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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:

In the beginning of the 5th/11th century the Ghuzz hordes, first in smaller parties, and then in considerable numbers, under the Seljuqids occupied Azerbaijan. In consequence, the Iranian population of Azerbaijan and the adjacent parts of Transcaucasia became Turkophone while the characteristic features of Ādharbāyjānī Turkish, such as Persian intonations and disregard of the vocalic harmony, reflect the non-Turkish origin of the Turkicised population.^[66]

Thus, centuries of Turkic migration and turkification of the region helped to formulate the contemporary Azerbaijani ethnic identity.

Turkification[link]

The earliest major Turkic incursion of the area now known as Azerbaijan began and accelerated during the Seljuk period.^[62] The migration of Oghuz Turks from present-day Turkmenistan, which is attested by linguistic similarity, remained high through the Mongol period, as many troops under the Ilkhans were Turkic. By the Safavid period, the Turkification of Azerbaijan continued with the influence of the Kizilbash. The very name Azerbaijan is derived from the pre-Turkic name of the province, Azarbayjan or Adarbayjan, and illustrates a gradual language shift that took place as local place names survived Turkification, albeit in altered form.^[47]

Most academics view the linguistic Turkification of predominantly non-Turkic-speaking indigenous peoples and assimilation of small bands of Turkic tribes as the most likely origin for the Azeris.^[45]:6–7

Iranian origin[link]

The Iranian origins of the Azeris likely derive from ancient Iranic tribes, such as the Medes in Iranian Azerbaijan, and Scythian invaders who arrived during the eighth century BC. It is believed that the Medes mixed with Mannai.^[67] Ancient written accounts, such as one written by Arab historian Al-Masudi, attest to an Iranian presence in the region:

The Persians are a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azarbaijan up to Armenia and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in the land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz ... All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language ... although the language differed slightly. The language, however, is one, in that its letters are written the same way and used the same way in composition. There are, then, different languages such as Pahlavi, Dari, Azari, as well as other Persian languages.^[68]

A sample poem from Safina-yi Tabriz written in the old Azari language.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism was prominent throughout the Caucasus before Christianity and Islam.^[69] It has also been hypothesized that the population of Iranian Azerbaijan was predominantly Persian-speaking before the Oghuz arrived. This claim is supported by the many figures of Persian literature, such as Qatran Tabrizi, Shams Tabrizi, Nizami Ganjavi, and Khaghani, who wrote in Persian prior to and during the Oghuz migration, as well as by Strabo, Al-Istakhri, and Al-Masudi, who all describe the language of the region as Persian. The claim is mentioned by other medieval historians, such as Al-Muqaddasi.^[47]

Encyclopædia Iranica says "The Turkish speakers of Azerbaijan (q.v.) are mainly descended from the earlier Iranian speakers" and points out the continued presence of pockets of Iranian Talysh and Tats in Azerbaijan.^[70]

Caucasian origin[link]

According to Encyclopædia Britannica:

The Azerbaijani are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the indigenous population of eastern Transcaucasia and possibly from the Medians of northern Persia.^[35]

There is evidence that, despite repeated invasions and migrations, aboriginal Caucasians may have been culturally assimilated, first by Ancient Iranian peoples and later by the Oghuz. Considerable information has been learned about the Caucasian Albanians including their language, history, early conversion to Christianity, and close ties to the Armenians. The Udi language, still spoken in Azerbaijan, may be a remnant of the Albanians' language.^[71]

This Caucasian influence extended further south into Iranian Azerbaijan. During the 1st millennium BC, another Caucasian people, the Mannaeans (Mannai) populated much of Iranian Azerbaijan. Weakened by conflicts with the Assyrians, the Mannaeans are believed to have been conquered and assimilated by the Medes by 590 BC.^[72]

Genetics[link]

Iranian Azaris have stronger genetic affinity with their immediate geographic neighbors than with populations from Central Asia.^[73]

Genetic studies demonstrate that northern Azeris are more closely related to other Caucasian people like Georgians and Armenians than they are to Iranians or Turks.^[74] Iranian Azeris are genetically more similar to northern Azeris and the neighboring Turkish population than they are to geographically distant Turkmen populations.^[75] Iranian-speaking populations from Azerbaijan (the Talysh and Tats) are genetically closer to Azerbaijanis of the Republic than to other Iranian-speaking populations (Persian people and Kurds from Iran, Ossetians, and Tajiks).^[76] Such genetic evidence supports the view that the Azeris originate from a native population long resident in the area who adopted a Turkish language through a process of "elite dominance", i.e. a limited number of Turkic immigrants had a substantial cultural impact but left only weak patrilineal genetic traces.^[73][74][75]

