Azerbaijan (Iran)
Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq and Turkey to the west and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to the north.
Iranian Azerbaijan includes three northwestern Iranian provinces: West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Ardabil. Some authors also include Zanjan in this list, some in a geographical sense, others only culturally. The region is mostly populated by Azerbaijanis, with minority populations of Kurds, Armenians, Tats, Talysh, Assyrians and Persians.
Iranian Azerbaijan is the land originally and historically called Azerbaijan. The toponym Azerbaijan derives from this land's name in Old Persian, Ātṛpātakāna, via Middle Persian Adurbadagan. The Azerbaijani-populated Republic of Azerbaijan appropriated the name of the neighbouring Azerbaijani-populated region in Iran during the 20th century. Some people nowadays refer to Iranian Azerbaijan as "Southern Azerbaijan" and to the Republic of Azerbaijan as "Northern Azerbaijan", although others believe that these terms are irredentist and politically motivated.
Following military defeats at the hands of the Russian Empire, Qajar Persia ceded all of its territories in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia to Russia via the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813 and the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828. The territories south of the Aras River, which comprised the region historically known as Azerbaijan, became the new north-west frontier of the Persian Empire and later Iran. The territories north of the Aras River, which were not known by the name Azerbaijan at the time of their capture by Russia, were absorbed into the Russian Empire, renamed the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic during the country's short-lived independence from 1918 to 1920, incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, and finally became the independent Republic of Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union dissolved.
Etymology and usage
The name Azerbaijan derives from Old Persian *Ātṛpāta, the name of a Persian satrap of Medea in the Achaemenid Empire, who ruled a region found in modern Iranian Azerbaijan which was called Ātṛpātakāna. The name *Ātṛpāta is believed to be derived from the Old Persian roots meaning "protected by fire." The name is also mentioned in the Avestan Frawardin Yasht: âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide which translates literally to: "We worship the Fravashi of the holy Atare-pata." According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam: "In Middle Persian the name of the province was called Āturpātākān, older new-Persian Ādharbādhagān, Ādharbāyagān, at present Āzerbāydjān/Āzarbāydjān, Greek Atropatēnḗ, Byzantine Greek Adravigánon, Armenian Atrpatakan, Syriac Adhorbāyghān." The name Atropat in Middle Persian was transformed to Adharbad and is connected with Zoroastrianism. A famous Zoroastrian priest by the name Adarbad Mahraspandan is well known for his counsels. Azerbaijan, due to its numerous fire-temples has also been quoted in a variety of historic sources as being the birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster although modern scholars have not yet reached an agreement on the location of his birth.In the early 19th century, Qajar Iran was forced to cede to Imperial Russia its Caucasian territories north of the Aras River, through the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay. Following the disintegration of the Russian Empire in 1917, as well as the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, in 1918, the leading Musavat government adopted the name "Azerbaijan" for the newly established Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which was proclaimed on May 27, 1918, for political reasons, even though the name of "Azerbaijan" had always been used to refer to the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran. Thus, until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, this designation had been used exclusively to identify the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.
History
Antiquity
Early antiquity
The oldest kingdom known in Iranian Azerbaijan is that of the Mannea who ruled a region south-east of Lake Urmia centered around modern Saqqez. The Manneans were a confederation of Iranian and non-Iranian groups. According to Ran Zadok:The Mannaeans were conquered and absorbed by an Iranian people called Matieni, and the country was called Matiene, with Lake Urmia called Lake Matianus. Matiene was later conquered by the Medes and became a satrapy of the Median empire and then a sub-satrapy of the Median satrapy of the Persian Empire.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Medes were an:
Ātṛpātakāna
After Alexander the Great conquered Persia, he appointed as governor the Persian general Atropates, who eventually established an independent dynasty. The region, which came to be known as Ātṛpātakāna in Old Persian and Atropatene or Media Atropatene in Greek, was much disputed. In the 2nd century BC, it was liberated from Seleucid domination by Mithradates I of the Arsacid dynasty.Later, large parts of the region were conquered by or became vassals of the Kingdom of Armenia which created the provinces of Nor Shirakan, Vaspurakan, and Paytakaran in this region and reached its greatest extent in the 1st century BC, under Tigranes the Great. Vaspurakan, of which large parts were located in what is modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan, is described as the cradle of Armenian civilization.
