Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev

Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev was one of the most famous and respected philanthropist in Azerbaijan, Russia and all Muslim world. He was born in 1821 in Baku in poor family. His father was a shoe-maker. In 1873 he together with two companions rented a land, which was expected to be rich in oil. They hired unskilled laborers, bought equipment and built the rig to drill a borehole. The days were passing but oil still had not come out. Finally, companions lost all their hopes and decided to sell their lands. In spite, Tagiyev bought them and continued. One day oil gushed and son of a poor shoe-maker, Zeynalabdin became a millionaire Tagiyev. 

 However, having become rich did not change Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev as a man. He always helped to poor, sick people, cripples, and orphans. He sponsored the construction of the first Azeri national theatre in 1883. Taghiyev provided 184,000 roubles to build the first secular Muslim school for girls in the Middle East in 1898–1900. He helped to solve the water crisis in the city by helping to finance the Shollar water pipeline, which channeled water 100 miles away in the Caucasus Mountains, near Quba. He provided scholarships for many Azeri youths who strived for higher education in prestigious Russian and European universities. He helped to publish the Holy Quran in Azeri language.

Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev died in September of 1925. There were the richest people than Tagiyev, but no one is comparable with him by the scale of his charity and philanthropy.