In this article, the history of Azerbaijan is understood as the history of the region now forming the Republic of Azerbaijan. Topographically, the land is contained by the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains in the north, the Caspian Sea in the east, and the Armenian Highlands in the west. In the south, its natural boundaries are less distinct, and here the country merges with the Iranian Plateau.
The entity of Caucasian Albania was established on its soil in ancient times. The Caucasian Albanian language spoken by the founders of Caucasian Albania was most likely a predecessor of the now endangered Udi language spoken by the Udi people. From the time of the Medes and the Achaemenid Empire, until the coming of the Russians in the 19th century, the territories of the republic of Azerbaijan and Iran have usually shared the same history. Azerbaijan retained its Iranian character even after the Arab conquest of Iran and the conversion of the area's inhabitants to Islam. Some four centuries later, Oghuz Turkic tribes under the Seljuq dynasty entered the area, and Azerbaijan gained a large amount of Turkic inhabitants. Over the centuries, as the original population mingled with the immigrant Turkic nomads, the number of native Persian speakers gradually diminished, and a Turkic dialect nowadays known as Azerbaijani (or Azerbaijani Turkic) gained hold.
One of the regional dynasties, the Shirvanshahs, after becoming a state under the roof of the Timurid Empire, helped the Timurids in the war against the Golden Horde State. After Timur's death, two Turkic independent and rival states emerged in the region, namely Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu The Shirvanshahs, on the other hand, became independent again in this process and strengthened their local governments. During the period of the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu states, Azerbaijani Turkic (in the sources of that period, "Turki") gradually began to emerge as a means of literary and poetic expression.Claus Schönig, Turkic languages and literatures in the Timurid and post-Timurid period, in: The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6, Cambridge University Press, 1986. → s. 708–710
The region later became part of the Safavid Empire. The Sunni population converted to Shia Islam during the Safavid period, and the people of Azerbaijan became Shia. When the Afsharid Empire of Iran collapsed in the 18th century, Caucasian khanates that were either dependent on or semi-independent from Iran emerged in the territory of what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan.Alexander Murinson. Turkey's Entente with Israel and Azerbaijan. Routledge, 2009. Стр. 2.The core territory of modern-day Azerbaijan, i.e. Shirvan, Quba and other Azeri Khanates in the Caucasus, served historically as place of refuge for Persian and later Russian Jews.
After the Russo-Persian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828, Qajar Iran was forced to cede its Caucasian territories to the Russian Empire, which forced thousands of Armenian families to move into Barda in the Karabakh Khanate; the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 defined the border between Czarist Russia and Qajar Iran. The region north of the Aras was Iranian until it was occupied by Russia during the 19th century. According to the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Qajar Iran recognized Russian sovereignty over the Erivan, Nakhchivan and Talysh Khanates (the last parts of Azerbaijan still in Iranian hands).Timothy C. Dowling Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond pp 728–729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014
In the ensuing period, in post-Iranian Russian-held East Caucasia, an Azerbaijani national identity emerged at the end of the 19th century. After more than 80 years of being part of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established in 1918. The name "Azerbaijan", adopted by the ruling Musavat Party for political reasons, had been used to identify the adjacent region of northwestern Iran. Azerbaijan was invaded by Soviet forces in 1920, which led to the establishment of the Azerbaijan SSR. In the early Soviet period, the Azerbaijani national identity was finally forged. Azerbaijan remained under Soviet rule until the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, after which the independent Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed. Hostile relations with the neighboring Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been focal points within Azerbaijani politics since independence.
Prehistory
Azerbaijani prehistory includes Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages with the Stone Age divided into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic eras and the Chalcolithic era being a transitional period from the Stone Age to the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Early prehistory The Paleolithic era is divided into three periods: lower, middle, and upper. The era began with the first human habitation in the region and lasted until the 12th millennium BCE. The Azykh Cave in Khojavend District is the site of one of Eurasia's oldest archaic-human habitations. Remnants of pre-Acheulean culture at least 700,000 years old were found in the lowest layers of the cave. In 1968, Mammadali Huseynov discovered a 300,000-year-old partial jawbone from an early human in the Acheulean-age cave layer; it is one of the oldest human remains ever discovered in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Azerbaijan's Lower Paleolithic is known for the Guruchay culture, which has features similar to the culture of Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge.
