The events of May 16 would eventually become the subject of a criminal trial, in which Taghiyev stood accused of orchestrating an attack on Behbudov with the help of the six alleged accomplices named above. The courtroom, which was open to the public, was filled to overflowing, and some newspapers devoted several pages to the trial every day. The story as embellished by the press was irresistible: an illicit love affair, an enraged husband, and a savage reprisal, all involving the local Muslim intelligentsia, Persian royalty, several millionaires, members of the Russian State Duma, and of course Taghiyev himself, a towering figure in the Caucasus. The affair would not soon be forgotten by the residents of Baku, even garnering a mention a quarter century later in the most famous novel about the period, Ali and Nino.
In 2020, I published this article about a now forgotten early 20th-century scandal involving the world’s first oil millionaire, Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev:
Robert Denis 