WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 I want you to imagine, just for a second, the 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:05.740 city of Baku at the dawn of the 20th century. 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:08.759 Oh, yeah. It was such a wildly transitional time. 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:12.279 Right. Picture the bustling streets, the sudden 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.000 and just immense change sweeping through the 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.780 region. You have this incredible oil wealth. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:19.920 I mean, mansions are basically being built overnight. 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:23.640 Right next to just stark. grinding inequality. 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:26.460 Exactly, rubbing shoulders with it. It's a place 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:28.379 and a time where the future is being written, 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:31.949 but you know, not everyone has a pen. So today, 00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:34.990 we're doing a deep dive into a really fascinating 00:00:34.990 --> 00:00:37.869 stack of historical sources, including curated 00:00:37.869 --> 00:00:40.689 archives from Wikipedia, to uncover the story 00:00:40.689 --> 00:00:42.909 of a group that decided to change that reality. 00:00:43.090 --> 00:00:45.130 Yeah, the Safa Society. The Safa Society. And 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:47.270 they are, without a doubt, one of the most remarkably 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:49.950 influential charitable organizations you've probably 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:53.390 never heard of. They operated in Baku from 1910 00:00:53.390 --> 00:00:56.909 to 1917. Pretty short window, really. Super short. 00:00:57.579 --> 00:01:00.280 But our mission today is to figure out how a 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.579 tiny grassroots group of just 50 people managed 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:05.900 to weave together education, health care, and 00:01:05.900 --> 00:01:09.599 theater to, well, to dramatically uplift their 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:13.500 entire society. OK, let's unpack this. 50 people. 00:01:13.859 --> 00:01:16.560 It's nothing. If you look around a crowded coffee 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:18.780 shop today, you're looking at more than 50 people. 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:22.900 How does a group that small even begin to tackle 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:26.640 systemic societal failure? It really is an astonishingly 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:28.579 small number when you look at the sheer scale 00:01:28.579 --> 00:01:31.599 of their ambition. We're talking about 50 individuals 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:34.319 who looked at the massive gaps in early 20th 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:36.599 century Baku. The lack of schooling, right? The 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.840 lack of schooling for the poor, the total absence 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.579 of basic health care, and they just decided to 00:01:41.579 --> 00:01:43.920 personally step into that void. They didn't wait 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:45.959 for the imperial government to fix it. They just 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:48.359 did it. Yeah, they established a core three -pronged 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:50.620 mission. They wanted to educate the impoverished 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:53.340 youth, provide direct medical assistance, and 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:55.620 radically elevate the public's cultural level. 00:01:55.900 --> 00:01:59.159 Which sounds incredibly noble, but also, I mean, 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:02.459 incredibly daunting. If you and 49 of your friends 00:02:02.459 --> 00:02:05.540 decided today to fix your city's education and 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:07.939 health care systems, where would you even start? 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:10.280 Right. That's not like today. No, they couldn't 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:12.500 just launch an app or, you know, set up a GoFundMe. 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:15.419 They needed a physical anchor. Exactly. Yeah. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.560 And what's fascinating here is the level of extreme 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:20.539 personal investment from the very beginning. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.259 This wasn't the kind of philanthropy where some 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:25.900 wealthy oil baron signs a check at a gala and 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:29.159 walks away. Like we see so often. Right. The 00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:31.520 society's treasurer. A local intellectual named 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.360 Ali Bala Zarbalyev, he literally built their 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:36.759 two -story headquarters out of his own pocket 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:40.300 in 1910. Out of his own pocket? Yes. It was located 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:43.650 on Boyuk Chumberkin Street. He didn't just manage 00:02:43.650 --> 00:02:47.169 the society's ledger. He financed and oversaw 00:02:47.169 --> 00:02:48.930 the construction of the very walls where this 00:02:48.930 --> 00:02:50.349 movement would grow. Wait, let me pause you there. 