Iran. All of these biographies were allegedly written between 1932 and 1936. At one point, Nussimbaum was requested to write an official biography of Benito Mussolini. Essad Bey's works, many of which he claimed were biographies, are discredited by historians and literary critics and rarely referenced today except to note how unreliable they are. Ali and Nino Tom Reiss attributes the 1937 novel Ali and Nino: A Love Story, published under the pseudonym Kurban Said, to Lev Nussimbaum. In his biography of Nussimbaum, The Orientalist, Reiss argues that Said was another pseudonym of Nussimbaum's, and that Ali and Nino was written by Nussimbaum. Reiss also debunks claims made by the heirs of Austrian baroness Elfriede Ehrenfels, who claimed co-authorship. Reiss acknowledges that she registered the book with German authorities in Austria after 1938, but suggests that this was because Nussimbaum could not have received money for publishing the book in Germany due to his Jewish ethnicity. Other critics, however, maintain that the book is partially plagiarized. They suggest that it was adapted by Nussimbaum from an earlier manuscript. A 2011 issue of Azerbaijan International re-opened the issue of the authorship of Ali and Nino. The primary author featured in this issue, Betty Blair, states that "we are convinced" that the book was written mostly by Azerbaijani author Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, though they also offer evidence that Nussimbaum wrote at least some portions of the book. They argue that the folkloric and legendary passages include exact "cut and paste" passages that Nussimbaum had published multiple times in his earlier works. They also note that Nussimbaum left the Caucasus when he was only 14 years old and that he boasted that he was a Monarchist, although the novel expresses the views of someone who sought the independence of Azerbaijan. Reiss dismissed the claim that Chamanzaminli was the author behind the Said pseudonym, claiming that he looked at one of Chamanzaminli's novellas and found him to be a Muslim communalist nationalist. Blair argues, in contrast, that Ali and Nino is a "nationalist" book in a broader, non-communalist sense, since the novel is essentially about Azerbaijan's independence. Tamar Injia published a book entitled Ali and Nino – Literary Robbery!, showing that substantial portions of the book were copied from the book The Snake's Skin by Georgian author Grigol Robakidze. Injia analyzed the two books, and found a number of similar or identical passages, and