In this section, we have set out the consolidated biographies of some of the key members of the family who have been most central both to the families and to the history of Azerbaijan
Aslan Ashurov
(born c. 1853 - after 1909). International Azeri shipping & trading tycoon. Member of the Baku City Duma. Honoured by Tsar Nicholas II, in 1903.
The eldest of four brothers, Aslan became an international Azeri merchant; prominent local figure; and member of the Baku City Duma. He transforms the dynasty's fortunes into one of very considerable wealth and international reach. The family becomes one of the most distinguished and powerful in Baku.
Baku City records show that, in 1898, the Ashurovs had become major traders and shipowners. The Ashurov Brothers Trading Company is recorded as owning 5 steamships, 3 barques (three masted sailing ships); 5 additional sailing ships, and 8 barges. The family also owned the Ashurov & Company Power Station business.
In 1903, Aslan Ashurov was honoured by Tsar Nicholas II: granted the title of Honoured Citizen of the Russian Empire. Honoured Citizenship of the Russian Empire was a new social rank in the Russian empire created by Tsar Nicholas I in 1832. It was awarded to distinguished and highly successful members of the non-noble, urban wealthy. Aslan was awarded one of the highest forms, with his rank and privileges being hereditary to his sons and their male heirs.
The First Russian Revolution of 1905 saw ethic conflicts in Western Azerbaijan (now Armenia), and numerous terrorist actions in Baku. Aslan Ashurov participated in the defence of Baku and, afterwards, worked for reconciliation between ethnic groups. He survived an assassination attempt, in the streets of Baku, near the family palace.
Aslan ensured much of the family’s wealth was safely deposited overseas including in Ottoman Turkey and in a number of western European countries, including Switzerland.
Upon his death his body was kept in the building of the Baku State Duma for 3 days, and Baku people flocked to pay their respects.
Ali Iskander Ashurov
(born 1859 - after 1907). Local political leader & member of the All-Russia Congress of Muslims, & the Baku City Duma. v (known as Iskander Ashurov) (born 1859 - after 1907). Third son of Gurban Ashur oglu (born after 1823 until 1876), he was a highly successful merchant and brother of Aslan Ashurov.
Politically, Iskander was perhaps the best known of this generation of Ashurovs. He was a prominent member of the All-Russia Congress of Muslims and also of the Ittifaqi al-muslimin political party*. The Ittifaqi al-muslimin party was a fairly progressive organisation which aimed for Muslims in Russia to act politically as a united front.
*The Ittifaqi al-muslimin party managed to secure around 30 seats in the first all-Russia State Duma (which was created following the 1905 Russian revolution) and in the second State Duma
Agha Ashurov
(born 1886-1936). Educated in Khakiv (then part of imperial Russia) and Germany, he was a talented engineer, before entering politics. He became a founding father of, & minister in, the 1918-1920 governments of the independent Azeri republic.
See his wikipedia entry here
Agha studied engineering and technology in Germany and returned to Baku, where he worked in the city's municipality. He directed steps to improve and develop Baku. Under his leadership, an agreement was signed in 1908 on the construction of a new power plant in Baku and construction of the Shollar water pipeline in Baku.
Aga Ashurov's activity as a political figure began in 1906. He was a participant in the 3rd All-Russian Muslim Congress held in Nizhny Novgorod that year (with the permission of the Tsarist government). Aga Ashurov was elected to the presidium of the congress. Although he did not belong to any party, he was one of the active members of the national movement in Azerbaijan.
He served, variously, as minister of trade (re-establishing Azeri-Ottoman trade), minister for food and minister of post and telegraph.
As the Bolsheviks sought to take Azerbaijan by force and subsume it into Soviet Russia, Agha was the sole member of the Azeri parliament to vote against capitulation and transfer of power to the Soviet Union. For this he was arrested.
He died in internal exile, in southern Russia, in 1936.
During the Communist period of 1920-1992, discussion of the business and political merits of the Ashurov dynasty were actively repressed in Baku.
Surviving members of the Ashurov dynasty faced suppression by the Soviet authorities and the loss of a large amount of their property and assets in the Soviet Union. Some assets and family-controlled bank accounts remained, dormant, overseas, until the 1990s.
Teymur Malikov
born 1893 - 1971). The principal Malikov heir and one of the most remarkable members of this storied family. Teymur was an immensely successful merchant trader who, despite confiscations during the Bolshevik revolution, managed to rebuild the family’s fortune.
Teymur also survived two rounds of internal political exile by the Soviet regime. He traded widely within the Tsarist Russian and Ottoman empires, and with Iran. Most of the family fortune was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, but tenacious Teymur regained it, and more, by helping the new USSR trade with the outside world. He earned the very rare and important certificate of ‘Red Merchant’ for the USSR (this was during the 1921-28 period of the New Economic Policy, or ‘NEP). During this time Teymur became very wealthy and expanded the familiy’s asset base in Iran, in particular.
He married Aslan Ashurov’s daughter, Kyubra. In the 1930s, Teymur was arrested and persecuted, as an ‘NEP-man’, and was sent into internal exile in Kazakhstan. He was allowed to retun to Baku in 1932. The family was again to suffer political repression in 1941 - doubtless because of their connections with pro-British Shahist Iran - and was exiled again to Kazakhstan in 1941, where the family endured many privations. They were able to return to Baku, after an intervening period in Soviet Dagestan, in 1947.
Malikov's entire family (wives & seven children) were declared 'politically untrustworthy' by the Communist regime and exiled to northern Kazakhstan. This also happened to other families amongst the old great merchant class. After many privations, the family was able to return to Baku in 1947.
Teymur Malikov successfully led the family efforts to secure restitution both of his family’s wealth and that of his wife (the daughter of Aslan Ashurov); and to protect the family from another deportation. The family also receives back some of its Baku possessions (but not the Malikov family palace on Boyuk Qala street, which now houses the Azeri national museum for archaeology and ethnology).
Azar Malikov
(born 1931 - 2019). Became a respected oil and gas engineer. After Azeri independence in 1992, he became a successful international oil executive and entrepreneur.
In 2011, he was awarded by the Azeri government the title 'Honoured Engineer of Azerbaijan'.
Maternal grandfather to, and mentor of, Anar Mahmudov. Azar’s mother was Kyubra Khanum Ashurova (b. 1902 - 1995) who was daughter of Aslan Ashurov and sister of Agha Ashurov.
Azar Malikov’s father was Teymur Malikov. In 1971, Azar Malikov inherited the Teymur Malikov family home in Baku (but not the Malikov family palace on Boyuk Qala street, now a state museum). Azar inherited Ashurov family assets via his mother, Kyubra, upon her death in 1995.
He will be long-remembered in the family’s history for his achievements in rebuilding the family’s fortunes following the collapse of Communism. Azar Malikov was a loving grandfather and supported all his grandchildren with education and business throughout his life.