00:02:50.469 --> 00:02:52.750 A treasurer who personally builds the headquarters, 00:02:53.210 --> 00:02:56.009 that completely changes the dynamic of an organization. 00:02:56.110 --> 00:02:58.669 Oh, entirely. When the person balancing the books 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:00.629 is the same person who poured the foundation, 00:03:01.129 --> 00:03:04.370 you are dealing with a level of hands -on, hyper 00:03:04.370 --> 00:03:07.189 -local dedication that is just rare. It's almost 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:10.569 like a civic immune system kicking in. The community 00:03:10.569 --> 00:03:14.259 was sick with inequality, and these 50 people 00:03:14.259 --> 00:03:16.759 were the antibodies. That is a great way to look 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.439 at it. And because they had that dedicated physical 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:22.800 space, they could attract the absolute best minds 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.199 to their cause. They had a hub. Right. They didn't 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:27.039 just staff the school with anyone willing to 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:29.759 volunteer. They brought in heavy hitters. You 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.379 had figures like Hussein Javid, Sayed Hussein, 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.080 and Samad Mansour teaching in those classrooms. 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.780 So for those of us who might not be steeped in 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:40.800 early 20th century Azerbaijani history, just 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:42.990 How big of a deal were those names? Oh, huge. 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:45.090 I mean, think of Hussein Javid, for example, 00:03:45.169 --> 00:03:47.789 as a leading literary giant of the era. He was 00:03:47.789 --> 00:03:50.530 a pioneering playwright and poet. Wow. Yeah. 00:03:50.789 --> 00:03:52.669 Having him teach at your local charity school 00:03:52.669 --> 00:03:55.030 would be like having a world renowned playwright 00:03:55.030 --> 00:03:57.949 today quietly teaching middle school English 00:03:57.949 --> 00:03:59.930 to underprivileged kids in your neighborhood. 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:03.310 It provided an incredibly high standard of education 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:07.409 to children who, just a year prior, had absolutely 00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:10.479 no access to the classroom. And the demand must 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:12.819 have been overwhelming. The records show the 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:16.240 school started with 60 students, and by 1914, 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:20.040 just four years later, they had expanded to 160 00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:22.459 students. Which is substantial for a single building. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:24.660 It is, but I have to push back a little here. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:28.500 160 Kids is a fantastic achievement for a small 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:31.939 charity. But Baku was a rapidly expanding industrial 00:04:31.939 --> 00:04:35.740 hub. Is 160 Kids really enough to shift the culture 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:38.779 of entire society? It feels like a geographic 00:04:38.779 --> 00:04:41.120 bottleneck. You've hit on the exact logistical 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:44.069 wall they ran into. A single two -story building 00:04:44.069 --> 00:04:47.269 in the city center can only hold so many desks. 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:49.470 Right. If they wanted to make a systemic difference, 00:04:49.870 --> 00:04:51.670 they couldn't just wait for the rural poor to 00:04:51.670 --> 00:04:54.069 come to Baku. They had to push their resources 00:04:54.069 --> 00:04:56.370 outward, directly into the margins. Over the 00:04:56.370 --> 00:04:59.050 people. Exactly. Once they hit capacity at the 00:04:59.050 --> 00:05:00.810 headquarters, they began opening what were called 00:05:00.810 --> 00:05:03.449 Russian Tatar schools in the surrounding villages. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.019 OK, let's clarify that term, Russian Tatar, because 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.060 the terminology of the Russian Empire can be 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:12.199 confusing. What exactly did that mean for the 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:14.339 students in these villages? Right. Good point. 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:17.319 At the time, the Russian imperial authorities 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:20.939 generally referred to the local Azerbaijani and 00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:23.939 Turkic speaking Muslim populations as Tatars. 