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Azerbaijanis
Azərbaycanlılar, Azərilər
آذربایجانلیلار ,آذری لر

Nasimi Ismail I Kazembek Qudsi Khoyski Alasgar Akhundov Nakhcivanski Mammadguluzadeh Javanshir Chamanzaminli Huseynzade 90x105px Mammadbeyova Garayev Kasravi Almaszadeh Ibragimbekov Shahriar Kerimov Hajibeyov Behrangi Pahlavi Magomayev Bahramov Alekperov Mustafazadeh Khamenei Aliyeva AySel Yusuf Lotfi A. Zadeh Mousavi
Total population
approx. 22–35 million[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Iran 11.2 to 30 million [3][4][5]:28[6][7][8][9][10][11] [12]  Azerbaijan 8,172,800 [13]  Russia 621,800 to 1,500,000 [14][15]  Turkey 530,000 to 2,500,000 [16][15]  Georgia 284,761 to 500,000 [17][15]  Kazakhstan 78,295 [18]  Ukraine 45,176 [19]  Uzbekistan 44,400 [20]  Turkmenistan 33,365 [21]  Netherlands 18,000 [22]  Kyrgyzstan 17,823 [23]  Germany 15,219 [24]  United Kingdom 15,000 [25]  Belarus 6,362 [26]  United States 5,553 [27]  Canada 3,465 [28]  Latvia 1,697 [29]  Austria 1,000 [30]  Estonia 880 [31]  Lithuania 788 [18]
Languages
Azerbaijani
Religion
Predominantly Shia Islam; minorities practice Sunni Islam, Christianity, Bahá'í Faith, and Zoroastrianism
Related ethnic groups
Other Turkic peoples, Iranian peoples, peoples of the Caucasus

The Azerbaijanis ( /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːni/; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycanlılar, Азәрбајҹанлылар, آذربایجانلیلار ) or Azarbaijanis^[3] are Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighboring states, Georgia, Russia (Dagestan) and formerly Armenia. Also referred to as Azeris or Azaris (Azərilər, Азәриләр, آذریلر ) or Azerbaijani Turks^[32][33] (Azərbaycan türkləri), they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau. The Azerbaijanis are predominantly Shi'a Muslim^[34][35] and have a mixed cultural heritage including Turkic, Iranic^[36] and Caucasian elements.

Following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1813 and 1828, the territories of the Qajar Persian Empire in the Caucasus were ceded to the Russian Empire and the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 finalized the borders between Czarist Russia and Qajar Iran.^[37][38] The formation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 established the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Despite living on two sides of an international border, the Azeris form a single ethnic group.^[35] However, northerners and southerners differ due to nearly two centuries of separate social evolution in Iranian Azerbaijan and Russian/Soviet-influenced Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani language unifies Azerbaijanis, and is mutually intelligible with Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz and Anatolian Turkish (including the dialects spoken by the Iraqi Turkmen), all of which belong to the Oghuz, or Western, group of Turkic languages.^[39]:105

History[link]

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Azerbaijan is believed to be named after Atropates, a Persian^{[40][41][42][43]} satrap (governor) who ruled in Atropatene (modern Iranian Azerbaijan).^[44][45]:2 The name Atropates means "protected by fire". An alternative theory is that Azerbaijan is the combination of two Persian words, "Āzar" meaning "(holy) fire" and "pāygān" meaning "the place of".^[46]

Ancient residents of the area spoke the Ancient Azari language, which belonged to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages.^[47] In the 11th century A.D. with Seljukid conquests, Oghuz Turkic tribes started moving across the Iranian plateau into the Caucasus and Anatolia. The influx of the Oghuz and other Turkmen tribes was further accentuated by the Mongol invasion.^[48] Here, the Oghuz tribes divided into various smaller groups, some of whom – mostly Sunni – moved to Anatolia (i.e., the Ottomans) and became settled, while others remained in the Caucasus region and later – due to the influence of the Safaviyya – eventually converted to the Shia branch of Islam. The latter were to keep the name "Turkmen" or "Turcoman" for a long time: from the 13th century onwards they gradually Turkified the Iranian-speaking populations of Azerbaijan, thus creating a new identity based on Shia and the use of Oghuz Turkic. Today, this Turkic-speaking population is known as Azeri.^[36]

Ancient period[link]

Caucasian Albanians are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the region where the modern day Republic of Azerbaijan is located.^[49] Early Iranian settlements included the Scythians in the ninth century BC. Following the Scythians, the Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras River.^[46] The Medes forged a vast empire between 900–700 BC, which was integrated into the Achaemenids Empire around 550 BC. During this period, Zoroastrianism spread in the Caucasus and Atropatene. The Achaemenids in turn were defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, but the Median satrap Atropates was allowed to remain in power. Following the decline of the Seleucids in Persia in 247 BC, an Armenian Kingdom exercised control over parts of Caucasian Albania.^[50] Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the first century BC and largely remained independent until the Persian Sassanids made the kingdom a vassal state in 252 AD.^[5]:38 Caucasian Albania's ruler, King Urnayr, officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the fourth century AD, and Albania remained a Christian state until the 8th century.^[51][52] Sassanid control ended with their defeat by Muslim Arabs in 642 AD.^[53]

Medieval period[link]

