History of the name Azerbaijan
Encyclopedia
Azerbaijan is the name used for the Republic of Azerbaijan
and the Iranian region of Azerbaijan
. This name originated from pre-Islamic history of [Persia], derived from Atropates
, a Persian
satrap
(governor). This article covers the etymology of the term and also its geographic application in historical as well as modern times.
According to Xavier Planhol
:
According to Professor K. Shippmann:
in Book 11 of his geography gives us one of the earliest accounts of the region and mentions the kingdom of Atropatene.
The Natural History of Pliny states:
Shapur I
's inscription in Naqsh-e-Rostam also lists the North Western and Caucasian provinces of Sassanid Iran
, amongst them Albania, Atropatene, Armenia, Iberia, Balasgan, and the gate of Alans.
Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa
(d. 760) a Muslim
or Zoroastrian scholar and translator of Persian
background is quoted by Ibn Nadeem (d. 988) as incorporating the region of Azerbaijan into the Fahla:
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn
(896-956), the Arab
historian states:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
(d. 897) in his work Al-Buldan (The Countries) writes
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
(d. 897) in his work Al-Tarikh (The History) writes:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
quoted by the Arabian historian Abul Fida has stated:
Al-Istakhri, in 930, wrote:
Al-Muqaddasi
(b. 945) lists the cities of Azerbaijan and Armenia and Aran:
Ibn Hawqal
(943-977), the 10th century Arabian traveler gives an eyewitness account of his stay in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran. Fakhr ad-din Asad Gorgani, a 11th century poet, who rhymed the pre-Islamic story of Vis o Ramin into new Persian poetry, mentions Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran in two couplets as the special domain of the princess vis Ḥamd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr Qazvīnī Mustawfi, in his Nuzhat al-qulub (d. 1339-40) also mentions Azerbaijan, Arran, Mughan, and Shirvan as different provinces.
Bal'ami
(946-973), the 10th century Persian court chronicler of Samanids, translated an abridged version of Tabari's history into Persian
and wrote his own additional comments. He states:
Bala'ami also states:
Ibn Rusta, a 9th/10th century Persian explorer and geographer traveled to region and has mentioned the names of the districts and provinces. He writes in his famous book al-A'laq Al-Nafisah:
The Hodud al-Alam
, finished in 982, "considered Azerbaijan, Arran, and Armenia as the pleasantest of all the Islamic lands. It also states:
Ali ibn al-Athir
on the Mongol invasions (1163–1233):
Zakariya ibn Muhammad Qazvini
(1208/1209-1283/1284), the writer of Athar Al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-'ibad writes:
Yaqut al-Hamawi
(d. 1229), a Syrian born geographer is famous for his geography bible Mu'jam Al-Buldan
. He states:
Hamdollah Mostowfi
(1281-1349 AD), Persian chronicler who worked for the Ilkhanid administration and was familiar with administrative affairs of his time writes::
The 17th century Persian dictionary/quasi-encyclopedia Burhan Qati' under the words Aras and Aran gives two definitions
In his book entitled The travels of Sir John Chardin, by the way of the Black Sea, through the countries of Circassia, Mingrelia, the country of the Abcas, Georgia, Armenia, and Media, into Persia proper, Sir John Chardin
, a traveller from France who visited the Middle East
at the end of the 17th century described Azerbaijan as follows:
and Ardabil
. It also describes the major cities of Arran and Armenia, and Shirvan and Daghestan, which were Gangia and Erivan, and Baku, Shamakhi, and Derbent respectively. In A System of Geography, published in 1832, the Asiatic Caucasian provinces of Russia are called Daghistan, Shirwan, and Aran. Persia's boundary is limited to the Araxes, and the land below the Araxes is labeled as Azerbaijan.
