Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
Below are lists of famous, prominent and notable Azerbaijanis from Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Russia, Turkey (Anatolia) and other countries. Some Azerbaijanis were born in one country, but gained fame in another. In the list, they are indicated only by place of birth. List also includes people who have at least one parent is of Azerbaijani origin.
Azim Azimzade — painter and graphic artist, founder of Azerbaijani satirical graphics, People's Painter of Azerbaijan SSR (1927)
Behruz Kengerli - Azerbaijani painter, graphic artist, one of the first representatives of Azerbaijani visual arts and the founder of realistic easel painting of Azerbaijan.
Boyukagha Mirzazade - prominent Azerbaijani artist, People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1967)
Maral Rahmanzade - Azerbaijani graphic artist, People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1964), laureate of the State Prize.
Rasim Ojagov — film director and operator, Honored Artist of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1964), People's Artist of Azerbaijan SSR (1982).
Rustam Ibragimbekov — soviet and Azerbaijani writer and screenwriter, State Prize Laureate, People's Writer of Azerbaijan, Honored Artist of Azerbaijan SSR (1976) and Honored Artist of Russia (1995).
Hussein Khan Nakhichevanski — Russian Imperial Cavalry General and General-Adjutant of the Emperor of Russia. He was the only Muslim to serve as General-Adjutant of the Russian Emperor.
Ibrahim bey Usubov — military commander in Russian Imperial Army and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Maj.-Gen.
Sadigjan — tar-player (sazanda) and the inventor of the Azeri tar.
Composers
Afrasiyab Badalbeyli — composer, conductor and music critic. The author of music and the libretto of the first Azerbaijani Ballet and the first ballet in the Muslim East.
Muslim Magomayev — composer, one of the founders of Azerbaijani classical music. He is the grandfather and a namesake of Azerbaijani opera singer Muslim Magomayev.
Uzeyir Hajibeyov — composer, conductor, scientist, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure. He is the first Muslim author of an opera.
Classical
Bulbul — folk and opera singer (tenor), one of the founders of Azerbaijani national musical theater, People's Artist of USSR (1938).
Polad Bulbuloglu — Soviet and Azerbaijani singer, songwriter and actor. Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan SSR (1973), People's Artist of Azerbaijan SSR (1982), Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan SSR (1988–1991) and Republic of Azerbaijan (1991–2006), Ambassador of the Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation (since 2006).
Gazanfar Musabekov — Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR (1922–1930), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars ZSFSR (1932–1936), Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Azerbaijan SSR.
Mir Jafar Baghirov (Azerbaijani Stalin) — party activist, head of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU of the Azerbaijan, chairman of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR (1932–1933), first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR (1933–1953), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR (1953); the author of several scholarly books.
Mirza Davud Huseynov — Chairman of the Presidium of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR (1920), People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR (1921), First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Tajik SSR (1930–1933).
Elmar Mammadyarov – Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic (2004–present).
Revolutionaries and leaders of rebellions
Aina Sultanova — one of the first Azeri women revolutionaries, People's Commissar of Justice of the Azerbaijan SSR; its name is associated with appearance of the first in the East women's magazine "Shark Kadyny" ("Woman of the East"); sister of Gazanfar Musabekov and the wife of Hamid Sultanov.
Khanlar Safaraliyev — oil field worker, trade unionist and revolutionary Moslem social democrat. In 1907, he helped lead a successful strike at the Baku oil fields
Mir Hasan Vazirov — socialist-revolutionary, of the 26 Baku Commissars.He signed the decree of the Baku CPC confiscation of landed estates and transferring them to the working peasants.
Qatir Mammed — People's hero of Azerbaijan, the legendary leader of the Peasant Movement in the Ganja province of Azerbaijan in 1918–1919. ru:Гатыр Мамед
Scientists
Abbasgulu Bakikhanov — historian and writer, founder of Azerbaijani scientific historiography.
Alexander Kazembek — a famous orientalist, historian and philologist. The world-renowned scientist and organizer of Russian Oriental Studies.
