The military history of Azerbaijan is framed within thousands of years of armed actions of many other states in the territory encompassing modern Azerbaijan, as well as the shorter history of interventions by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in conflicts abroad. The Azerbaijanis are the inheritors of the lands of various ancient civilizations and peoples including the indigenous Caucasian Albanians, Iranian tribes such as Scythians and Alans, and Oghuz Turks among others (note that several modern peoples of the Caucasus can trace their ancestries to more than one of these same ancient peoples).

Azerbaijan's location on the crossroads of Asia and Europe made it possible for Azerbaijanis to have military contact with both the Asian and European military powers.

Antiquity Caucasian Albania

Caucasian Albanians are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of Azerbaijan. Early invaders included the Scythians, who arrived in the region in the 9th century BCE.Azerbaijan – US Library of Congress Country Studies (retrieved 7 June 2006). The South Caucasus was eventually conquered by the Achaemenids around 550 BCE. It was around this period that Zoroastrianism spread in Azerbaijan. The Achaemenids in turn were defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. Following the decline of the Seleucids in Persia in 247 BCE, an Armenian Kingdom exercised control over parts of modern Azerbaijan between 190 BCE to 428 CE."Armenia-Ancient Period" – US Library of Congress Country Studies (retrieved 23 June 2006)Strabo, "Geography" – Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University (retrieved 24 June 2006). Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the 1st century BCE and largely remained independent until the Sassanids made the kingdom a province in 252 CE.James Stuart Olson. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Encyclopædia Britannica:The list of provinces given in the inscription of Ka'be-ye Zardusht defines the extent of the gigantic 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) Caucasian Albania's ruler, King Urnayr, officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century CE, and Albania would remain a Christian state until the 8th century. – Encyclopedia Iranica, p. 807 (retrieved 15 June 2006)."Voices of the Ancients: Heyerdahl Intrigued by Rare Caucasus Albanian Text" by Dr. Zaza Alexidze – Azerbaijan International, Summer 2002 (retrieved 7 June 2006). Sassanid control ended following their defeat to Muslim Arabs in 642 CE."Islamic Conquest."

Middle Ages Islamic Conquests

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. Between the 9th and 10th centuries, Arab authors began to refer to the region between the Kura and Aras rivers as Arran. During this time, Arabs from Basra and Kufa came to Azerbaijan and seized lands that the indigenous peoples had abandoned; the Arabs became a land-owning elite.A History of Islamic Societies by Ira Lapidus, p. 48. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988), (retrieved 7 June 2006). Despite pockets of continued resistance, the majority of the inhabitants of Azerbaijan converted to Islam. Later on in the 10th and 11th centuries, Kurdish dynasties of Shaddadid and Rawadid ruled parts of Azerbaijan.

Shirvanshahs

Shīrwān ShāhBarthold, W., C.E. Bosworth "Shirwan Shah, Sharwan Shah. "Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2nd edition or Sharwān Shāh, was the title in mediaeval Islamic times of a Persianized dynasty of Arabic origin. The Shirvanshah established a native Azerbaijani stateTadeusz Swietochowski. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University, 1995, p. 2, : "In the fifteenth century a native Azeri state of Shirvanshahs flourished north of the Araxes." and were rulers of Shirvan, a historical region in present-day Azerbaijan. The Shirvanshahs established the longest Islamic dynasty in the Islamic world.

Seljuqs and successor states

The Seljuq period of Azerbaijan's history was possibly even more pivotal than the Arab conquest as it helped shape the ethnolinguistic nationality of the modern Azerbaijani Turks.

After the decline of Abbasid Caliphate, the territory of Azerbaijan was under the sway of numerous dynasties such as the Salarids, Sajids, Shaddadids, Rawadids and Buyids. However, at the beginning of the 11th century, the territory was gradually seized by waves of Oghuz Turkic tribes emanating from Central Asia. The first of these Turkic dynasties was the Ghaznavids from northern Afghanistan, who took over part of Azerbaijan by 1030. They were followed by the Seljuqs, a western branch of the Oghuz who conquered all of Iran and the Caucasus and pressed on to Iraq where they overthrew the Buyids in Baghdad in 1055.

Safavids and the rise of Shi'a Islam

The Safavid order (Safaviyeh) was a Sufi religious order formed in 1330s by Sheikh Safi Al-Din (1252–1334), after whom it was eponymously named.

