Marina Petrova exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The founder of the National Azerbaijani Army, the great theorist and expert in gunnery, poet, translator, and writer Ali Aga Shikhlinsky takes his rightful place in the history of Azerbaijani and Russian people. His method of conducting an artillery fight, which he suggested in 1906, got into textbooks on military arts under the name of “Shikhlinsky’s triangle. ” It was used not only in Russian, but also French, Swiss, Norway, and Austrian armies and provided for big successes in battles of the First and the Second World Wars.
Ali Aga Shikhlinsky was born in 1863 in the family of Ismail Ali Aga Kazakh-Ogly, a native of a noble kin which takes its roots in the middle of the 16th century. After accession of Azerbaijan to the Russian Empire two branches of the ancient family – Shakhi-zade and Ali Kazakh-Ogly – united into a common name in a Russian manner. That’s how the Shikhlinskys appeared.
Ali Aga’s mother, Shakh-Emen Gaibova, a granddaughter of the great Azerbaijani poet Vidadi, was the real head of the family, according to Shikhlinsky. “Father was a man of fiery temperament, and mother managed to cool him down. In that time husband’s fist hanged over a head of an Azeri woman, but my mother had never been slammed during 45 years of their marriage, she hadn’t even heard a rude word toward herself,” Shikhlinsky wrote in his memoirs.
The elder branch of the Shikhlinskys was marked by educated and high-cultural people, while the young branch to which Ali Aga belonged was famous for military prowess. Shikhlinsky’s fate was determined in childhood. Father wanted him to get military education, but along with it Ali Aga became the first from the Shikhliskys who got complete European education. When his son was 12-year old, Ismail Ali sent him to Tiflis for studying in a military school. Ali Aga lived in family of his mother cousin, Mirza Gusein Gaibov who influenced raising of Ali Aga as a generous, fair, and decent person.
Gaibov was a close friend of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, a prominent Azerbaijani and Russian diplomat and writer. Shikhlinsky remembered that Gaibov was absolutely free from nationalist and religious prejudices. Even though he was a mufti, we stood for women rights for education and rejection of wearing hijab. He argued that it didn’t contradict sharia. Gaibov married a very beautiful woman and didn’t hide her beauty from other men. He gave brilliant education to his four children – either sons or daughters the elder of which, Nigjar khanum, became Shikhlinsky’s wife.
Nigyar khanum Gaibova and her sister graduated from a Russian school and the Trans-Caucasian School for Noble Maisens, even though secular Muslims of that time almost had never given their daughters to study in Russian schools. Nigyar’ brother Farukh Aga was the first Azerbaijani pilot.
Teenage love was born between Nigyar and Ali Aga when they were children. After brilliant graduation from the military school Shikhlinsky entered the Mikhailovskoe School in St.-Petersburg. Lovebirds wrote letters to each other, even though they were not engaged officially. Wise mufti Mirza Gusein understood clearly that very talented Ali Aga would have successful future and informally agreed to the marriage. In 1886 Ali Aga graduated from the artillery school in St.-Petersburg. He was sent to the 39th artillery brigade. For five months there was no news from Ali Aga in Tiflis.
Meanwhile, prince Mamed bek Palavandov, the Adzhar, was appointed to the position of the head judge in the Gazakh province. Mamed bek and mufti Gaibov knew each other well since their young age. Mamed’s bek wife decided to marry her son Dervish to Nigyar. Saadat, Nigyar’s mother, insisted that her daughter is beloved by her half-cousin, but it didn’t work. Mamed bek and his wife didn’t leave the question, and Mirza Gusein agreed to the marriage.
Many years had passed, but Ali Aga didn’t forget his first love. He came back to Tiflis as a hero of the Russian-Japanese war, lieutenant-colonel and saw Nigyar. She tried to look cheerful, but he mourned inside. Two years ago her husband died and their son Khosrov bek was taken to Turkey by his uncle.
Ali Aga talked to Nigyar and explained his feelings. When the Shikhlinskys found out Ali Aga wanted to marry Nigyar, some of them were dissatisfied that he wanted to married a widow. But Ali Aga stayed firm. He loved his Nigyar. In 1909 Ali Aga Shikhlinsky and Nigyr khanum got married.
Even though they had no children, they lived happily for 22 years. Shikhlinsky lived 12-year-longer than his wife. “Despite difficult time the happiest time of my life were 22 years of our marriage with Nigyar khanum. Her death was the strongest strike on me in life, the best, what I had, had gone with her,” Shikhlinsky wrote in his memoirs.
To be continued