Firudin bey Kocharli — a prominent Azerbaijani philologist, writer and literary critic.
Elchin Khalilov — geophysicist, professor, doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences.
Kerim Kerimov — rocket scientist, one of the founders of the Soviet space industry, and for many years a central figure in the Soviet space program, Hero of Socialist Labor.
Lotfi A. Zadeh — mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, founder of the theory of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic.
Colonel Mohammad Taqi-Khan Pessian - He was a popular military leader of Iran and became a national hero after his assassination. He is also famously known as being the first Iranian to successfully pilot an aircraft.
Abbas Gharabaghi — Iran's last Army Chief of Staff under the Pahlavi regime.
Mir Bashir Gasimov — People's Commissar of Social Security of the Azerbaijan SSR (1935–1937), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR (1938–1949).
Haydar Khan e Amo-oghli (Tariverdiev) — revolutionary activist who used terror to radicalize Persian politics in the early 20th century, General Secretary of the Iranian Communist Party.
Mohammad Khiabani — famous cleric and politician, leader of the national liberation movement against the Shah's regime in Persia, Chairman of the Central Committee of Azadistan (1920).
Ali Tagi-zadeh — People's Commissar of Social Welfare and Labour of the Armenian SSR (1929–1932), Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR (1959–1963).
Alimardan Topchubashev — politician, foreign minister and Minister of External Affairs of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918), Head of the Parliament in absentia of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–1920).
Hasan Hasanov — the first Prime Minister of Azerbaijan (1990–1992), Minister of External Affairs of Azerbaijan (1993–1998).
Hasan Seyidov — Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR (1981–1989).
Nariman Narimanov — Azerbaijani and Soviet politician and writer, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR (1920–1921), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR (1920–1922).
Asaf Zeynally — composer, founder of the romances in Azerbaijani music, laid the foundation of the Azerbaijani children's music.
Kerim Mammadbayov — revolutionary, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Dagestan ASSR (1921–1923), People's Commissar of Finance of the Dagestan ASSR (1925–1928), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Dagestan ASSR (1931–1937).
Sarhat Rashidova — was believed to be the oldest person to live on Earth as of January 2007.
Ali Insanov — Minister of Health of Azerbaijan (1993–2005).
Aziz Aliyev — People's Commissariat for Health of the Azerbaijan SSR (1939–1941), Secretary of the Dagestan Regional Committee of the Communist Party (1942–1948).
Avaz Alakbarov — Azerbaijani economist, Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan (1999–2006).
Hasan Seyidov — Minister of Agriculture of the Azerbaijan SSR (1955–1959).
Husein Mammadov — Chairman of the Supreme Council of Nakhchivan ASSR (1952–1964).
Ismat Abbasov — Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan (since 2004).
Misir Mardanov — Minister of Education of Azerbaijan (since 1998).
Rolan Guliyev — kickboxer, World Champion version WPKA (2009), Champion of 2004 Asian Kickboxing, Turkmenistan champion 2004 Kickboxing among professionals, Two-time champion in kickboxing Azerbaijan (2005 and 2006) among young people. ru:Гулиев, Ролан Мурадхан оглы
Валерий Кичин (24 января 2007 г.). "Старый князь и новые проблемы" (in Russian). "Российская газета". {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Я азербайджанец, я люблю свой народ, но большую часть жизни прожил в России.
СЕВДА БАБАЕВА (28 июня 2002 года). "АМИНА ФИГАРОВА: "БАКУ ВСЕГДА СО МНОЙ"". ВЫШКА. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)Template:Ru icon"Вы знаете, я сама чистокровная азербайджанка. Но папа больше похож на иностранца. Они с моим мужем очень похожи. Так, что трудно мне не было."
