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'Azerbaijan' is the name used by the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Iranian region of Azerbaijan. This name originated from pre-Islamic history of Persia, derived from ''Atropates'', a Persian^[1][2][3][4] satrap (governor). The article covers the etymology of this term and also territorial regions that utilized this name in the historical era as well as in modern times.

Contents

Name

Pre-Islamic era

Islamic era

Modern (18th, 19th, and 20th centuries)

Maps

Assessments of modern scholars

Azerbaijan as the name of an independent republic

Terminology today

Azerbaijani people

See also

References

Name

According to historian Vladimir Minorsky^[5] :
According to Professor Xavier Planhol^[6]:
According to Professor K. Shippmann^[7]:

Pre-Islamic era

Strabo 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. ^[8]. E.H.

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 (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^[9]:
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^[10]
:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi (d. 897) in his work ''Al-Tarikh'' (The History) writes^[11]:
Ahmad ibn Yaqubi quoted by the Arabian historian Abul Fida has stated:^[12]
Al-Istakhri, in 930, wrote:
Al-Muqaddasi (b. 945) lists the cities of Azerbaijan and Armenia and Aran:^[13]
Ibn Hawqal (943-977), the 10th century Arabian traveler gives an eyewitness account of his stay in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran. ^[14] 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^[15] 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.^[16]
Bala'mi (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^[17]:
Bala'ami also states:^[18]
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.''^[19] 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^[20]:
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 A.D), Persian chronicler who worked for the Ilkhanid administration and was familiar with administrative affairs of his time writes: ^[21]:
The 17th century Persian dictionary/quasi-encyclopedia Burhan Qati' under the words Aras and Aran gives two definitions^[22]
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:

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 Tabriz 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.^[23] 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.^[24]
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":
The ''Methodist Magazine and Review'' (d. 1900) states:
According to the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'' (d. 1901):
''The Nuttall Encyclopædia'' (d. 1907) states:
''The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'' (d. 1908) 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)^[25], ''Persia: The Land of the Magi'' (d. 1913)^[26], and ''The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D. of Persia '' (d. 1917)^[27], Azerbaijan is described as a province of Persia.

Maps

Assessments of modern scholars

According to ''Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world'':
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:

Azerbaijan as the name of an independent republic

Main articles: Azerbaijan

Tadeusz Swietochowski comments on the Czarist reforms during the 19th century^[30]:
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. Tadsuez Swietchowski also comments on the Iranian reaction and subsequent response from the new government^[31]:
He also states:
According to Igor M. Diakonoff:
According to Vladimir Minorsky:

Terminology today

Today the name Azerbaijan denotes both the republic of Azerbaijan and the north western provinces of Iran, which are East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan. During the soviet era, the name 'Southern Azerbaijan' was created and propagated throughout the USSR^[32]. The USSR also created two organizations ^[33] for separating East and West Azerbaijan provinces 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.^[34]. Some Armenian political groups have also marked parts of Iranian Azerbaijan as greater Armenia and the term ‘’Greater Armenia’’ has been used by some western sources to refer to portions of Iranian Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani people

Historically the Turkic-speaking people of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus often called themselves or were referred to by some neighbouring peoples (e.g. Persians) as Turks, and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When Transacaucasia became part of the Russian empire, Russian authorities, who traditionally called all Turkic people Tatars, called Azeris Aderbeijani/Azerbaijani or Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic people, also called Tatars by Russians.^[35] Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans in some articles.^[36] According to the article Turko-Tatars of the above encyclopedia, “some scholars (Yadrintsev, Kharuzin, Shantr) 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”.^[37] The modern ethnonym Azerbaijani/Azeri in its present form was accepted in 1930s.