Muslim Arabs defeated the Sassanids and Byzantines as they marched into the Caucasus region. The Arabs made Caucasian Albania a vassal state after the Christian resistance, led by Prince Javanshir, surrendered in 667.^[5]:71 Between the ninth and tenth centuries, Arab authors began to refer to the region between the Kura and Aras rivers as Arran.^[5]:20 During this time, Arabs from Basra and Kufa came to Azerbaijan and seized lands that indigenous peoples had abandoned; the Arabs became a land-owning elite.^[54]:48 Conversion to Islam was slow as local resistance persisted for centuries and resentment grew as small groups of Arabs began migrating to cities such as Tabriz and Maraghah. This influx sparked a major rebellion in Iranian Azerbaijan from 816–837, led by a local Zoroastrian commoner named Bābak.^[55] However, despite pockets of continued resistance, the majority of the inhabitants of Azerbaijan converted to Islam. Later, in the 10th and 11th centuries, parts of Azerbaijan were ruled by the Kurdish dynasties of Shaddadid and Rawadid.

In the middle of the eleventh century, the Seljuq dynasty overthrew Arab rule and established an empire that encompassed most of Southwest Asia. The Seljuk period marked the influx of Oghuz nomads into the region, and the beginning of the Turkification of Azerbaijan as the West Oghuz Turkic language supplanted earlier Caucasian and Iranian ones.^[46][56]

Iranian cultural influence, however, survived extensively, as evidenced by the works of Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. The emerging Turkic identity was chronicled in epic poems or dastans, the oldest being the Book of Dede Korkut, which relate allegorical tales about the early Turks in the Caucasus and Asia Minor.^[5]:45 Turkic dominion was interrupted by the Mongols in 1227. Turkic rule returned with the Timurids and then Sunni Qara Qoyunlū (Black Sheep Turkmen) and Aq Qoyunlū (White Sheep Turkmen), who dominated Azerbaijan until the Shi'a Safavids took power in 1501.^{[5]:113[54]:285}

Modern period[link]

The Safavids, who rose from around Ardabil in Iranian Azerbaijan and lasted until 1722, established the modern Iranian state.^[57] Noted for achievements in state building, architecture, and the sciences, the Safavid state crumbled due to internal decay and external pressures from the Russians and Afghans. The Safavids encouraged and spread Shi'a Islam, as well as the arts and culture, and Shah Abbas the Great created an intellectual atmosphere that according to some scholars was a new "golden age".^[58] He reformed the government and the military, and responded to the needs of the common people.^[58]

After the Safavid state came brief Ottoman rule followed by conquest by Nadir Shah Afshar, a Sunni chieftain from Khorasan who reduced the power of the Shi'a.^[54]:300 The brief reign of Karim Khan came next, followed by the Qajars, who ruled Azerbaijan and Iran from 1779.^[5]:106 Russia loomed as a threat to Persian holdings in the Caucasus in this period. The Russo-Persian Wars began in the eighteenth century and ended in the early nineteenth century with the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813 and the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, which ceded the Caucasian portion of Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire.^[45]:17 While Azerbaijanis in Iran integrated into Iranian society, northern Azeris were incorporated into the Russian Empire.

Sattar Khan (1868–1914) was a major revolutionary figure in the late Qajar period in Iran.

In Iran, Azerbaijanis such as Sattar Khan sought constitutional reform.^[59] The Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–11 shook the Qajar dynasty. A parliament (Majlis) was founded on the efforts of the constitutionalists, and pro-democracy newspapers appeared. The last Shah of the Qajar dynasty was soon removed in a military coup led by Reza Khan. In the quest to impose national homogeneity on a country where half of the population were ethnic minorities, Reza Shah banned in quick succession the use of the Azerbaijani language in schools, theatrical performances, religious ceremonies, and books.^[60]

Upon the dethronement of Reza Shah in September 1941, Soviet forces took control of Iranian Azerbaijan and helped to set up the Azerbaijan People's Government, a client state under the leadership of Sayyid Jafar Pishevari backed by Soviet Azerbaijan. The Soviet military presence in Iranian Azerbaijan was mainly aimed at securing the Allied supply route during World War II. Concerned with the continued Soviet presence after World War II, the United States and Britain pressured the Soviets to withdraw by late 1946. Immediately thereafter, the Iranian government regained control of Iranian Azerbaijan.

According to Professor Gary R. Hess:

On December 11, an Iranian force entered Tabriz and the Peeshavari government quickly collapsed. Indeed the Iranians were enthusiastically welcomed by the people of Azerbaijan, who strongly preferred domination by Tehran rather than Moscow. The Soviet willingness to forego its influence in (Iranian) Azerbaijan probably resulted from several factors, including the realization that the sentiment for autonomy had been exaggerated and that oil concessions remained the more desirable long-term Soviet Objective.^[61]

Brief independence for northern Azerbaijan in 1918–1920 was followed by over 70 years of Soviet rule.^[39]:91 After the restoration of independence in October 1991, the Republic of Azerbaijan became embroiled in a war with neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.^[39]:97

Origins[link]

Fruit market in Urmia, Persia, 1911

Downtown Baku, Azerbaijan, 2008

In many references, Azerbaijanis are designated as a Turkic people, due to their Turkic language.^[62][63] However, modern-day Azerbaijanis are believed to be primarily the descendants of the Caucasian Albanian^[64][65] and Iranic peoples who lived in the areas of the Caucasus and northern Iran, respectively, prior to Turkification. Historian Vladimir Minorsky writes that largely Iranian and Caucasian populations became Turkish-speaking: