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Origins

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Azeris in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan.

In many references, Azerbaijanis are designated as a Turkic people, due to their Turkic language.[1][2][3] However, modern day Azerbaijani's are not ethnically Turkic, but are mainly descendants of the Caucasian and Iranic peoples who lived in the area prior to Turkification.

Turkification

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

Although, "Turkic penetration probably began in the Hunnic era and its aftermath," there is little evidence to indicate, "permanent settlements".[2] The earliest major Turkic incursion began with Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1040) and accelerated during the Seljuk period. 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.[4]

Most academics view this migration as the most likely source of a Turkic background, but one that it most likely involved the Turkification of predominantly non-Turkic indigenous peoples.[5][6]

Historical accounts

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Medieval

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Medieval scholars have also described the Iranian region of Azerbaijan as being Iranic speaking.

Ibn Muqaffa (d. 760) a Muslim or Zoroastrian scholar and translator of Persian background is quoted by Ibn Nadeem (d. 988) as writing:[7]:

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Masudi(896-956), the Arab historian states that the regions of Iranian Azerbaijan and Aran were inhabited by Persians:

[8]

Modern accounts (19th, 20th, 21st centuries)

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According to the eminent historian Vladimir Minorsky:


According to Professor. Richard Frye:


According to The Languages and Literature of the Non-Russian Peoples of the Soviet Union:


According to Professor Xavier De Planhol:




According to Tadeusz Swietochowski:


According to Encyclopedia Britannica:


According to Grand Dictionnaire Encyclopedique Larousse:


According to World Book:



The book Man, published in 1901, comes to the same conclusion:


[16]

Encyclopaedia Iranica also states:


Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, published in 1854, states:

Iranian origin

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File:Nizami monument.jpg
Statue of Nezami Ganjavi, a twelfth-century writer and philosopher, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Nezami is a major literary figure to both Azeris and Persians.

The Iranian origin, favoured by notable scholars and sources, along with genetic testing, mostly applies to Iranian Azeri's and is based upon the ancient presence of Iranic tribes, such as the Medes, in Iranian Azarbaijan, and Scythian invasions during the eighth century BCE. It is believed that the Medes mixed with an indigenous population, the Caucasian Mannai, a Northeast Caucasian group related to the Urartians.[19]

Scholars see cultural similarities between modern Persians and Azeris as evidence of an ancient Iranian influence.[20] Archaeological evidence indicates that the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism was prominent throughout the Caucasus before Christianity and Islam and that the influence of various Persian Empires added to the Iranian character of the area.[21] It has also been hypothesized that the population of Iranian Azarbaijan was predominantly Persian-speaking before the Oghuz arrived. This claim is supported by the many Azerbaijani literary figures, such as Qatran Tabrizi, Shams Tabrizi, Nezami, 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.[22][4] Other common Perso-Azeribaijani features include Iranian place names such as Tabriz[23] and the name Azerbaijan itself.

The modern presence of the Iranian Talysh and Tats in Azerbaijan is further evidence of the former Iranian character of the region.[24][25] As a precursor to these modern groups, the ancient Azaris are hypothesized as the main ancestors of the modern Azerbaijanis.

Caucasian origin

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Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (1838-1924), a leading Azeri industrialist and philanthropist.

The Caucasian origin mostly applies to the Azeri's of the Caucasus, most of whom are now inhabitants of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is evidence that, despite repeated invasions and migrations, aboriginal Caucasians may have been culturally assimilated, first by Iranians 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. Many academics believe that the Udi language, still spoken in Azerbaijan, is a remnant of the Albanians' language.[26][27]

This Caucasian influence extended further south into Iranian Azarbaijan. During the 1st millennium BCE, another Caucasian people, the Mannaeans (Mannai) populated much of Iranian Azarbaijan. Weakened by conflicts with the Assyrians, the Mannaeans are believed to have been conquered and assimilated by the Medes by 590 BCE.[28]

Genetics

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Some new genetic studies suggest that recent erosion of human population structure might not be as important as previously thought, and overall genetic structure of human populations may not change with the immigration events and thus in the Azerbaijani case; the Azeris of Azerbaijan republic most of all genetically resemble to other Caucasian people like Armenians [29] and people the Azarbaijan region of Iran to other Iranians [30].

Studies conducted in the Caucasus

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A 2003 study found that: "Y-chromosome haplogroups indicate that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians (of the Republic of Azerbaijan) are genetically more closely related to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere."[31] The authors of this study suggest that this indicates a language replacement of indigenous Caucasian peoples. There is evidence of limited genetic admixture derived from Central Asians (specifically Haplogroup H12), notably the Turkmen, that is higher than that of their neighbors, the Georgians and Armenians.[32] MtDNA analysis indicates that the main relationship with Iranians is through a larger West Eurasian group that is secondary to that of the Caucasus, according to a study that did not include Azeris, but Georgians who have clustered with Azeris in other studies.[33] The conclusion from the testing shows that the Caucasian Azeris are a mixed population with relationships, in order of greatest similarity, with the Caucasus, Iranians and Near Easterners, Europeans, and Turkmen. Other genetic analysis of mtDNA and Y-chromosomes indicates that Caucasian populations are genetically intermediate between Europeans and Near Easterners, but that they are more closely related to Near Easterners overall.[31] Another study, conducted in 2003 by the Russian Journal of Genetics, compared Iranians in Azerbaijan (the Talysh and Tats) with Turkic Azerbaijanis and found that,


Studies conducted in Iran

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A recent study of the genetic landscape of Iran was completed by a team of Cambridge geneticists led by Dr. Maziar Ashrafian Bonab (an Iranian Azarbaijani).[35] Bonab remarked that his group had done extensive DNA testing on different language groups, including Indo-European and non Indo-European speakers, in Iran.[36] The study found that the Azerbaijanis of Iran do not have a similar FSt and other genetic markers found in Anatolian and European Turks. However, the genetic Fst and other genetic traits like MRca and mtDNA of Iranian Azeris were identical to Persians in Iran.

Ethnonym

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Historically the Turkic speakers[37] of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus called themselves or were referred to by others as Turks and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When Transacaucasia became part of the Russian empire, Russian authorities, who traditionally called all Turkic people Tatars, called Azeris Aderbeijani/Azerbaijani or Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic people, also called Tatars by Russians.[38] Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans in some articles.[39] According to the article Turko-Tatars of the above encyclopedia,


References

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  1. ^ "Azerbaijan: People", Encyclopedia Britannica (retrieved 11 June 2006)
  2. ^ a b An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples by Peter B. Golden. Otto Harrasowitz (1992), ISBN 3-447-03274-X (retrieved 8 June 2006). Cite error: The named reference "ISBN 5" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Turkic Peoples", Encyclopedia Americana, volume 27, page 276. Grolier Inc., New York (1998) ISBN 0-7172-0130-9 (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  4. ^ a b "The spread of Turkish in Azerbaijan", Encyclopedia Iranica, (retrieved 11 June 2006).
  5. ^ Dictionary
  6. ^ Altstadt
  7. ^ Kitab al-Fihrist mit Anmerkungen hrsg. von Gustav Flügel, t vols., Leipzig 1871. Original Arabic: فأما الفهلوية فمنسوب إلى فهله اسم يقع على خمسة بلدان وهي أصفهان والري وهمدان وماه نهاوند وأذربيجان
  8. ^ (Al Mas'udi, Kitab al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishraf, De Goeje, M.J. (ed.), Leiden, Brill, 1894, pp. 77-8)
  9. ^ Minorsky, V.; Minorsky, V. "( Azarbaijan). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill
  10. ^ R.N. Frye, Peoples of Iran in Encyclopaedia Iranica [1]
  11. ^ The Languages and Literatures of the Non-Russian Peoples of the Soviet Union By Canada Council, George Thomas, McMaster University Interdepartmental Committe on Communist and East European Affairs, published in 1977, page 45
  12. ^ X.D. Planhol, LANDS OF IRAN in Encyclopedia Iranica [2]
  13. ^ X.D. Planhol, LANDS OF IRAN in Encyclopedia Iranica [3]
  14. ^ Colliers Encyclopedia Vol. 3
  15. ^ Azerbaijani." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 5 Apr. 2007 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9011540>.
  16. ^ Man By: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, JSTOR (Organization)
  17. ^ [Encyclopaedia Iranica http://www.iranica. com/newsite/ articles/ v13f3/v13f3004a. html]
  18. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by Willion Smith, Vol 1. page 320
  19. ^ "Ancient Persia", Encyclopedia Americana (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  20. ^ "Azerbaijan", Columbia Encyclopedia (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  21. ^ "Various Fire-Temples", University of Calgary (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  22. ^ Al-Muqaddasi, Ahsan al-Taqāsīm, p. 259 & 378, "... the Azerbaijani language is not pretty [...] but their Persian is intelligible, and in articulation it is very similar to the Persian of Khorasan ...", tenth century, Persia (retrieved 18 June 2006).
  23. ^ "Tabriz" (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  24. ^ "Report for Talysh", Ethnologue (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  25. ^ "Report for Tats", Ethnologue (retrieved 8 June 2006).
  26. ^ "The Udi Language", University of Munich, Wolfgang Schulze 2001/2 (retrieved 19 June 2006).
  27. ^ Rare Caucasus Albanian Text
  28. ^ "Mannai", Encyclopedia Britannica (retrieved 19 June 2006).
  29. ^ Testing hypotheses of language replacement in the Caucasus
  30. ^ Is urbanisation scrambling the genetic structure of human populations?
  31. ^ a b ibid.
  32. ^ "A Genetic Landscape Reshaped by Recent Events: Y-Chromosomal Insights into Central Asia", American Journal of Human Genetics, 71:466-482, 2002 (retrieved 9 June 2006).
  33. ^ "Where West Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor", American Journal of Human Genetics, 74:827-845, 2004 (retrieved 9 June 2006).
  34. ^ "Genetic Structure of Iranian-Speaking Populations from Azerbaijan Inferred from the Frequencies of Immunological and Biochemical Gene Markers", Russian Journal of Genetics, Volume 39, Number 11, November 2003, pp. 1334-1342(9) (retrieved 9 June 2006).
  35. ^ "Maziar Ashrafian Bonab", Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge (retrieved 9 June 2006).
  36. ^ "Cambridge Genetic Study of Iran", ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), 06-12-2006, news-code: 8503-06068 (retrieved 9 June 2006).
  37. ^ Azerbaijani article, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
  38. ^ (in Russian) Demoscope Weekly, alphabetical list of people living in the Russian Empire (1895).
  39. ^ (in Russian) Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Turks". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907
  40. ^ (in Russian) Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Turko-Tatars". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907.