Salman Mumtaz
Salman Mumtaz was a renowned Azerbaijani literary scholar and poet. He was born in Shaki in 1884. In his efforts to collect, publish and promote the classical literary legacy, he discovered unknown manuscripts of a number of Azerbaijani poets and ashugs. Falling a victim to repressions, he was arrested in 1937 and killed by shooting in 1941 in prison in Oryol.
Salman Mumtaz was labeled as a Pan-Turkist because he wrote about Azerbaijani literature as being a part of Turkic literature. His collection of rare ancient manuscripts that had been gathered from all over Azerbaijan was confiscated. Most of these manuscripts was born after his arrest. Today some of these books are archived in the Institute of Manuscripts in Baku and are called the "Salman Mumtaz Collection".
