Famous millionaire and philanthropist of the Russian Empire Hajji Zeynalabdin Taghi oglu Taghiyev helped a lot of people during his long life. At the beginning of the last century Baku shipyards, oil plants, first horse-railway, fire station, Baku water pipeline, first banks, first cotton mill, schools, mosques, hospitals, theaters were opened and developed thanks to the money of one of the most generous Baku millionaire industrialists. He paid for education of future specialists, oil workers, lawyers and doctors in the most prestigious foreign educational institutions. Polytechnic institute was opened in Baku thanks to him.
Moreover, Taghiyev's charity work went beyond the borders of the Russian Empire. Pakistan is an example of this Today it's the sixth most populous country in the world. It has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia.
In the 19th century, the territory of modern Pakistan was occupied by British troops. It became a part of British India. At the beginning of the 20th century, when independence movement was on the rise, a pandemic of plague broke out. Experts say that there are two clinical varieties of plague – bubonic and pneumonic. A flea bite may cause the first one, while the second one is a severe version of bubonic plague. The worst thing is that pneumonic plague spreads like a flu and has 100% mortality rate. Over 100 thousand people died from the rapidly spreading deadly disease. It was possible to defeat this disease only by vaccinating those who had not yet fallen ill. And that' when Hajji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev bought and sent over 300 thousand ampoules of vaccine to Pakistan, which played a major role in the victory over this deadly disease.
In 1947, after Pakistan gained independence, this story became a part of textbooks and since then Pakistani people consider Azerbaijan a brotherly state and fully support Baku's position on the Karabakh settlement. It's interesting that Pakistan is the only state in the world that doesn't recognize the Republic of Armenia because of its position in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
During his tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif visited Azerbaijan and said: "Baku, which is also called the City of Winds, reminds many Pakistanis of their homeland. Multani Caravanserai, located in the center of Baku, is an evidence of the historical connection between our peoples. It's named Multani in honor of the city of Multan. It's a very beautiful place, for thousands years main trade routes passed through it. We must continue these traditions."