Gasim bey Hajibababeyov

Qasım bəy Hacıbababəyov
Born	Qasım bəy Hacıbababəyov 1811 Shamakhi, Azerbaijan
Died	1874 Shamakhi, Azerbaijan
Nationality	Azerbaijani
Known for	Architect

Gasim bey Hajibababeyov (Azerbaijani: Qasım bəy Hacıbababəyov; 1811-1874) – is an Azerbaijani architect.^[1]

Biography

Gasim bey was born in 1812, in Sarytorpaq village of Shamakhi. He got his primary education at mollah. His father and elder brother Semed bey also were architects.

Gasim bey was the first among the Caucasians who worked in governmental and public organizations in the sphere of architecture and urban planning. And he was one of the first architects of Baku.

From 1848, he worked as an assistant of a province architect of Shamakhi. In 1856, he became the architect of Shamakhi province. In 1868, he became the chief architect of Baku and from 1868 till the end of his life was the chief architect of Shamakhi. His skills in the planning of Baku ravished the Russian and European architects. All streets in Baku have been laid by the architect stepwise with regard to a relief and topography of the locality, its hills and slopes. He worked out a structure of urban gardens near seafront, which also exist even at the present days.

Gasim bey came to Baku after an earthquake in Shamakhi, when Baku became a center of the province.

He worked as an architect of Shamakhi at the end of his life.

His student Gafar Ismayilov has built more than hundred one- and two-storeyed residential houses, many stores, mosques and a bathhouse.

Works in Baku

1.Baku Boulevard – 1860-1861^[2]

2.Tsitsianov square – 1860

3.Two-storeyed caravanserai – 1860’s (At present - Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature)

4.Two-storeyed caravanserai – 1870’s (now - Vorontsovskaya street 1)

5.Residential houses in Krivaya street – 1870’s^[3]

6.Building of "Araz" cinema^[4]

7.Fountains square^[5]

References