Robert P. Geraci. Window on the East: National and Imperial Identities in Late Tsarist Russia. (Cornell University Press, 2001), 310. ISBN 0-8014-3422-X, 9780801434228
Perhaps the only exception before Katanov was A.K. Kazembek, an Azeri who converted to Christianity and became a professor of Turkic languages at Kazan and then at St. Petersburg. Kazembek has been referred to as the first European Turkologist of Turkic origin. Robert P. Geraci. Window on the East: National and Imperial Identities in Late Tsarist Russia. Cornell University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8014-3422-X, 9780801434228
Not a few in the nineteenth century would have accepted this judgment, and might have echoed Mirza Kazem-Bek, the Russified Azerbaijani orientalist, in asking "What European state has such intimate and inherent ties with Asia and Asiatics as does Russia? Andreas Kappeler, Edward Allworth, Gerhard Simon, Georg Brunner. Muslim Communities Reemerge: Historical Perspectives on Nationality, Politics, and Opposition in the Former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Duke University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8223-1490-8, ISBN 978-0-8223-1490-5
"Reza Baraheni" (in Russian). Azerbaijan International. Autumn 2001.Writer Reza Baraheni (1935– ), an Azerbaijani from Iran, has been elected president of PEN Canada, an organization that represents more than 700 poets, essayists, novelists, journalists and other writers.
Harris, Craig. "Hossein Alizâdeh > Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved August 18, 2010. Alizadeh was destined to become a musician. His mother, a Persian from Arak, and his father, an Azeri from Urmia, both loved music.
Clawson, Patrick. Eternal Iran, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6276-6, Palgrave Macmillan, p.5
"Azeris unhappy at being butt of national jokes". IRIN. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. May 25, 2006. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved June 19, 2009. Although Azeris are prominent among Iran’s elite – the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an Azeri – they are often the targets of jokes and regularly mocked by the Persian majority.
Sep 28, 2004. "Asia Times – Asia's most trusted news source for the Middle East". Atimes.com. Retrieved June 19, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Indeed, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an ethnic Azeri and so is Rahim Safavi, the overall commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the most important military-security official in the country.
А.М.Вартанян (2008-08-13). ""Старая гвардия" иранских консерваторов в лицах: аятолла Али Мешкини" (in Russian). Институт Ближнего Востока.Этнический азербайджанец (как и Хаменеи), А.Мешкини на протяжении многих лет бессменно возглавляет один из ключевых органов власти в Иране, отвечающий за выбор Рахбара – Собрание экспертов (СЭ).
Britannica Encyclopedia. Mehdi Bazargan.Bazargan, the son of an Azerbaijani merchant, was educated in thermodynamics and engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris.
Salman J. Borhani (August 4, 2003). "Are there any questions? The Azeris of modern Iran". The Iranian. Former Prime Minister Mir-Mousavi and current Supreme Leader Khamenei are but a few examples of ethnic Azeris gaining positions of influence after the revolution
Bill Samii (June 23, 2005). "Iran: Ethnicity And Regional Interests Play Out In Vote" (in Russian). Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.Another candidate, Vice President for Physical Training Mohsen Mehralizadeh, is an ethnic Azeri from western Iran.
М. Реза Годс (1994). Иран в XX веке: политическая история. Наука. p. 81. После февраля 1917 г. ориентировавшиеся на большевиков группа членов СДП-И распространила свою деятельность на Иран и Кавказ. В мае 1917 г. лидеры этой группы, Асадулла Гафар-заде и Бахрам Агаев, основали партию «Адалят» («Справедливость»); ко времени Октябрьской революции почти все иранские рабочие на Кавказе присоединились через неё к большевикам… Подобно 80% иранских рабочих, трудившихся на Кавказе, Гафар-заде и Агаев были азербайджанцами.
Ali Javan web-page of 'Farhang-Sara' / Born in Tehran of Azerbaijani parentage, Javan came to the United States in 1949 where shortly afterwards he received his Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York City. He's been with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1962.
Тигран МИРЗОЯН (October 15, 2009). "ОСНОВАТЕЛЬ АРМЯНСКОГО КИНОВЕДЕНИЯ" (in Russian). Общественно-политическая газета «Голос Армении» // № 142. Азербайджанец по национальности, Сабир Ризаев родился и вырос в Ереване.