The Mesolithic era from approximately 12,000 to 8,000 BCE, is represented by caves in Gobustan National Park (near Baku) and Damjili (in Qazax District). Rock carvings in Gobustan depict scenes of hunting, fishing, work and dancing. The newly excavated settlement of Osmantəpə in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic seems to cast light on the intermediate stage between the Mesolithic and Neolithic era.Veli Bakhshaliyev 2021, OSMAN TEPE IS A NEW MONUMENT OF THE STONE AGE. (Abstract in English) SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, NAKHCHIVAN BRANCH OFFICE. -- "... new finds identified at the Osman Tepe settlement attract attention, make it possible to supplement the gap existing in the study of the pre-ceramic Neolithic in the South Caucasus. ... A small number of ceramic products in our way testifies to the new beginning ceramic Neolithic. Therefore, settlements can be dated 9500-7000 BC."
The Neolithic era from the seventh and sixth millennia BCE, is represented by the Shulaveri–Shomu culture in Aghstafa District; finds at Damjili, Gobustan, Kultepe (in Nakhchivan) and Toyretepe, and the Neolithic Revolution in agriculture.
Petroglyphs dating from 8,000 to 5,000 years ago depict long boats (similar to Viking ships), indicating a connection with Continental Europe and the Mediterranean Sea.
Later prehistory
The Chalcolithic era lasted from the sixth to the fourth millennium BCE, was the period of transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. The Caucasus Mountains are rich in copper ore, facilitating the development of copper smelting in Azerbaijan. A number of Chalcolithic settlements in Shomu-tepe, Toyratepe, Jinnitepe, Kültepe, Alikomektepe and IIanlitepe have been discovered, and carbon-dated artifacts indicate that inhabitants built homes, made copper tools and arrowheads, and were familiar with non-irrigated agriculture.
The Bronze Age in Azerbaijan began in approximately the second half of the fourth millennium BCE and the Iron Age began in approximately the seven and sixth centuries BCE. The Bronze Age is divided into early, middle and late eras and have been studied in Nakhchivan, Ganja, Mingachevir and Dashkasan District. The early Bronze Age is characterized by the Kura–Araxes culture, and the middle Bronze Age by painted earthenware or pottery culture. The late Bronze Age is demonstrated in Nakhchivan and by the Khojali–Gadabay and Talish–Mughan cultures.
Research in 1890 by Jacques de Morgan in the mountains of Talysh, near Lankaran, revealed over 230 late-Bronze and early-Iron Age burials. E. Rösler discovered late-Bronze Age materials in Karabakh and Ganja between 1894 and 1903. J. Hummel conducted research from 1930 to 1941 in Goygol District and Karabakh at sites known as Barrows I and II and other late-Bronze Age sites. Archaeologist Walter Crist of the American Museum of Natural History discovered a 4,000-year-old, Bronze Age version of hounds and jackals in Gobustan National Park in 2018. The game, popular in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia at the time, was identified in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV.
Antiquity
The Achaemenids were defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. After the 247 BCE fall of the Seleucid Empires in Persia, the Kingdom of Armenia ruled portions of what is today Azerbaijan from 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). The Arsacid dynasty of Armenia was a branch of the Parthian Empire, and Caucasian Albania (present-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan) was under Parthian rule for the next several centuries. The Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the 1st century BCE, primarily remaining a semi-independent vassal state until the Parthians were deposed in 252 and the kingdom became a province of the Sasanian Empire.p. 38James 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 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 King Urnayr adopted Christianity as the state religion during the fourth century, and Albania was a Christian state until the eighth century."Albania" – Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, 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). Although it was subordinate to Sasanid Persia, Caucasian Albania retained its monarchy.Nevertheless, "despite being one of the chief vassals of Sasanian Shahanshah, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sassanid marzban (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority. Sasanid control ended with its 642 defeat by the Rashidun Caliphate in the Muslim conquest of Persia.
The migration and settlement of Eurasian and Central Asian nomads has been a regional pattern in the history of the Caucasus from the Sassanid-Persian era to the 20th-century emergence of the Azerbaijani Turks. Among the Iranian nomads were the Scythians, Alans and Cimmerians, and the Khazars and Huns made incursions during the Hunnic and Khazar eras. Derbent was fortified during the Sasanid era to block nomads from beyond the North Caucasus pass who did not establish permanent settlements.
Achaemenid and Seleucid rule