Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

On February 6, a scientific session dedicated to the works of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Farid Alakbarli, was held at the main building of ANAS.

As part of the event, the presentation of a book titled “Yüz il yaşamış əlliyaşlı alim (Biblioqrafiya, xatirə və sənədlər)” (“A Fifty-year-old Scientist who lived a Hundred Years (Bibliography, Memories, and Documents)” also took place.

The scientific session was attended by members of the Presidium of ANAS, members of parliament, representatives of various state institutions, employees of educational and medical institutions, prominent intellectuals, media representatives, and the Academy staff.

Opening the event with an introductory speech, the President of ANAS, Academician Isa Habibbeyli highlighted the scientific and moral significance of the session dedicated to Professor Farid Alakbarli, who left this world during a time of fruitful work and the peak of his creativity. He highly appreciated the event as a tribute to the memory of a distinguished researcher who developed new directions in the fields of studying manuscripts, textology, and source studies in Azerbaijan.

Speaking about life and multifaceted scientific work of Professor Farid Alakbarli, the head of ANAS underlined that the scholar conducted research in the Vatican archives, discovered numerous documents related to Azerbaijani history and brought their copies to Baku. He pointed out that Farid Alakbarli was the first Azerbaijani scientist to conduct long-term research at the Vatican Library and the Vatican Secret Archives.

Academician Isa Habibbeyli described Farid Alakbarli as a noble, knowledgeable, and bright individual who, despite his short life, achieved remarkable success. He emphasized that Professor Farid Alakbarli dedicated his life to opening new directions in science and discovered and brought to light several previously unknown medical manuscripts, incorporating them into academic research. Through his studies of written monuments on medicine and pharmacy dating from the 10th to the 18th centuries, he identified, analyzed, and cataloged 724 medicinal plant species described in these sources for the first time. He compiled the first dictionary of medieval pharmaceutical terms in Azerbaijan.

Academician Isa Habibbeyli also shared his thoughts on the presented book titled “Yüz il yaşamış əlliyaşlı alim (Biblioqrafiya, xatirə və sənədlər)”. He noted that the publication contains valuable information about Professor Farid Alakbarli’s contributions to science, as well as details about his family genealogy.

The President of ANAS emphasized that Professor Farid Alakbarli, who lived a meaningful and honorable life, left behind a valuable resource for future generations, especially for researchers engaged in textology and source studies.

Academician Teymur Karimli, Director of the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS named after Muhammad Fuzuli delivered a speech at the event, describing Farid Alakbarli as a devoted intellectual, talented researcher, dedicated and hardworking scholar. He highlighted that the distinguished scientist represented both exact and humanities sciences, conducted extensive research at the Institute of Manuscripts on medieval medical manuscripts written in Persian, Arabic, and Azerbaijani.

Academician Teymur Karimli said that Farid Alakbarli successfully defended his candidate dissertation on “Comparative Analysis of Medieval (XII-XVIII centuries) and Modern Azerbaijani Medicinal Plants” in 1992, and his doctoral dissertation on “Medieval (X-XVIII centuries) Arabic Sources on Health Protection in Azerbaijan” in 1998. He emphasized that, in addition to being a historian and source scholar, Professor Farid Alakbarli was also a patriotic physician. The scholar studied 150 species of animal-based medicines and 115 species of mineral-based medicines used in the medieval period, as well as hundreds of complex medicinal formulas, determining their composition and methods of application in medieval medicine.

Academician Teymur Karimli said that the life journey of Professor Farid Alakbarli serves as an example for every scholar, emphasizing that he left a great scientific legacy for future generations.

The editor-in-chief of the “Yeni Azərbaycan” newspaper, member of the Milli Majlis, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor Hikmat Babaoghlu, and the Acting Vice President of ANAS, Director of the Ziya Bunyadov Institute of Oriental Studies, Academician Govhar Bakhshaliyeva, delivered speeches at the event. They spoke about the exceptional contributions of the scientist to the development of Azerbaijani science.

The reports on Professor Farid Alakbarli were also presented at the event.

The reports noted that the scholar Farid Urkhan oglu Alakbarli was the Head of the Department of Translation and Preparation for Printing of Manuscripts and Old Printed Books at the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS, the President of the Azerbaijan Association of Medical Historians, and a member of the Board of the International Society for the History of Medicine. He was born on January 3, 1964, in Ganja.

It was highlighted that in 2006, Professor Farid Alakbarli co-chaired the first international conference on the history of medicine in Azerbaijan, held by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, titled “Traditional Medicine and Materia Medica in Medieval Manuscript”.  In 2004-2005, he worked on a project at the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS to include Azerbaijani manuscripts in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program. As a result, on July 29, 2005, UNESCO, for the first time in history, included three unique medieval manuscripts of Azerbaijan from the collection of the Institute of Manuscripts of ANAS in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

In the end, the Rector of the Academy of Public Administration, Academician Urkhan Alakbarov, delivered a speech, expressing his gratitude to the organizers and participants of the event for the attention and respect shown to the memory of his son.

Reyhan Majidli, Public Relations, Press and Information Department of the Presidium Administration of ANAS

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