Behind the Scenes

A Friend of Huseyn Javid, a Neighborhood Friend of Mirza Jalil... My great-grandfather, my mother’s grandfather, was a man named Gulamhuseyn. Capmaker Gulamhuseyn! Being a capmaker was considered a good profession in those days. Every man needed a capmaker because men wore caps back then. But my grandfather had talents that were even greater than his profession: his memory (something I don’t have) and his interest in literature (something I do have). He could memorize any poem or any text after hearing it just once. Gulamhuseyn was a storyteller. My mother used to tell me that the entire neighborhood would gather at night by candlelight. My grandfather would start telling a story, and before they knew it, morning had arrived. Everyone would go to sleep at dawn and return in the evening to hear the continuation of the story. Although he drank, his nickname was Imam. The children of the Shahab neighborhood loved him because whenever he came home from work, he always had nougat and raisins in his pockets to give to the children. They say that when Soviet rule was first established, Gulamhuseyn was appointed as a judge. Because he was too soft-hearted and forgave everyone, they quickly removed him from the position. Gulamhuseyn was a neighborhood friend of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and a friend of Huseyn Javid. (Look at the circle he was part of!) He also taught the literary scholar Mammad Jafar Eastern tales and classical literature. Mammad Jafar wrote in his memoirs: “After Aunt Zahra, the blind Adigozal and the capmaker Gulamhuseyn were my literature teachers.” (If you search for “Capmaker Gulamhuseyn” on Google, you can find the article.) Since there are no memories connected to Mirza Jalil, I assume either they were not close or my grandfather did not like what he wrote. But they say that Javid used to read the poems he wrote in his youth to my great-grandfather first, and that my grandfather knew those poems by heart until the end of his life. They even say that when Javid was in exile, he told one of the Azerbaijanis there to find Capmaker Gulamhuseyn in Nakhchivan and speak with him. During World War II, several people came and found my great-grandfather. They went somewhere together, and my grandfather returned home three or four days later. Gulamhuseyn never told anyone at home anything about what had happened. Near the end of his life, Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh also came to Nakhchivan, stayed at his house for nearly 20 days, and recorded what he said on a tape recorder. They say my grandfather would sit in the public bathhouse (people did not have bathrooms at home in those days), drink cognac and recite poetry, while Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh would roll up his trouser legs without even taking his clothes off and take notes in the bathhouse. Other poets and literary figures also spent time with him, but my relatives no longer remember their names. In 2016–2017, a man in official-looking clothes came from Baku to Nakhchivan and asked at Uncle Mamed’s teahouse (in Nakhchivan, a teahouse is called a “çayçı”) whether anyone from Capmaker Gulamhuseyn’s family was still alive. My uncle happened to be there. They told the man that his grandson Huseyn was there. The man approached my uncle and asked: “There was supposed to be something entrusted to your grandfather. Do you know where it is?” My uncle had no idea what he was talking about, but said that his grandfather had a notebook at home and that a distant relative had taken it. The man took that relative’s phone number and left. Recently, I told this relative about the story and asked him to find out more. He said he did not remember anything like that. (I think he simply does not want to talk about it.) Most of those people have now passed away, but their secrets remain in this world. Because my grandfather lived during the Soviet period, he never told his family anything in order not to put them in danger. I wonder what my great-grandfather knew about Javid. What did those people who came during World War II want to learn from him? Where are the recordings Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh made? What was the official-looking man from Baku searching for, and did he find what he was looking for? As always, there are more questions than answers...