Mirza Fatali Akhundov

Azerbaijani playwright who pioneered secular literature and alphabet reform in the Muslim world

Mirza Fatali Akhundov (1812-1878) revolutionized Islamic societies through literary modernism decades before Atatürk's reforms. His 1850s plays like The Miser and The Vizier of Lankaran Khanate introduced Western-style prose drama to Persianate cultures, critiquing religious hypocrisy through comedy.

As the first Muslim atheist intellectual, Akhundov designed a Latin-based Azerbaijani alphabet (1873) challenging Arabic script's dominance. His philosophical work Three Letters from the Indian Prince proposed radical ideas: replacing lunar Hijri calendar with solar years, establishing secular schools, and banning polygamy.

Despite Ottoman and Russian censorship, his alphabet reform concepts influenced later Turkish language reforms. Modern Baku's Akhundov House-Museum preserves manuscripts showing his encrypted correspondence with anti-clerical thinkers across the Islamic world.