25 November] 1875 in Nukha (present-day Shaki) to the noble family of Iskandar Khan Khoyski, a colonel in the Russian Army.

[9][10] His great grandfather Jafar Qoli, the Khan of Khoy was defeated by the Iranian Fath-Ali Shah and with his 20,000 army retreated to Echmiadzin.

[11] After receiving his school education at Ganja gymnasium, Fatali Khan studied at the Law Faculty of the Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1901.

[11] On 27 March, soon after the 1917 February revolution in Russia, Khoyski became a member of the Temporary Executive Committee of Muslim National Councils (MNCs).

Prime Minister Khoyski had the distinct honor to send radiogram to the main political centers of the world on the proclamation of an independent Azerbaijan republic on 30 May 1918.

He played a significant role in making an alliance with the Turkish government, defeating and removing the Centrocaspian Dictatorship from power in Baku as well as establishing diplomatic ties with other countries.

In January 1920, when the Allied Powers de facto recognized Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Council of Allied Powers,[13] Georgy Chicherin, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs repeatedly mailed Khoyski asking him to open a new front to confront Anton Denikin and his White movement to which Fatali Khan gave negative responses saying ADR would not meddle into internal affairs of Russia.

Fatali Khan Khoyski was assassinated in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi), near the central Erivansky Square on 19 June 1920 by Aram Yerganian[14] as part of Operation Nemesis organised by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).