00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:27.339 Oh, OK. So a Russian Tatar school was essentially 00:05:27.339 --> 00:05:30.720 a bilingual institution. It was a highly strategic 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:32.680 move on their part. Because they needed both 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:36.410 languages. Yes. By teaching in both Russian and 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:39.370 the native Azerbaijani language, they were giving 00:05:39.370 --> 00:05:42.389 these kids the tools to navigate and succeed 00:05:42.389 --> 00:05:45.410 within the broader Russian empire without erasing 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:47.750 their local cultural identity. That is so smart. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.160 They open these schools in places like Bilcherry, 00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:53.519 Beena, Gobu, Deveche, and the Guba district. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:55.600 It's like they were planning a cultural root 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:58.019 system. The headquarters in Baku is the Taproot, 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.439 but these village schools are spreading out, 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:02.600 pulling in resources, and nourishing a much wider 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:05.560 area. A hub -and -spoke franchise model for literacy, 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.029 basically. Exactly. And they didn't just build 00:06:08.029 --> 00:06:10.449 new schools either. They also provided financial 00:06:10.449 --> 00:06:12.550 lifelines to pre -existing schools in places 00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:15.129 like Sadian and Shamaki. Like if a local school 00:06:15.129 --> 00:06:17.670 was struggling to keep the lights on, SAFA would 00:06:17.670 --> 00:06:20.410 step in. Bridging that urban -rural divide was 00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:23.389 the only way to unify the educational standards 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:26.889 of the entire region. By pushing resources out 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:30.599 into the villages, they ensured that this This 00:06:30.599 --> 00:06:33.240 intellectual awakening wasn't just a luxury reserve 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:36.139 for city dwellers. But here is the massive glaring 00:06:36.139 --> 00:06:38.060 question I've been waiting to ask. Okay, hit 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:40.879 me. Building a massive root system of bilingual 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.500 schools requires serious sustained funding. Teachers 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:47.360 like Hussein Javed need to be paid. Buildings 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:50.180 in half a dozen villages need upkeep. Medical 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.620 aid requires supplies. Sure does. How does a 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:54.759 charity of 50 people pay for all this? You can't 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:57.259 just rely on 50 membership fees. You can't. And 00:06:57.259 --> 00:06:59.180 this is where their strategy becomes entirely 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:02.170 unique. They funded their sprawling charitable 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:05.149 empire by taking to the stage. They created their 00:07:05.149 --> 00:07:08.310 own theater troupe. Wait, really? Really. 50 00:07:08.310 --> 00:07:11.110 people funded a rural school system and medical 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:14.410 clinics by putting on amateur plays. The math 00:07:14.410 --> 00:07:16.329 on that seems almost impossible. How many tickets 00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:18.649 were they actually selling? Well, first of all, 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:20.550 it was an amateur hour. They treated it with 00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:22.589 immense professionalism, even if they started 00:07:22.589 --> 00:07:25.740 out as the underdogs. The underdogs. Was there 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:28.839 another troupe? In Baku at the time, there was 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:31.680 already a major established charitable theater 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:34.579 troupe run by a rival group called the Nijat 00:07:34.579 --> 00:07:37.620 Society. Initially, the Safa troupe was much 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:40.680 weaker, but instead of engaging in a destructive 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.560 turf war over ticket sales, they did something 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.759 remarkable. They collaborated. Which speaks volumes 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:48.579 about their actual priorities. I mean, if you're 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:51.120 just in it for the ego, you try to crush your 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:52.980 rival. Exactly. If you're actually trying to 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.079 fund schools, you invite your rival to share 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:57.279 the stage. And that's what they did. You had 00:07:57.279 --> 00:07:59.860 major star actors from the Nijad troupe, guys 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:03.439 like Hussein Arablinsky and Mirzaga Aliyev, crossing 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.060 over to participate in Zafa's performances. So 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:08.959 they pooled the city's talent. Yes. And that 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.980 brings us to a really pivotal moment. Their historic 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:15.480 first major performance on August 31st, 1912. 