Keith Abbot, British Consular General in Persia, wrote in the Memorandum on the Country of Azerbaijan in 1863:
Charles Anthon (d. 1888) writes:
Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
, published in 1890, states the following in the article called "Azerbeijan":
According to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (d. 1901):
'The Nuttall Encyclopædia (d. 1907) states:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
(d. 1911), states the following in the article called "Azerbaijan":
Also, according to The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (d. 1908), Persia: The Land of the Magi (d. 1913), and The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D. of Persia (d. 1917), Azerbaijan is described as a province of Persia. In Persian
, the word is translatable to both "the treasury" and "the treasurer" of fire.
According to Professor of History Muriel Atkin:
According to Professor. George Bourtounian:
According to Vladimir Minorsky:
According to Professor Tadeusz Swietochowski
:
According to C.E. Bosworth:
According to Professor Xavier De Planhol
:
According to Professor Ben Fowkes:
According Professor Bert. G. Franger:
comments on the Czarist reforms during the 19th century:
With the collapse of Tsarist Russia
in 1917, the Musavat Party met in Tbilisi
on May 28, 1918 and proclaimed independence of their country with the name Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
. Tadeusz Swietochowski also comments on the Iranian reaction and subsequent response from the new government:
He also states:
According to Igor M. Diakonoff
:
According to Vladimir Minorsky
:
Vasily Bartold
has stated:
, and Zanjan
. During the Soviet
era, the name 'Southern Azerbaijan' was created and propagated throughout the USSR. The USSR also created two organizations for separating the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan from Iran. Today, the nomenclature South Azerbaijan is used by some politicians in the Republic of Azerbaijan and some groups advocating separatism of Iranian Azerbaijan. At the same time, the heavily Kurdish populated province of West Azerbaijan in Iran has also been called East Kurdistan(Rojhelat) by some Kurdish political groups and this nomenclature has also been used by some western sources.
) as Turks, and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When Transcaucasia became part of the Russian empire
, Russian authorities, who traditionally called all Turkic people Tatars, called them Aderbeijani/Azerbaijani or Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic people, also called Tatars by Russians. The Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans in some articles. According to the article "Turko-Tatars" of the above encyclopedia, “some scholars (Yadrintsev, Kharuzin, Chantre) suggested to change the terminology of some Turko-Tatar people, who somatically don’t have much in common with Turks, for instance, to call Aderbaijani Tatars (Iranians by type) Aderbaijans”. The modern ethnonym
Azerbaijani/Azeri, in its present form, was accepted in 1930s.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
and the Iranian region of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (Iran)
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Persian Azarbaijan is a region in northwestern Iran. It is also historically known as Atropatene and Aturpatakan....
. This name originated from pre-Islamic history of [Persia], derived from Atropates
Atropates
Atropates was a Persian nobleman who served Darius III, then Alexander III of Macedon, and eventually founded an independent kingdom and dynasty that was named after him...
, a Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
satrap
Satrap
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
(governor). This article covers the etymology of the term and also its geographic application in historical as well as modern times.
Etymology
According to historian Vladimir Minorsky :According to Xavier Planhol
Xavier De Planhol
Xavier de Planhol is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and a universally acknowledged authority on political geography...
:
According to Professor K. Shippmann:
Pre-Islamic era
StraboStrabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
in Book 11 of his geography gives us one of the earliest accounts of the region and mentions the kingdom of Atropatene.
The Natural History of Pliny states:
Shapur I
Shapur I
Shapur I or also known as Shapur I the Great was the second Sassanid King of the Second Persian Empire. The dates of his reign are commonly given as 240/42 - 270/72, but it is likely that he also reigned as co-regent prior to his father's death in 242 .-Early years:Shapur was the son of Ardashir I...
's inscription in Naqsh-e-Rostam also lists the North Western and Caucasian provinces of Sassanid Iran
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
, amongst them Albania, Atropatene, Armenia, Iberia, Balasgan, and the gate of Alans.