Ādurbādagān
In 226 AD, the region submitted to the first Sasanian emperor, Ardashir I and became a province of the Sasanian Empire named Ādurbādagān. Under the Sasanians, Azerbaijan was ruled by a marzubān, and, towards the end of the period, belonged to the family of Farrokh Hormizd.On 26 May 451 AD, the Battle of Avarayr, a pivotal battle for the history of Armenians, was fought on the Avarayr Plain between the Armenian army led by Vardan Mamikonian and Sasanian Persia. Although the Persians were victorious on the battlefield, it was a pyrrhic victory, paving the way to the Nvarsak Treaty, which affirmed Armenia's right to practice Christianity freely.
In the 7th century, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius briefly held the region until peace was made with the Sasanians.
Middle Ages
Muslim conquest and early Islamic period
During the Arab invasion of Iran, the spahbed of Iran was Rostam Farrokhzad, the son of Farrukh Hormizd, who was the son of Vinduyih, the uncle of Khosrau I and brother of the Sasanian usurper Vistahm. Rostam himself was born in Azerbaijan. In 636, the Sasanian army led by Rostam was defeated at the battle of al-Qadisiyyah and Rostam Farrokhzad, along with many other Sasanian veterans, was killed.In 642, Piruz Khosrow, one of the Sasanian survivors during the battle of al-Qadisiyyah, fought against the Muslims at Nahavand, which was a gateway to the provinces of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Caucasian Albania. The battle was fierce, but the Sasanian troops lost during the battle. This opened the gateway for the Muslims to enter Azerbaijan. The Muslims then invaded Azerbaijan and captured Isfandiyar, the son of Farrukhzad. Isfandiyar then promised, in return for his life, that he would agree to surrender his estates in Azerbaijan and aid the Muslims in defeating his brother, Bahram. Bahram was then defeated and sued for peace. A pact was drawn up according to which Azerbaijan was surrendered to Caliph Umar on usual terms of paying the annual jizya.
Muslims settled in Azerbaijan as they did in many parts of Iran, and would convert most of its people to Islam. According to the Iranian Azerbaijani historian Ahmad Kasravi, more Muslims settled in Azerbaijan compared to other provinces due to the province's plentiful and fertile pastures.
Abbasid, Sajid, Sallarid and Rawwadid rules
In the 8th century, the region came under the Abbasid caliphs' rule following the Abbasid revolution against the Umayyads. After the Khurramite revolt led between 816 and 837 by Babak Khorramdin, the Abbasid Caliphate's grip on Azerbaijan weakened, allowing native dynasties to rise in Azerbaijan, starting with the Sajid dynasty. Azerbaijan was afterwards taken over by the Kurdish Daysam and the Sallarid Marzuban. The latter united it with Arran, Shirvan, and most of Eastern Armenia. The Rawwadid dynasty eventually controlled much of the region.Seljuk rule and onset of Turkicization
After confrontations with the local Daylamite and Kurdish populations who had already established their own dynasties and emirates in different parts of Azerbaijan, the Seljuks dominated the region in the 11th and early 12th centuries, at which point the linguistic Turkicization of the native Iranian populations began. In 1122, Maragheh fell to the Ahmadilis, a dynasty of atabegs; in 1136, the rest of Azerbaijan fell to the Eldiguzids, another dynasty of atabegs.In the early 13th century, large parts of Azerbaijan were conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia, at the time led by Tamar the Great. Under the command of the brothers Zakaria and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, the Georgians conquered Ardabil and Tabriz in 1208, and Qazvin and Khoy in 1210.
Anushteginids, Mongols, and Turkmens
In 1225, Azerbaijan was invaded by Khwarazmshah Jalal al-Din Mangburni of the Anushteginids' dynasty, who held Azerbaijan until the Mongol invasion.In 1231, Ögedei Khan conquered Maragheh, where his nephew Hulagu Khan would later establish the capital of the Ilkhanate. The book Safina-yi Tabriz describes the general state of Tabriz during the Ilkhanid period. After being conquered by Timur in the 14th century, Tabriz became an important provincial capital of the Timurid Empire. Later, Tabriz became the capital of the Qara Qoyunlus. The Aq Qoyunlus afterwards controlled Azerbaijan.