MALIK RUSTAM MAHMUDOV

(1938-1991)

Orientalist

Malik Mahmudov was born on 4 November 1938. In 1957, he entered  Azerbaijan State University, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Arabic Section. He was on an internship at Baghdad University in 1961-1962. He graduated in 1962, starting his working career at the Institute of Near Eastern Nations (present day Institute of Oriental Studies named after Z. Bunyadov), Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. Malik Mahmudov`s appointments at the institute included a research fellow, senior research fellow and chair of the Department of Arabic Philology. He defended a PhD thesis in 1969, achieving a ScD degree in 1975 and professorship in 1978. He started a teaching career at the Faculty of Oriental Studies in 1972. He chaired the Department of History of Literature of Near Eastern Languages from 1989 until his death.

He researched into the life and career of Azerbaijan`s Arabic speaking poets and writers living in the 7th-9th centuries, and various areas of Arabic literature of Middle Ages.

Malik Mahmudov published three monographs, one textbook and over 40 papers. He was one of the authors of “Classical Azerbaijani literature” book and “Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia”. Some of his works were published in Russia, Turkey and Iran. He supervised four PhD and one ScD student to completion.