Islamic era
Various historians and geographers and travelers have given description of the region during the Islamic era and the article. Some of these are listed in chronological order here.Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa
Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa
Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādūya/Dādōē , known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ , Ibn Muqaffa/Ebn-e Moghaffa , or Rūzbeh pūr-e Dādūya , was a Persian thinker and a Zoroastrian convert to Islam.-Biography:...
(d. 760) a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
or Zoroastrian scholar and translator of Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
background is quoted by Ibn Nadeem (d. 988) as incorporating the region of Azerbaijan into the Fahla:
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn
Al-Masudi
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Mas'udi , was an Arab historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." Al-Masudi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Muruj adh-dhahab...
(896-956), the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
historian states:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
Ya'qubi
Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi , known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi, was a Berber Muslim geographer.-Biography:He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Mansur...
(d. 897) in his work Al-Buldan (The Countries) writes
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
Ya'qubi
Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi , known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi, was a Berber Muslim geographer.-Biography:He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Mansur...
(d. 897) in his work Al-Tarikh (The History) writes:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi
Ya'qubi
Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi , known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi, was a Berber Muslim geographer.-Biography:He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Mansur...
quoted by the Arabian historian Abul Fida has stated:
Al-Istakhri, in 930, wrote:
Al-Muqaddasi
Al-Muqaddasi
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...
(b. 945) lists the cities of Azerbaijan and Armenia and Aran:
Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ ....
(943-977), the 10th century Arabian traveler gives an eyewitness account of his stay in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran. Fakhr ad-din Asad Gorgani, a 11th century poet, who rhymed the pre-Islamic story of Vis o Ramin into new Persian poetry, mentions Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran in two couplets as the special domain of the princess vis Ḥamd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr Qazvīnī Mustawfi, in his Nuzhat al-qulub (d. 1339-40) also mentions Azerbaijan, Arran, Mughan, and Shirvan as different provinces.
Bal'ami
Bal'ami
AMĪRAK BALʿAMĪ, name given to ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD , son of Abu’l-Fażl Moḥammad b. ʿObaydallāh Baḷʿamī ' ; both served as viziers of the Samanids . Mostly known as Bal'ami , was a Persian historian, writer, and vizier to the Samanids...
(946-973), the 10th century Persian court chronicler of Samanids, translated an abridged version of Tabari's history into Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and wrote his own additional comments. He states:
Bala'ami also states:
Ibn Rusta, a 9th/10th century Persian explorer and geographer traveled to region and has mentioned the names of the districts and provinces. He writes in his famous book al-A'laq Al-Nafisah:
The Hodud al-Alam
Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib
Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , meaning The Limits of The World, is a tenth century geography book written in Persian by an unknown author from Jōzjān.- Contents :...
, finished in 982, "considered Azerbaijan, Arran, and Armenia as the pleasantest of all the Islamic lands. It also states:
Ali ibn al-Athir
Ali ibn al-Athir
Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad, better known as Ali 'Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari was a Kurdish Muslim historian from the Ibn Athir family...
on the Mongol invasions (1163–1233):
Zakariya ibn Muhammad Qazvini
Zakariya al-Qazwini
Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini , was a Persian physician, astronomer, geographer and proto-science fiction writer....
(1208/1209-1283/1284), the writer of Athar Al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-'ibad writes:
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt ibn-'Abdullah al-Rūmī al-Hamawī) was an Islamic biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "al-Rumi" refers to his Greek descent; "al-Hamawi" means that he is from Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah...
(d. 1229), a Syrian born geographer is famous for his geography bible Mu'jam Al-Buldan
Mu'jam Al-Buldan
Mu'jam al-buldan is a book by Yaqut al-Hamawi, a Muslim scholar who is famous for his encyclopedic books.Al-Hamawi started the book in 1224 and finished in 1228, one year before he died....
. He states:
Hamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi
Hamdollah Mostowfi was a Persian historian, geographer and epic poet.Mostowfi is the author of Nozhat ol-Gholub , Zafar-Nameh , and the Tarikh e Gozideh . His tomb is a structure with a blue turquoise conical dome, at Qazvin.-References and notes:...