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:18.019 At the Tagayev Theatre. At a prestigious Tagayev 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.680 Theatre. They needed a massive hit to generate 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:23.699 revenue, so they put on a comedy called Aga Karim 00:08:23.699 --> 00:08:26.339 Khan Ardabili. Which, if you dig into the background 00:08:26.339 --> 00:08:29.420 of that play, is an adaptation of The Miser by 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:32.360 the famous French playwright Molière, adapted 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:35.879 for the local stage by Najaf Bey Vezirov. Here's 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.419 where it gets really interesting. The irony is 00:08:38.419 --> 00:08:41.399 great. Picture the irony of this. You have a 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.000 charitable society, a group of people literally 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:45.919 giving away their time and money to educate the 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:48.019 poor, and they are raising their funds by putting 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:51.299 on a play about a famously greedy money hoarding 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:54.019 miser. It is brilliant programming. And this 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.220 raises an important question about how art serves 00:08:56.220 --> 00:09:00.039 civic duty. Like, why Molière? Why adapt a 17th 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:03.019 century French comedy for a 20th century Azerbaijani 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:05.240 audience? Because human nature is universal. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:08.480 Exactly. The local adapters knew that Molière's 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:10.960 sharp critique of greed and hypocrisy would map 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.879 perfectly onto the newly wealthy, sometimes ruthless, 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.600 oil barons of Baku. The very people they needed 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:18.860 to buy tickets. Right. It was cultural cross 00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:21.700 -palmation. They made the French classic feel 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:24.679 hyperlocal and relatable, which drew massive 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:28.019 crowds, which in turn funded The village schools. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:30.799 And the cast was stacked, too. The play was directed 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.480 by Jahom Gera Zanilov, who also starred as the 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.399 miser himself. A double threat. Yeah. And playing 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:41.379 his son was a young actor named Abbas Mirza Sharifzadeh. 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:43.720 And I cannot skip over this detail. It is just 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:46.740 too good. Just a few weeks before opening night, 00:09:47.059 --> 00:09:50.019 that same actor, Abbas Mirza Sharifzadeh, was 00:09:50.019 --> 00:09:52.519 elected to the Safa Society's Audit Commission. 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:55.350 I love that fact. That perfectly illustrates 00:09:55.350 --> 00:09:57.809 the reality of grassroots movements. There are 00:09:57.809 --> 00:10:00.289 no detached executives. Right. The man who's 00:10:00.289 --> 00:10:02.009 going to audit the financial ledgers on Monday 00:10:02.009 --> 00:10:05.029 morning is the exact same man putting on makeup 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:06.909 and acting his heart out on stage on Saturday 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:08.889 night. Just to make sure there is actually money 00:10:08.889 --> 00:10:10.870 to audit. Exactly. But they didn't just stay 00:10:10.870 --> 00:10:13.909 at the Taghiyev Theater in Baku. If you're wondering 00:10:13.909 --> 00:10:16.169 how they scaled their revenue to support so many 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:18.629 schools, they literally took the show on the 00:10:18.629 --> 00:10:21.299 road. The records show them touring not just 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:24.440 the local villages, but the broader South Caucasus, 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:29.480 Central Asia, Iran, Astrakhan, Kazan. We really 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:32.100 need to pause and appreciate the sheer logistical 00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:34.500 nightmare of what you just described. It's massive. 00:10:34.659 --> 00:10:38.039 Imagine the year 1912. There's no commercial 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:41.240 air travel. Coordinating a theater tour across 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:43.720 the Caucasus, over the Caspian Sea to Central 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:47.019 Asia, and deep into Iran and Russia meant moving 00:10:47.019 --> 00:10:50.419 sets, costumes, and actors by train, by ship, 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:52.820 and by carriage. Just grueling travel. It was 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:55.639 an exhausting multinational physical effort entirely 00:10:55.639 --> 00:10:58.120 undertaken to fund a local charity back home. 00:10:58.259 --> 00:10:59.679 And it makes you realize that the theater tour 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.230 wasn't just a quirky fundraising gimmick. The 00:11:02.230 --> 00:11:04.409 performances themselves were the mission. They 00:11:04.409 --> 00:11:06.830 were heading their third major goal, elevating 00:11:06.830 --> 00:11:09.090 the culture. Yes, the art was the point too. 