IQRAR HABIB ALIYEV (1924–2004) Historian

Iqrar Aliyev was born in 1924. He studied at Azerbaijan State University, Faculty of History, from 1940 to 1945. In 1945-1947, he was employed as a teacher at the faculty. In 1949, he achieved a PhD degree. From 1947 to 1955, he served as an associate professor and head of the Department of History of Ancient World and Middle Ages at Azerbaijan State Pedagogical Correspondence Institute. In 1945, he also started his career at the Institute of History, Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan SSR, where he headed the Department of Ancient Azerbaijani History from 1957. In 1956-1957, he gave lectures on ancient history at the Faculty of History, Azerbaijan State University. In 1961, he defended a ScD thesis at the Institute of Asian People of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1968, Iqrar Aliyev obtained a ScD degree in history, and achieved professorship in 1981. In 1980, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR. He was elected an academician of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in 2001. His research interests laid in ancient history of Azerbaijan. He authored a number of works on the history of Ancient East. He served as director of the Institute of History, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, from 1978 until his death. From 1981 to 1984, he was academic secretary at the Department of History, Economy, Philosophy and Law, Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan SSR. Iqrar Aliyev chaired Toponymy Commission under the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR, and was a member of the editorial board of Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia. He addressed a number of international and all-union congresses and symposia of Orientalists and historians. In recognition of his services to science and contribution to the training of highly-qualified specialists, academician Aliyev received “Merited Scientist” title in 1979 and “Shohrat” Order in 2002.