MtDNA analysis indicates that Iranians, Anatolians and Caucasians are part of a larger West Eurasian group that is secondary to that of the Caucasus.^[77][78] While genetic analysis of mtDNA indicates that Caucasian populations are genetically closer to Europeans than to Near Easterners, Y-chromosome results indicate closer affinity to Near Eastern groups.^[74]

Iranians have a relatively diverse range of Y-chromosome haplotypes. A population from central Iran (Isfahan) shows closer similarity in terms of haplogroup distributions to Caucasians and Azeris than to populations from southern or northern Iran.^[79] The range of haplogroups across the region may reflect historical genetic admixture,^[80] perhaps as a result of invasive male migrations.^[74]

Ethnonym[link]

Historically the Turkic speakers of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus called themselves or were referred to by others as Muslims, Turks, or Ajams (by Kurds),^[81] and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When the South Caucasus became part of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century, the Russian authorities, who traditionally referred to all Turkic people as Tatars, defined Tatars living in the Transcaucasus region as Caucasian or Aderbeijanskie (Адербейджанские) Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic groups.^[82] The Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, written in the 1890s, also referred to Tatars in Azerbaijan as Aderbeijans (адербейджаны),^[83] but noted that the term had not been adopted widely.^[84] This ethnonym was also used by Joseph Deniker:

[The purely linguistic] grouping [does not] coincide with the somatological grouping: thus the Aderbeijani of the Caucasus and Persia, who speak a Turkish language, have the same physical type as the Hadjemi-Persians, who speak an Iranian tongue.^[85]

In Azerbaijani language publications, the expression "Azerbaijani nation" referring to those who were known as Tatars of the Caucasus first appeared in the newspaper Kashkul in 1880.^[86]

Demographics and society[link]

There are an estimated 22 to 35 million Azerbaijanis in the world, but census figures are difficult to verify. The vast majority live in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. Between 11.2 and 30 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran, mainly in the northwestern provinces. Approximately 8 million Azerbaijanis are found in the Republic of Azerbaijan. A diaspora of over a million is spread throughout the rest of the world. According to Ethnologue, there are over 1 million speakers of the northern Azerbaijani dialect in southern Dagestan, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.^[87] No Azerbaijanis were recorded in the 2001 census in Armenia,^[88] where the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resulted in population shifts. Other sources, such as national censuses, confirm the presence of Azeris throughout the other states of the former Soviet Union. Ethnologue reports that 1 million South Azeris live outside Iran, but these figures include Iraqi Turkmen, a distinct though related Turkic people.^[16]

Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan[link]

Azerbaijanis are by far the largest ethnic group in Azerbaijan (over 90%). The literacy rate is very high, and is estimated at 99.5%.^[89] Azerbaijan began the twentieth century with institutions based upon those of Russia and the Soviet Union, with an official policy of atheism and strict state control over most aspects of society. Since independence, there is a secular democratic system.

Azerbaijani society has been deeply impacted by the war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has displaced nearly 1 million Azerbaijanis and put strain on the economy.^[90] Azerbaijan has benefited from the oil industry, but high levels of corruption have prevented greater prosperity for the masses.^[91] Despite these problems, there is a renaissance in Azerbaijan as positive economic predictions and an active political opposition appear determined to improve the lives of average Azerbaijanis.^[46][92]

Azerbaijanis in Iran[link]

While population estimates in Azerbaijan are considered reliable due to regular censuses, the figures for Iran remain questionable. Since the early twentieth century, successive Iranian governments have avoided publishing statistics on ethnic groups.^[93] Unofficial population estimates of Azerbaijanis in Iran range from 16–33%.^[4][94][95]

Azerbaijanis in Iran are mainly found in the northwest provinces: East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, parts of Hamedan, Qazvin, West Azerbaijan and Markazi.^[3] Many others live in Tehran, Fars Province, and other regions. Generally, Azerbaijanis in Iran were regarded as "a well integrated linguistic minority" by academics prior to Iran's Islamic Revolution.^[96][97] Despite friction, Azerbaijanis in Iran came to be well represented at all levels of "political, military, and intellectual hierarchies, as well as the religious hierarchy".^[93]