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:12.889 Right. If you bring world -class, locally adapted 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:16.230 theater to a village in the North Caucasus, you 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:19.529 aren't just raising money. You are expanding 00:11:19.529 --> 00:11:21.830 the minds of the people sitting in the audience. 00:11:21.950 --> 00:11:24.129 Which is exactly why their repertoire was so 00:11:24.129 --> 00:11:26.169 carefully curated. They functioned like a modern 00:11:26.169 --> 00:11:28.409 cultural heritage foundation. They weren't just 00:11:28.409 --> 00:11:30.309 slapping together crowd pleasers to make a quick 00:11:30.309 --> 00:11:33.649 buck. They were actively trying to build a cannon. 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:36.440 of national literature. Right. They organized 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:39.639 these massive cultural centennials and anniversaries. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:43.480 In 1910, they threw a 25th anniversary celebration 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.700 for their lead actor and director Jehangir Zainalov. 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:49.820 Celebrating their own. Yeah. And then in 1911, 00:11:49.899 --> 00:11:52.759 they organized the 100th anniversary of the birth 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:55.779 of Mirza Fatali Akhundov, who is basically the 00:11:55.779 --> 00:11:59.100 founder of Azerbaijani literary criticism. And 00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:01.360 they also did the 40th anniversary of Najafbe 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:05.169 Vezirov in 1913. By throwing those massive celebrations 00:12:05.169 --> 00:12:07.649 for writers and actors, the Safa Society was 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:10.570 cementing a unified cultural consciousness. That's 00:12:10.570 --> 00:12:12.470 a good way to put it. They were standing up in 00:12:12.470 --> 00:12:14.710 front of the public and saying, look at our history. 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:17.830 We have our own literary giants. We have a shared 00:12:17.830 --> 00:12:19.929 identity that is worth celebrating and preserving. 00:12:21.610 --> 00:12:24.330 When you're a society undergoing rapid industrialization, 00:12:24.429 --> 00:12:27.830 and facing massive imperial pressures. Defining 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:30.889 your own cultural heroes is an act of profound 00:12:30.889 --> 00:12:33.889 civic resilience. And their artistic ambitions 00:12:33.889 --> 00:12:38.129 only grew. By 1914, Jahangir Zainalov officially 00:12:38.129 --> 00:12:40.490 took over as chairman of the theatrical department 00:12:40.490 --> 00:12:44.049 with Mityi Behaginsky as his deputy. And under 00:12:44.049 --> 00:12:46.250 their watch, they moved beyond just comedies. 00:12:46.490 --> 00:12:49.330 Oh, way beyond. They started staging heavy hitting 00:12:49.330 --> 00:12:52.350 historical dramas like Nadir Shah and even grand 00:12:52.350 --> 00:12:55.509 operas like Farhad and Shirin. Staging grand 00:12:55.509 --> 00:12:57.649 opera and sweeping historical epics in the local 00:12:57.649 --> 00:12:59.710 language proves to the audience that their native 00:12:59.710 --> 00:13:01.789 tongue is capable of holding the weight of high 00:13:01.789 --> 00:13:05.090 art. It builds a deep, enduring civic pride. 00:13:05.210 --> 00:13:07.850 It validates their culture. Exactly. They were 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:09.990 proving that Azerbaijani culture didn't have 00:13:09.990 --> 00:13:12.360 to take a backseat to European traditions. It 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.960 is an incredible golden age of productivity. 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:17.879 I mean, by 1914, they have their own building, 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:20.679 a network of rural schools, an internationally 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:23.740 touring theater troupe, and they're essentially 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:27.179 curating the national cultural identity. But, 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:29.200 you know, building all of this in peacetime is 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.559 one thing. The true measure of an organization's 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:35.200 structural integrity is what happens when a crisis 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:38.590 hits. And in the summer of 1914, the ultimate 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:42.230 crisis hit, the outbreak of World War I, the 00:13:42.230 --> 00:13:45.470 conflict through the entire Caucasus region into 00:13:45.470 --> 00:13:49.500 chaos. You suddenly had waves of displaced people, 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:53.120 extreme economic instability, and a massive humanitarian 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.059 crisis right on their doorstep. The Muslim Charitable 00:13:56.059 --> 00:13:58.960 Society in Baku suddenly had to establish four 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:00.860 emergency shelters just for the children who 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:02.419 were displaced or orphaned by the war. Yeah. 