See also

★ Iran

★ Republic of Azerbaijan

★ Iranian Azerbaijan

★ Arran

★ Caucasus Albania

★ Atropatene

★ Aturpatakan

★ Armenia

★ Georgia

★ Azerbaijani people

★ Iranian Theory Regarding Azeri's

References

1. ''Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States'' by James Minahan, published in 2000, page 20
2. Livius.org
3. Chamoux, Francois. ''Hellenistic Civilization''. Blackwell Publishing, published 2003, page 26
4. Bosworth, A.B., and Baynham, E.J. ''Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction''. Oxford, published 2002, page 92
5. Minorsky, V.; Minorsky, V. "Ādharbaydjān ( Azarbāydjān ) ." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P.Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online.
6. Encyclopedia Iranica, "Azerbaijan: Geography". X.D. Planhol [1]
7. Encyclopedia Iranica, "Azerbaijan: Pre-Islamic History", K. Shippmann
8. Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 4 May 2007 :''The list of provinces given in the inscription of Ka'be-ye Zardusht defines the extent of the empire under Shapur, in clockwise geographic enumeration: (1) Persis (Fars), (2) Parthia, (3) Susiana (Khuzestan), (4) Maishan (Mesene), (5) Asuristan (southern Mesopotamia), (6) Adiabene, (7) Arabistan (northern Mesopotamia), (8) Atropatene (Azerbaijan), (9) Armenia, (10) Iberia (Georgia), (11) Machelonia, (12) Albania (eastern Caucasus), (13) Balasagan up to the Caucasus Mountains and the Gate of Albania (also known as Gate of the Alans), (14) Patishkhwagar (all of the Elburz Mountains), (15) Media, (16) Hyrcania (Gorgan), (17) Margiana (Merv), (18) Aria, (19) Abarshahr, (20) Carmania (Kerman), (21) Sakastan (Sistan), (22) Turan, (23) Mokran (Makran), (24) Paratan (Paradene), (25) India (probably restricted to the Indus River delta area), (26) Kushanshahr, until as far as Peshawar and until Kashgar and (the borders of) Sogdiana and Tashkent, and (27), on the farther side of the sea, Mazun (Oman)''
9. Kitab al-Fihrist mit Anmerkungen hrsg. von Gustav Flügel, t vols., Leipzig 1871. Original Arabic: فأما الفهلوية فمنسوب إلى فهله اسم يقع على خمسة بلدان وهي أصفهان والري وهمدان وماه نهاوند وأذربيجان
10. Yaʻqūbī, Aḥmad ibn Abī Yaʻqūb, d. 897?, Les pays, tr. par Gaston Wiet. Publications de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire. Textes et traductions d’auteurs orientaux ; t. 1, Le Caire, 1937.
11. Ibn-Wadhih qui dicitur al-Jaʻqubi historiae. Edidit indicesque adjecit M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden, E. J. Brill, l969., pg 203
12. Yaʻqubi, Aḥmad ibn Abi Yaʻqub, d. 897?, Les pays, tr. par Gaston Wiet.,Publications de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire. Textes et traductions d’auteurs orientaux ; t. 1, Le Caire, 1937. pg 232
13. Al-Muqaddasi, ‘The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions’, a translation of his Ahsan at-taqasim fi Ma'rifat al-Aqalim by B.A. Collins, Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, Garnet Publishing Limited,1994, pg 329-331
[2]Original Arabic from www.alwaraq.net which has Muqaddasi online:
فأما الران فإنها تكون نحو الثلث من الإقليم في مثل جزيرة بين البحيرة ونهر الرس ونهر الملك يشمقها طولاً، قصبتها برذعة ومن مدنها: تفليس، القلعة، خنان، شمكور، جنزة، يرديج، الشما خية، شروان، باكوه، الشا بران، باب الأبواب،الأبخان، قبلة، شكي، ملازكرد، تبلا. وأما أرمينية فإنها كورة جليلة رسمها أرميني بن كنظر بن يافث بن نوح ومنها ترتفع الستور والزلالي الرفيعة كثيرة الخصائص قصبتها دبيل ومن مدنها: بدليس، خلاط، أرجيش، بركري، خوي، سلماس، أرمية، داخرقان، مراغة، أهر، مرند، سنجان، قاليقلا، قندرية، قلعة يونس، نورين. وأما آذربيجان فإنها كورة اختطها اذرباذ بن بيوراسف بن الأسود بن سام بن نوح عليه السلام قصبتها وهي مصر الإقليم أردبيل بها جبل مساحته مائة وأربعون فرسخاً كله قرى ومزارع يقال أن به سبعين لساناً كثرة خيرات أردبيل منه. أكثر بيوتهم تحت الأرض ومن مدنها: رسبة، تبريز، جابروان، خونج، الميا نج، السراة، بروى، ورثان، موقان، ميمذ، برزند. فإن زعم زاعم أن بدليس من إقليم أقور واستدل بأنها كانت في ولايات بني حمدان أجيب بأنه لما ادعاها أهل الإقليمين جعلناها من هذا لانا وجدنا لها نظيراً في الاسم وهي تفليس، وأما الولايات فليست حجة في هذا الباب الا ترى أن سيف الدولة كانت له قنسرين والرقة ولم يقل أحد أن الرقة من الشام.