This Sufi order openly converted to the heterodox branch of Twelver Shi'a Islam by the end of the 15th century. Some Safavid followers, most notably the Qizilbash Turks, believed in the mystical and esoteric nature of their rulers and their relationship to the house of Ali, and thus, were zealously predisposed to fight for them. The Safavid rulers claimed to be the descendants of Ali himself and his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, through the seventh Imam Musa al-Kazim. Qizilbash numbers increased by the 16th century and their generals were able to wage a successful war against the Ak Koyunlu state and capture Tabriz.

The Safavids, led by Ismail I, expanded their base, sacking Baku in 1501 and persecuting the Shirvanshahs.

Russian rule

Following their defeat by Russia in the Russo-Persian War of 1803–13, Qajar Persia was forced to sign the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, which acknowledged the loss of the territory to Russia. Local khanates were either abolished (like in Baku or Ganja) or accepted Russian patronage.

Another Russo-Persian war in 1826–28 resulted in another crushing defeat for the Iranian army. The Russians dictated another final settlement as per the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which resulted in the Qajars of Persia ceding Caucasian territories in 1828. The treaty established the current borders of Azerbaijan and Iran as the rule of local khans ended. In the Russian-controlled territories, two provinces were established that later constituted the bulk of the modern Republic – Elisavetpol (Ganja) province in the west, and Shamakha province in the east.

Russian Civil War Following the collapse of the Russian Empire during the Russian Civil War, the administrations in the Caucasus initially formed the Transcaucasian Commissariat in 1917. In April 1918, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was proclaimed, which was an attempt to form a federal union with the Republic Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. The federal republic would dissolve a month later, and the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was proclaimed in Ganja on May 28, 1918. This was the first Democratic Republic established in Islamic World.

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament of the newly formed democratic republic was the extension of suffrage to women, making Azerbaijan the first Muslim state in the world to give women equal political rights with men. In this accomplishment, Azerbaijan preceded even such developed countries as the United Kingdom and the United States. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.

The history of the modern Azerbaijan army dates back to Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, when the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan Republic were created on June 26, 1918. The first de facto Minister of Defense of ADR was Dr. Khosrov bey Sultanov. When the Ministry was formally established, Gen. Samad bey Mehmandarov became the minister, and Lt-Gen. Aliagha Shikhlinski his deputy. Chiefs of Staff of ADR Army were Maj-Gen. Habib Bey Salimov (August 1, 1918 – March 26, 1919), Lt-Gen. Mammad bey Shulkevich (March 26, 1919 – December 10, 1919) and Maj-Gen. Abdulhamid bey Gaytabashi (December 10, 1919 – April 28, 1920).Azerbaijani Army marks 91 years Today.Az – Azerbaijan marks Day of Armed Forces

Some of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic's notable generals include:

Lieutenant-General Samad bey Mehmandarov (1855–1931) Lieutenant-General, Ali-Agha Shikhlinski (1865–1943) General-Adjutant, Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski (1863–1919) Major-General, Abdulhamid Bey Gaytabashi (1884–1920) Major-General, Habib Bey Salimov (1881–1920) Major-General, Ibrahim bey Usubov (1875–1920) Major-General, Murad Girey Tlekhas (1874–1920) Major-General, Emir-Kazim Mirza Qajar (1853–1920) Major-General, Mammad Mirza Qajar (1872–1920) Major-General, Aliyar-Bek Gashimbekow (1856–1920) Major-General, David-Bek Edigarow (1881–1920) Major-General, Firidun-Bey Wezirow (1850–1925) Major-General, Khalil-Bey Talishkhanov (1859–1920)

The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan on April 28, 1920. Although the bulk of the newly formed Azerbaijani army was engaged in putting down an Armenian revolt that had just broken out in Karabakh, the Azerbaijanis did not surrender their brief independence of 1918–20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 of the total 30,000 soldiers died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest.Hugh Pope, "Sons of the conquerors: the rise of the Turkic world", New York: The Overlook Press, 2006, p. 116, The national Army of Azerbaijan was abolished by the Bolshevik government, 15 of the 21 army generals were executed by the Bolsheviks. Navy The Azerbaijani Navy was established in 1918. When the Russian Empire collapsed, ADR inherited the entire Russian Caspian flotilla. Among the vessels of the ADR were the gunboats Kars, Ardahan, Astrabad, Geok-Tepe, Arax and Bailov. The British also handed over a warship to the newly independent Azerbaijan – a former Russian vessel in the Caspian Sea.

Soviet Azerbaijan

World War II

During World War II, Azerbaijan played a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of the Soviet Union; much of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front was supplied by Baku. By the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was awarded orders and medals. Operation Edelweiss carried out by the German Wehrmacht targeted Baku because of its importance as a petroleum supplier of the USSR.Swietochowski, Tadeusz(1995) Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition, Columbia University, p. 133.