Ismayil Shikhli

Ismayil Shikhli (Shikhlinski) was born in the village of Ikin Shikhli in Gazakh.

He studied at the Gazakh Pedagogical School (1933-1936), the Faculty of Language and Literature of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute (1937-1941).

He worked as a head of the teaching department at the Kosalar village secondary school in the Gazakh region (1941-1942). During World War II, he was a private soldier in the Soviet Army at the front line (North Caucasus, Crimea, 3rd Belorussian Front and East Prussian direction). After being demobilized, he worked as a head of the teaching department at the Kosalar village school for six months (1946). He was a postgraduate student at the Philology Faculty of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute (1946-1949), a teacher, a senior lecturer, the head of the Department of Foreign Literature, and for a while he was the secretary of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan (1965-1968). He was the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Azerbaijan" (1976-1978), the first secretary of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union (1981-1986), chairman (1986-1987), secretary of the USSR Writers' Union (1981-1987). He was elected chairman of the Council of Elders of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union (1991). His first printed work, the poem "Guşlar" (Birds), was published in the "Edabiyyat" newspaper in 1938.

He began his literary work with the story "Hakimin nağılı" (The Doctor's Tale), which he published in the "Inqilab ve müdüniye" (Revolution and Culture) magazine in 1947. He is the author of novels such as "Deli Kur" and "Ölän dünyam" (My Dying World), instructive stories, and journalistic articles.

Candidate of Philological Sciences (1954), People's Writer (1984), Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan (1986-1990), laureate of the Order of "Glory" (1994), and the M.F.Akhundov Literary Prize (1991) Ismayil Shikhli died in 1995 and was buried in the Alley of Honor.

Writer and screenwriter Ismayil Shikhli is the father of journalist Elchin Shikhli.