14. Muhammad ibn Haukal, ''The Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian Traveller of the Tenth Century'', Translated by William Ouseley,Adamant Media Corporation, 2001, pages 156-165 (description of Armenia, Aran and Azerbaijan). Some quotes from Ibn Hawqal: The borders of Azerbaijan extent from Tarem to Zangan to Deinel and Howlan and to Shehrzour, to the river Dejleh (Tigris), and back to the borders of Armenia...On one side of Derband is a great mountain called Adeib; on this they assemble every year, and make many fires, that they may confound and dispere their enemies from the borders of Azerbaijan, and Armenia, and Arran...Armenia is an extensive and fertile region, bounded by the sea and full of delightful situations: the towns are Misan, Khounah, Bervanan, Khoy, Selmas, Neshoui, Marend, abriz, Berzend, Derban, Moukan and Khaberan; and several smaller towns...Ardabil is the most considerable city in Azerbaijan...Maragheh is nearly the same size as Ardebil..Deinel is a larger city than Ardabil, and the chief town of Armenia. The place of the governor is there, as at Barda, the capital of Aran...There is a lake in Azerbaijan called the lake of Urmia...Throughout this country the Persian and Arabian languages are understood. The inhabitans of Ardebil use also the Armenian tongue; in the mountainous country belong to Berdaa, the people use a different dialect. In Azerbaijan, and Aran, and Armenia, gold and silver coins are current.
15. Mohammad Roshan, Vis o Ramin, Critical edition with introduction and commentary, Seda Muasir Publishers, Tehran, 2001
منبع: ويس و رامين با مقدمه و تصحيح و تحشيه‌ي محمد روشن، انتشارات صداي معاصر ،تهران
۱۳۸۱
جهان در دست ويس دلستان بود / وليكن خاصش آذربايگان بود
هميدون كشور ارّان و ارمن / سراسر بد به دست آن سمن‌تن
(بخش ۱۲۴:نشستن رامين بر تخت پادشاهي، ص ۳۶۹)
Translation:The world was at the hand of heart-grabbing princess Vis,But her choice was the land of Azerbaijan,And also the countries of Aran and Armenia,All these lands were at hand of that flower-bodies princess
16. ''Nuzhat al-qulūb'' by Ḥamd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr Qazvīnī Mustawfi 1339-40, republished in 1919 as ''The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat-al-qulūb'' page 24: ''Thus the provinces of the two Iraqs, Adharbayjan, Arran and Mughan, Shirvan, Ghushtasfi and in part of Gurjistan, and in the whole of Kurdistan, Qumis, Mazandaran, Tabaristan, Jilanat and in part also of Khurasan, it is necessary when you would stand facing the Qiblah that the north pole should be behind...''
17. Bal'ami, Abu Ali Muhammad. Tarikh Ba'lami. Mohammad Gonabadi in accordance with the corrected edition of Bahar. Second Edition, Tehran, Zavar Publishers, 1974. Volume I, pg 48-49 Original Persian: زمين مغرب و روم و سقلاب و آذربايگان و اران و كرج تماميت مرسلم را داد و او را قيصر نام كرد.
18. Abu Alimuhammad ibne Muhammad Bal’ami; Tarikhnaame Tabari, Volume 1, Tehran 1366 (1987), Xabare gushaadane Azerbaijan ve Darbande Khazaran (The news of conquer of Azerbaijan and Darband), page 529.
19. Encyclopaedia Iranica: Aran C. E. Bosworth
20. Qazwini, Zakariyya ibn Muhammad.Bayrut : Dār Bayrūt, 1984, pg 284: Original Arabic: آذربیجان: ناحیة واسعة بین قهستان و اران
21. The geographical part of the Nuzhat-al-qulub composed by Hamd-Allāh Mustawfī of Qazwīn in 740 (1340), edited and translated by G. Le Strange and printed for the trustees of the "E. J. W. Gibb memorial.
22. Muhammad Husayn Ibn Khalaf Tabrizi, Muʾassasah-ʾi
Maṭbu'ati- Faridun-i 'Ilmi Burhan, 1965. Original Persian for Aras: ارس بفتح اول و ثانی و سکون سين بی نقطه نام رود خانه ای است مشهور که از کنار تفليس و مابين آذربايجان و آران می گذرد.
Original Persian for Aran: ولایتی است ازآذربایجان که گنجه و بردع از اعمال آن است
