Musavat (Arab. “equality”) was an Azerbaijani pan-Turkic and pan-Islamist nationalist party. It was founded in 1911 in Baku by representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia. Since 1913, its leader and main theorist was Mahammad Emin Rasulzade, who returned from exile. Key slogans of the party were as follows: Turkization, Islamization, modernization. The program provided for “the intensification of all forms of struggle for the progress of Muslims” and the establishment of a pan-Islamic state under the auspices of Turkey. Only Muslims could be members of the party. Until 1917, the party acted illegally.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Musavat has become an influential political force in Transcaucasia. In April, at the Caucasian Regional Muslim Congress in Baku, the Musavatists concluded an agreement with the Turkic Federalist Party (formed in March) on the establishment of a single organization, which took shape in October as the Turkic Democratic Federalist Party Musavat. Initially, the united party advocated the establishment of the Russian Federative Democratic Republic based on national-territorial autonomy, the introduction of broad democratic freedoms, absolute equality of all citizens before the law, etc. The party that preached class peace within the Azerbaijani nation relied on the support of the nationalist intelligentsia, the large and small bourgeoisie, landowners, some officers, the well-off peasantry, and skilled workers. Mahammad Emin Rasulzade was elected Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party.