(1281-1349 AD), Persian chronicler who worked for the Ilkhanid administration and was familiar with administrative affairs of his time writes::
The 17th century Persian dictionary/quasi-encyclopedia Burhan Qati' under the words Aras and Aran gives two definitions
In his book entitled The travels of Sir John Chardin, by the way of the Black Sea, through the countries of Circassia, Mingrelia, the country of the Abcas, Georgia, Armenia, and Media, into Persia proper, Sir John Chardin
Jean Chardin
Jean Chardin , born Jean-Baptiste Chardin, and also known as Sir John Chardin, was a French jeweller and traveller whose ten-volume book The Travels of Sir John Chardin is regarded as one of the finest works of early Western scholarship on Persia and the Near East.-Life and work:Chardin was born in...
, a traveller from France who visited the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
at the end of the 17th century described Azerbaijan as follows:
Modern (18th, 19th, and 20th centuries)
William Jones, an English Historian and translator of Mirza Muhammad Mahdi Khan Astrabadi's Tarikh-i Jahangusha-yi Naderi (a history book written about Nader Shah) mentions Azerbaijan and its major cities in the preface, which include TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
and Ardabil
Ardabil
Ardabil is a historical city in north-western Iran. The name Ardabil probably comes from the Zoroastrian name of "Artavil" which means a holy place. Ardabil is the center of Ardabil Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 412,669, in 102,818 families...
. It also describes the major cities of Arran and Armenia, and Shirvan and Daghestan, which were Gangia and Erivan, and Baku, Shamakhi, and Derbent respectively. In A System of Geography, published in 1832, the Asiatic Caucasian provinces of Russia are called Daghistan, Shirwan, and Aran. Persia's boundary is limited to the Araxes, and the land below the Araxes is labeled as Azerbaijan.
Keith Abbot, British Consular General in Persia, wrote in the Memorandum on the Country of Azerbaijan in 1863:
Charles Anthon (d. 1888) writes:
Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary is, in its scope and style, the Russian counterpart to the Encyclopædia Britannica. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps...
, published in 1890, states the following in the article called "Azerbeijan":
According to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (d. 1901):
'The Nuttall Encyclopædia (d. 1907) states:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...
(d. 1911), states the following in the article called "Azerbaijan":
Also, according to The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (d. 1908), Persia: The Land of the Magi (d. 1913), and The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D. of Persia (d. 1917), Azerbaijan is described as a province of Persia. In Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, the word is translatable to both "the treasury" and "the treasurer" of fire.
Assessments of modern scholars
According to Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world:According to Professor of History Muriel Atkin:
According to Professor. George Bourtounian:
According to Vladimir Minorsky:
According to Professor Tadeusz Swietochowski
Tadeusz Swietochowski
Tadeusz Swietochowski is a Polish-American historian and Caucasologist. He is a Professor of the History Dept. at Monmouth University, Honorary Doctor of Khazar University and Baku State University and Honorary Member of Central Eurasian Studies Society. His fields include the modern history of...
:
According to C.E. Bosworth:
According to Professor Xavier De Planhol
Xavier De Planhol
Xavier de Planhol is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and a universally acknowledged authority on political geography...
:
According to Professor Ben Fowkes:
According Professor Bert. G. Franger:
Azerbaijan as the name of an independent republic
Tadeusz SwietochowskiTadeusz Swietochowski
Tadeusz Swietochowski is a Polish-American historian and Caucasologist. He is a Professor of the History Dept. at Monmouth University, Honorary Doctor of Khazar University and Baku State University and Honorary Member of Central Eurasian Studies Society. His fields include the modern history of...
comments on the Czarist reforms during the 19th century:
With the collapse of Tsarist Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1917, the Musavat Party met in Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
on May 28, 1918 and proclaimed independence of their country with the name Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
. Tadeusz Swietochowski also comments on the Iranian reaction and subsequent response from the new government:
He also states:
According to Igor M. Diakonoff
Igor Diakonov
Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert in the Ancient Near East and its languages....
