Huseyn Arif

Huseyn Arif (Huseyn Huseynzadeh / Huseyn Arikhov) was born in Yenigun village of Aghstafa region. 

He studied at Baku Pedagogical School (1937-1940), at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Azerbaijan State University (1946-1951), and at the postgraduate course of the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow (1951-1952).

He worked as a department head at the Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of Azerbaijan (1957-1959), a senior editor at the Fiction Editorial Office of “Azernashr” (1965-1967), head of the fiction editorial office at the “Ganjlik” publishing house (1967-1968), and chairman of the Azerbaijan Ashiq Union (1984-1992). He began his literary activity during the Second World War. His plays were staged. His works were translated into foreign languages, and music was composed for his poems. In 1976, his son Arif passed away, and from that day on, he adopted the pseudonym Huseyn Arif. A large part of his later creative work was devoted to poems written for his son.

People's Poet (1989), State Prize laureate (1978), Huseyn Arif died in 1992 and was buried in his native village.