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:04.019 And where did they place one of those shelters? 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:06.299 Right inside the Sufi Society school on Boyuk 00:14:06.299 --> 00:14:08.179 Chamber Inn Street. The space they built for 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:10.360 education pivoted instantly. It became a place 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:12.960 of physical refuge. They opened their doors without 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:15.600 hesitation. and they continued to leverage their 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:18.220 entertainment arm for relief too. You mentioned 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:20.480 earlier how cutting -edge their fundraising was. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:22.620 Yeah. The records show they dedicated a full 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:25.080 day's income from their cinematography operations 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:27.759 directly to the victims of the war. Okay, let's 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:29.759 clarify that because cinematography operations 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:32.960 in 1914 is fascinating. We're basically talking 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:37.360 about early silent -era movie screenings. Exactly. 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:40.620 Film was the absolute cutting edge of entertainment 00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:43.600 technology at the time. Like the IMAX of 1914. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:45.980 Pretty much. The fact that this small charity 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:48.580 had the foresight to run early movie screenings 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:51.299 and then turn around and hand the daily box office 00:14:51.299 --> 00:14:54.659 receipts over to war refugees shows how adaptable 00:14:54.659 --> 00:14:56.879 and forward thinking they were. But amidst all 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:00.460 this local crisis, the war, the refugees, the 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:02.820 need for immediate local relief, there is one 00:15:02.820 --> 00:15:05.799 specific action they took in April 1914 that 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:08.500 completely stopped me in my tracks. The situation 00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:11.179 with the key of students. Yes, the key of students. 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:15.149 Here's what happened. 25 Muslim students studying 00:15:15.149 --> 00:15:18.360 at Keeve University. way over in Ukraine, were 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:20.299 suddenly expelled because they couldn't afford 00:15:20.299 --> 00:15:23.159 to pay their tuition fees. The board of the Safa 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:26.240 Society heard about this, pulled funds from their 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:29.159 own hard -earned budget, and sent the money directly 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:31.139 to the rector of the university to bail those 00:15:31.139 --> 00:15:32.980 students out. Okay, I have to push back here. 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:34.639 I know what you're gonna say. Put yourself in 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:38.940 the shoes of a Baku resident in 1914. You have 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:42.399 a world war looming. You literally have war -torn 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:44.820 refugee children sleeping in the classrooms of 00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:47.899 your local school. Why on earth would a local 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:51.240 charity drain its precious budget to pay tuition 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:54.659 for 25 college kids hundreds of miles away in 00:15:54.659 --> 00:15:57.820 Kiev? It's a totally valid critique. On the surface, 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:00.679 it seems almost irresponsible or at least a betrayal 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.440 of their hyper -local origins. But if we connect 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:05.639 this to the bigger picture of what the Safa society 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:08.519 actually valued, it makes perfect strategic sense. 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:11.100 They're playing a much longer game than anyone 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.580 else. A long game regarding what? The survival 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:16.580 of the intellect. Precisely. They understood 00:16:16.580 --> 00:16:20.840 that 25 university educated students were a vital 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:23.539 irreplaceable asset to the future of their culture 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:27.600 If those students drop out, the society permanently 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.120 loses future doctors, engineers, architects, 00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.860 and political leaders. The Safa society didn't 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:35.440 view an educated mind as a local commodity that 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:37.840 had to stay within city limits. They viewed it 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.019 as a collective treasure. Yes. Whether that mind 00:16:41.019 --> 00:16:44.080 was studying basic literacy in a village in Guba 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.799 or studying advanced sciences at a university 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:49.419 in Kiev, it was part of the same root system. 