:
According to Vladimir Minorsky
Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky
Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to Kurdish and Persian history, geography, literature, and culture.-Life and career:...
:
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold was a Russian and Soviet historian and turcologist.-Biography:Bartold was born in Saint Petersburg.Bartold's lectures at the University of Saint Petersburg were annually interrupted by extended field trips to Muslim countries...
has stated:
Terminology today
Today the name Azerbaijan is used to denote both the Republic of Azerbaijan and the north western provinces of Iran, which are East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, ArdabilArdabil
Ardabil is a historical city in north-western Iran. The name Ardabil probably comes from the Zoroastrian name of "Artavil" which means a holy place. Ardabil is the center of Ardabil Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 412,669, in 102,818 families...
, and Zanjan
Zanjan
Zanjan may refer to:* Zanjan Province, Iran* Zanjan County, an area within Zanjan Province* Zanjan, Iran, the capital of Zanjan County and Zanjan Province* Zanjan University, located in the city of Zanjan* Senjan, a city in Markazi Province, Iran...
. During the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
era, the name 'Southern Azerbaijan' was created and propagated throughout the USSR. The USSR also created two organizations for separating the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan from Iran. Today, the nomenclature South Azerbaijan is used by some politicians in the Republic of Azerbaijan and some groups advocating separatism of Iranian Azerbaijan. At the same time, the heavily Kurdish populated province of West Azerbaijan in Iran has also been called East Kurdistan(Rojhelat) by some Kurdish political groups and this nomenclature has also been used by some western sources.
Azerbaijani people
Historically the Turkic-speaking people of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus often called themselves or were referred to by some neighboring peoples (e.g. PersiansPersian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
) as Turks, and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When Transcaucasia became part of the Russian empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Russian authorities, who traditionally called all Turkic people Tatars, called them Aderbeijani/Azerbaijani or Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic people, also called Tatars by Russians. The Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans in some articles. According to the article "Turko-Tatars" of the above encyclopedia, “some scholars (Yadrintsev, Kharuzin, Chantre) suggested to change the terminology of some Turko-Tatar people, who somatically don’t have much in common with Turks, for instance, to call Aderbaijani Tatars (Iranians by type) Aderbaijans”. The modern ethnonym
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
Azerbaijani/Azeri, in its present form, was accepted in 1930s.
See also
- IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
- Republic of Azerbaijan
- Iranian AzerbaijanAzerbaijan (Iran)Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan , also Iranian Azerbaijan, Persian Azarbaijan is a region in northwestern Iran. It is also historically known as Atropatene and Aturpatakan....
- ArranArran (Azerbaijan)Arran , also known as Aran, Ardhan , Al-Ran , Aghvank and Alvank , or Caucasian Albania , was a geographical name used in ancient and medieval times to signify the territory which lies within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of Kura and...
- Caucasus Albania
- AtropateneAtropateneAtropatene was an ancient kingdom established and ruled under local ethnic Iranian dynasts first with "Darius" of Persia and later "Alexander" of Macedonia, starting in the 4th century BC and includes the territory of modern-day Iranian Azarbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan. Its capital was Gazaca...
- Aturpatakan
- ArmeniaArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
- GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
- Azerbaijani peopleAzerbaijani peopleThe Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
- Iranian origin of the Azerbaijanis
- Origin of the name KhuzestanOrigin of the name KhuzestanAlthough Herodotus and Xenophon referred to the entire region as Susiana, the name Khuzestan is what has been referred to the southwestern most province of Persia from antiquity.-"Khuzestan", origins:...
- Timeline of the name PalestineTimeline of the name PalestineThis article presents a list of notable historical references to the name Palestine, and cognates such as Filastin and Palaestina, through the various time periods of the region....