the Musavat Literature Union. Javad was one of several Azerbaijani artists and writers who were imprisoned and executed by the Soviet Union for holding dangerous beliefs.