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:52.470 It was worth protecting at all costs. Wow. When 00:16:52.470 --> 00:16:54.509 you frame it like that, it isn't a distraction 00:16:54.509 --> 00:16:56.289 from their local mission at all. It's the ultimate 00:16:56.289 --> 00:16:58.750 expression of it. They were bailing out the future 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:01.529 of their own intelligentsia. Exactly. And they 00:17:01.529 --> 00:17:03.809 stayed deeply engaged with student empowerment 00:17:03.809 --> 00:17:06.410 right up until the end of their recorded timeline. 00:17:07.130 --> 00:17:10.029 Their final major documented act was participating 00:17:10.029 --> 00:17:12.589 in the All Caucuses Congress of Muslim Students 00:17:12.589 --> 00:17:16.329 in May 1917. Which is such a fitting capstone 00:17:16.329 --> 00:17:19.109 to their seven -year run. Think about the trajectory. 00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:21.769 They started by simply trying to get impoverished 00:17:21.769 --> 00:17:25.089 local kids into a single school building. Seven 00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:27.869 years later, they're helping shape the regional 00:17:27.869 --> 00:17:30.950 geopolitical dialogue on student empowerment 00:17:30.950 --> 00:17:34.210 and cultural identity across the entire caucuses. 00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:37.509 It's a staggering density of achievement. So 00:17:37.509 --> 00:17:39.509 what does this all mean? Let's just zoom out 00:17:39.509 --> 00:17:42.589 and recap what we've unpacked today. In a lifespan 00:17:42.589 --> 00:17:47.029 of just seven years, from 1910 to 1917, a core 00:17:47.029 --> 00:17:49.750 group of essentially 50 people changed their 00:17:49.750 --> 00:17:52.410 world. It really did. They financed and built 00:17:52.410 --> 00:17:55.009 their own headquarters. They established a bilingual 00:17:55.009 --> 00:17:57.750 rural school network. They provided medical aid. 00:17:58.170 --> 00:18:01.150 They adapted French comedies to fund multinational 00:18:01.150 --> 00:18:03.289 theatrical tours. They established their own 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:06.529 literary canon through massive cultural centennials. 00:18:06.789 --> 00:18:09.390 Right. They housed child refugees during World 00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:12.029 War I, and they bailed out university students 00:18:12.029 --> 00:18:14.329 across the continent. And the mechanism behind 00:18:14.329 --> 00:18:16.890 all of this wasn't massive imperial grants or 00:18:16.890 --> 00:18:19.690 infinite wealth. It was extreme personal investment. 00:18:19.849 --> 00:18:21.930 They built the walls. They audited the books. 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:25.589 They acted on the stages. It is a master class 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:28.869 in the sheer undeniable force of collective will 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.450 and physical effort. It really leaves you with 00:18:31.450 --> 00:18:34.210 a provocative thought to mull over. Today, we 00:18:34.210 --> 00:18:36.859 have tools the Safa society couldn't even dream 00:18:36.859 --> 00:18:39.640 of. We can send money across the globe with a 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:42.220 tap on our phones. We can broadcast a message 00:18:42.220 --> 00:18:45.759 to millions in seconds. But has that frictionless 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.200 technology actually made grassroots movements 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.400 less effective? The Safa society succeeded because 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.880 they had physical skin in the game. They literally 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:56.359 built brick walls. They stood under hot stage 00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.039 lights. They hauled theater sets across the Caspian 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.019 Sea. Does our modern ability to simply click 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:05.059 donate and look away rob us of the communal friction 00:19:05.059 --> 00:19:07.799 that actually builds a lasting culture. That 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:10.619 is the real question. Friction requires us to 00:19:10.619 --> 00:19:12.519 rely on our neighbors, to collaborate with our 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:15.420 rivals, and to show up in person. When you remove 00:19:15.420 --> 00:19:17.599 the friction, you might also be removing the 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.240 very glue that holds a community together. Something 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:22.000 to think about the next time you tap a button 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.390 to support a cause. As you picture that bustling, 00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:27.990 unequal city of Baku at the dawn of the 20th 00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:30.369 century, remember that the future wasn't just 00:19:30.369 --> 00:19:33.029 handed to them by algorithms or distant benefactors. 00:19:33.549 --> 00:19:36.130 A group of 50 people picked up the pen, felt 00:19:36.130 --> 00:19:38.069 the fiction of the paper, and wrote the future 00:19:38.069 --> 00:19:38.589 themselves.