23. William Jones, Esq., The history of the life of Nader Shah, King of, Prinded by J. Richardson, MDCCLXXIII (1773). Some quotes from the book: ''AZARBIGIAN
★ , or Media, ARRAN or Atropatia, and ARMENA, or Armenia, are considered by some Eastern Geographers as One Province or Kingdom, and we may, therefore, describe them together. They are bounded on the east by part of Cuhistan, and the Caspian provinces, on the west, by Rum, or the lower Asia; on the north they have Georgia and Circassia, on the south, a canton of Mesopotamia, and Curdistan, part of the ancient Assyria. The most remarkable cities of Azarbigian are; 1. ARDEBIL, considered as sacred by the Persians, for containing the tombs of Sefiaddin and Heider, the venerable ancestors of the Sefi family. 2. TABRIZ, commonly called Tauris, which, in the last century, was a large and beautiful city, but has been much impaired during the late disorders in Persia: it stands at the foot of a mountain, which the Greeks called Orontes, a word cor¬rupted, perhaps, from Orond; and a small river winds through its streets''
..
''The great cities of Arran and Armenia are, GANGIA, and ERIVAN, its Capital, a large but unpleasant town, without any fine edifice in it, or any other ornament than a number of gardens, and vineyards. Some Geographers, and among them the prince of Hamah, place in Armenia the cities which we consider as belonging to Georgia or Gurgistan; these are SHAMCUR, and TEFLIS, a city not large but tolerably elegant: it is washed on the eastern side by the river Ker or Cyrs, and defended on the other sides by strong and beautiful walls.''
..
''SHIRVAN and DAGHESTAN or The country of rocks... The cities of Shirvan are, 1. BACU, a port on the Caspian lake, whence it is called the Sea of Bacu: 2. SHAMAKHI, a city well known to the Russians: and 3. DERBEND or the barrier, which stands at the foot of Mount Caucasus or Keitaf, and commands the Caspian: this place was called by the ancients Caspiæ portæ, by the Turks, Demir Capi, or, the gate of iron, and by the Arabs, Babelabwab or the important passage. It was anciently considered as the boundary of the Persian Empire, and an old king of Persia built to the north of it a vast wall, like that of China, which has been repaired at different times, in order to prevent the incursions of the Khozars, and other savage nations, who infested the rocks between the Caspian and Euxine seas.''
24. ''A System of Geography'' by James Bell, published in 1832, Vol. IV, pages 88, 89, 91, 263-264
25. ''The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews'' by Rev. W. T. Gidney, M.A., published in 1908, page 301
26. ''Persia: The Land of the Magi'' by Samuel K. Nweeya, Ph.D, M.D., published in 1913, page 49
27. ''The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D. of Persia'' by Robert E. Speer, published in 1911, page 16
28. [3] 1837 Malte-Brun Map of Persia & Arabia (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan )
29. Map showing the region north of Iran's Caucasus border as Georgia
30. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. pg 16
31. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. pg 69
32. Michael P. Croissant, "The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications", Praeger/Greenwood, 1998. pg 61
33. "Cold War International History Project 1945-46 Iranian Crisis"
34. Alessandra Galié, Development in Syria, Kurdish Human Rights Project, pg 49
35. Demoscope Weekly. Alphabetical list of people, living in the Russian empire, 1895.
36. Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Turks". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907
37. Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Turko-Tatars". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907