Haydar Bammat (1890-1965), an intellectual, author and politician was born in Dagestan and studied at St. Petersburg University, Faculty of Law. He worked in civil service. After the 1917 Russian revolution, he struggled for the independence of North Caucasia and took part in the Caucasian delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference. He became one of the founders, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Mountainous Republic of Northern Caucasus (1917-1920). After the republic was defeated by Russia, he immigrated to France, and later to Switzerland. In 1939, Haydar Bammat became Afghanistan's diplomatic appointee in Switzerland. Prof. Necmeddin Bammat, son of Haydar Bammat donated his father's and his own collection of books on Islamic art and civilization, history, geography and Islamic religion to IRCICA before his demise.