Sara Ashurbeyli

The daughter of a rich oil magnate, Sara Ashurbeyli had a perfect education and finished Jeanne D’Arc College in Constantinople in 1925 and entered Baku State University in 1930 this time in Soviet Azerbaijan.

She graduated as an orientalist, and she also studied European languages at Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute, thus besides her native Azerbaijani language she knew Arabic, Persian, Turkish, French, German, Russian, and English.

A Doctor of History Sciences she was an Azerbaijan State prize laureate.

[1] Her famous works include “History of Baku: Mediaeval period” and “Shirvanshah State”.

She has postulated that the origin of name of "Baku" has its origins from Zoroastrianism, taken from the word “baga” which means “the Sun” or “the God” in several ancient middle-eastern languages.