Musa Nagiyev

Musa Nagiyev (1849-1919) was an Azerbaijani industrial oil magnate in late 19th - early 20th century.

He was born into a very poor family near Baku and started his career as a cargo carrier ("hambal"), but thanks to his natural wit and business abilities led him to accumulate an unimaginable wealth. Musa Naghieyev was richest oil industrialists in Baku, excluding Nobel brothers - his assets were worth 300 million rubles. Later, he began investing in real estate so as to guarantee himself a source of regular income and became the largest rental property owner in Baku owning more than 200 buildings.

He was known in Azerbaijan as the most stingy, tight-fisted millionaire. However despite all these stories, it was Agha Musa Naghiyev who built one of the most wonderful palaces in the entire city and offered it as a gift to the Muslim Charity Society. This palace, modeled on Doge's Palace in Venice now houses Presidium of Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.

Another gift from Nagiyev to the city was the city's largest hospital which was built in 1912 and still functions today in this capacity. The building is designed in the shape of an "H" (Cyrillic "N") for Naghiyev's name.

Naghiyev was the main sponsor and trustee of one of the largest technical colleges, "Real College", the building now houses the State Economic University.

Sources

* [http://www.azer.com Azerbaijan International]