10 Facts About Khadija Gayibova

Khadija Osman bey qizi Gayibova was an Azerbaijani pianist.

From Georgia in the then USSR, Gayibova died in Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s.

Khadija Gayibova's father, Osman Muftizadeh, was an Azeri Sunni Muslim scholar, while her mother hailed from the Teregulov family of Volga Tatar origin who settled in Tiflis in 1845.

Khadija Gayibova was trained in piano while studying at the St Nina Gymnasium for Girls between 1901 and 1911.

Khadija Gayibova became known as one of the first Azerbaijani musicians to perform mugham on piano.

Khadija Gayibova was one of the founders of the Azerbaijan State Conservatory in 1920.

In 1933, Khadija Gayibova was arrested and incarcerated allegedly for espionage and counter-revolutionary activity.

Khadija Gayibova was released three months later and the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Khadija Gayibova did not plead guilty and according to her former fellow inmate Zivar Afandiyeva, while incarcerated, she believed that she would be exiled to Siberia at most.

However, on 19 October 1938, after a 15-minute final court hearing, Khadija Gayibova was sentenced to execution by firing squad.