Rashid bey Ismail oglu Efendiyev (Efendizade) was born in 1863 in the city of Sheki into a religious family. He received his primary education from a teacher named Abdurrazzak Takhirzade at a mollakhana (divinity school) located in the Juma Mosque.

Rashid bey Efendiyev graduated from the school at the mosque in 1873 and continued his education in Russian, first in the county and then in the city school. In these schools he studied arithmetic, geography, history, physics, chemistry, got acquainted with the works of Russian and European writers.

In 1879, Rashid-bek Efendiyev went to work at the newly opened Azerbaijan branch of the Transcaucasian (Gori) teacher's seminary. R. Efendiev, who is fluent in Oriental and Russian languages, has sufficient knowledge in religious and secular sciences, attracts the attention of the inspector of the seminary department A. O. Chernyaevsky. Chernyaevsky involved Rashid-bek Efendiyev in the preparation of the first part of the textbook "Vatan Dili" (Native Language).

The textbook was published in 1881 in Tiflis at the Unsi-zade printing house by the lithographic method.

Cooperation with Chernyaevsky had a positive effect on the development of R. Efendiev. He began to intensely engage in creative activities. By commissioned of his teacher, the student wrote his first comedy "Gan ojagy" (Hotbed of Blood), where he criticized the theological school and, with the help of seminarians, the play was staged at the seminary . In 1879, Rashid-bek staged M.F. Akhundzade's comedy "Haji Gara" in Sheki, and later other comedies of the playwright at the Gori Seminary, while he performed the main roles himself.

While still a student, R. Efendiev wrote the poem "Shekinin   vyazi-khaly" and sent it to the editorial office of the newspaper "Ziyai-Kavkazia", he also translated the works of Russian poets. The textbook "Geometry", translated by him from Russian into Azerbaijani, along with the poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by the famous Georgian poet Sh. Rustaveli, translated into Russian by the Georgian poet Vadzha Pshaveloy (Luka Razikashvili) was exhibited at “All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition” in Moscow in 1882.

R. Efendiyev graduated from the seminary in 1882 and was assigned to the elementary school of the village in the Gabala region. Here he worked for eight years, and in 1890 he changed his place of work to a school in the village of Khachmaz region, where he worked for two years.
R. Efendiev diligently worked to improve the literacy of schoolchildren, collected samples of folk literature, wrote stories and original poems based on them, made translations from Russian and Persian literature.

After working for ten years in a rural school, in 1892 R. Efendiev moved to Tiflisi. He began working as deputy secretary of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus and as a teacher at Omar Mektebi (Omar's school), operating under the patronage of the mufti. While living in Tiflisi, R. Efendiev went the Alexander Teacher's Institute and received "the right to teach in city schools".

The writer continued his activities in the field of creating children's literature, which he began in Gabala and Khachmaz, and worked on creating textbooks. In 1898, he published the Textbook “Ushag Bahchasy” (Kindergarten) in Istanbul, and a little later, in 1902, the textbook “Besiratul-atfal” in Baku. The alphabet and literary recitations compiled by him played an important role in the development of public education in Azerbaijan and in the upbringing of Azerbaijani children.

In 1900, R. Efendiev, who graduated from the Alexander Teachers' Institute in Tiflisi, was appointed to the Azerbaijan branch of the Gori Teachers' Seminary as a teacher of his native language and Sharia subjects. Rashid Efendiev, who taught at the seminary for many years, worked here side by side with F. Kocharli and A. Mukhtarov, was directly involved in the pedagogical training and education of children.

The name of Rashid bey Efendiyev occupies an honorable place among the comedy writers who developed the traditions of dramaturgy of Mirza Fatali Akhundzade. Efendiyev, the first student in Azerbaijan of the Russian teacher K. D. Ushinsky, the successor of the literary school of M. F. Akhundzade, began his scientific, pedagogical, literary and translation activities while still studying at the Gori Seminary. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the writer has been expanding his creative possibilities. In addition to publishing articles on various topics, he also publishes his own works written in different genres, books - “Hotbed of Blood " (1904), "Rustam and Sohrab" (translated from Firdousi, 1906), "The Benefit of the Beard" ( 1909), "Mukhtasar Sharia" (1910), "Women's Issue" (1912), "A Good Neighbor Will Organize Marriage a Blind Maiden" (1913), "Money Madness" (1918), "The Price of a Lock of Hair", "Trips to Tbilisi", "Gyzylgul" and others. Efendiev's book "Women's Issue" was devoted to the education of girls and the problem of women's place in society.

In 1916, R. Efendiyev was appointed to the post of inspector of public schools in the Irevan province. The educator made an of effort to effectively organization of educational work here. Created short-term courses for teachers in Irevan, Nakhchivan and Ordubad. After the collapse of the Tsarist government in early 1917, he headed the work on the nationalization of schools in the province.

R. Efendiyev arrived in Baku in 1918, actively assisted in the implementation of activities in the field of public education of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and was appointed director of the Baku male seminary by order of the Minister of Education. He actively participates in the discussion of the submitted projects on the transition to the Latin alphabet within the framework of the alphabet commission under the Ministry of Education.

R. Efendiyev continued his pedagogical and scientific activities during the years of Soviet power, was the director of the Pedagogical School in Sheki, the scientific secretary of the Sheki branch of the ethnographic society, a researcher at the Azerbaijan branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. 
Rashid Bey Efendiev was a teacher with a wide creative range. He is also the author of the textbook "Short Sharia", which consists of two parts. At the same time, Efendiyev was also known as a scientist, he was engaged in ethnographic research (“Marriage customs in Nukha”, “Gabala region”, “Some information about the village of Gutgashen”, etc.), literary criticism (“Literature inherent in Azerbaijani Turks”, “Samples of Azerbaijani Literature”, “Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy”, “Sayyid Azim Shirvani”, etc.), worked in the field of journalism (“A Muslim’s View of Primary Literacy”, “Bizya Kitab”, etc.).

R. Efendiyev collected information about Azerbaijani folk legends and tales, customs and traditions, as well as folk crafts, geography and medicine and published them in the collection “Collection of Materials for the Description of Localities and Tribes of the Caucasus” ( Russian Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племён Кавказа or shortly СМОМПК). In 1924, Efendiyev was elected a delegate to the First All-Azerbaijan Local History Congress and the scientific secretary of the Sheki branch of the ethnographic society.

Rashid bey Efendiyev died on August 31, 1942 in Sheki.

Recommended literature:

1. Əfəndiyev, Rəşid bəy İsmayıl oğlu. Seçilmiş əsərləri / R. İ. Əfəndiyev ; tərt. A. Abdullayev ; red. M. M. Adilov ; bur. məsul Ə. Güləliyev. - Bakı : Şərq-Qərb, 2006. - 120 s.
2. Əfəndiyev, Rəşid bəy İsmayıl oğlu. Bəsirətül-ətfal (Uşaqların idrakı) / R. İ. Əfəndiyev ; trans., ön sözün müəl. A. Məmmədova ; elmi red. M. Z. Nağısoylu ; AMEA M. Füzuli adına Əlyazmalar İnstitutu. - Bakı : Elm və təhsil, 2019. - 240 s.