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Azerbaijan is the name used for the Iranian region of Azerbaijan and since ca. 20 years ago by the Republic of Azerbaijan. This name originated from pre-Islamic history of [Persia], derived from Atropates, a Persian   satrap (governor). This article covers the etymology of the term and also its geographic application in historical as well as modern times.

Etymology
According to historian Vladimir Minorsky :called in Middle Persian Āturpātākān, older new-Persian Ād̲h̲arbād̲h̲agān, Ād̲h̲arbāyagān, at present Āzarbāyd̲j̲ān, Greek ᾿Ατροπατήνη (Atropatini), Byzantine Greek ᾿Αδραβιγάνων (Adraviganon), Georgian ადერბეჯანი (Aderbejani) or აზერბაიჯანი (Azerbaijani), Armenian Ատրպատական (Atrpatakan), Syriac Ad̲h̲orbāyg̲h̲ān. The province was called after the general Atropates (“protected by fire”), who at the time of Alexander's invasion proclaimed his independence (328 B.C.) and thus preserved his kingdom (Media Minor, Strabo, xi, 13, 1) in the north-western corner of later Persia (cf. Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ, in Yāḳūt, i, 172, and al-Maḳdisī, 375: Ād̲h̲arbād̲h̲ b. Bīwarasf).

According to Xavier Planhol :The name of the country is derived from that of the Achaemenian satrap of Media Atropates (Strabo 11.523) who was retained by Alexander in the government of western Media and preserved it under his successors, thus founding a principality which maintained itself in a state of independence or at least semi-independence until the second century B.C., and was only definitively reunited with the Persian empire under the Sasanian king of kings Shapur I along with Armenia (cf. Markwart, Eranshahr, pp. 111-12). From the name of this man comes the Greek forms (Atropatene, Atropatios Media [Strabo, loc. cit.], Tropatene [Ptolemy 6.2], the Armenian form Atrpatakan (Movses Khorenatsi, cf. Markwart. Eranshahr, pp. 108-14), the Middle Persian form Āturpātākān (cf. Schwarz, Iran, p. 960), the New Persian forms Ād̲harbāyjān and Ād̲arbāygān.

According to Professor K. Shippmann :In the Achaemenid period Azerbaijan was part of the satrapy of Media. When the Achaemenid empire collapsed, Atropates, the Persian satrap of Media, made himself independent in the northwest of this region in 321 B.C. Thereafter Greek and Latin writers named the territory Media Atropatene or, less frequently, Media Minor (e.g. Strabo 11.13.1; Justin 23.4.13). The Middle Persian form of the name was (early) Āturpātākān, (later) Ādurbādgān) whence the New Persian Ādarbāyjān

Pre-Islamic era
Strabo in Book 11 of his geography gives us one of the earliest accounts of the region and mentions the kingdom of Atropatene. And then on the north by the Ocean as far as the mouth of the Caspian Sea; and then on the east by this same sea as far as the boundary between Albania and Armenia, where empty the rivers Cyrus and Araxes, the Araxes flowing through Armenia and the Cyrus through Iberia and Albania; and lastly, on the south by the tract of country which extends from the outlet of the Cyrus River to Colchis, which is about three thousand stadia from sea to sea, across the territory of the Albanians and the Iberians, and therefore is described as an isthmus. ... The other part is Atropatian Media, which got its name from the commander Atropates, who prevented also this country, which was a part of Greater Media, from becoming subject to the Macedonians. Furthermore, after he was proclaimed king, he organized this country into a separate state by itself, and his succession of descendants is preserved to this day, and his successors have contracted marriages with the kings of the Armenians and Syrians and, in later times, with the kings of the Parthians. ... Their royal summer palace is situated in a plain at Gazaca, and their winter palace in a fortress called Vera, which was besieged by Antony on his expedition against the Parthians. This fortress is distant from the Araxes, which forms the boundary between Armenia and Atropene, two thousand four hundred stadia, according to Dellius, the friend of Antony, who wrote an account of Antony's expedition against the Parthians, on which he accompanied Antony and was himself a commander.

The Natural History of Pliny states:

Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene, which is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river Araxes; Gazae is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media, to which country Atropatene belongs.

Shapur I's inscription in Naqsh-e-Rostam also lists the North Western and Caucasian provinces of Sassanid Iran, amongst them Albania, Atropatene, Armenia, Iberia, Balasgan, and the gate of Alans.

Islamic era
Various historians and geographers and travelers have given description of the region during the Islamic era and the article. Some of these are listed in chronological order here.

Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 760) a Muslim or Zoroastrian scholar and translator of Persian background is quoted by Ibn Nadeem (d. 988) as incorporating the region of Azerbaijan into the Fahla :And Fahlavi (Pahlavi language) pertains to the region of Fahla which is the region compromised of Esfahan, Ray, Hamadan, Mah Nahavand and Azerbaijan

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn (896-956), the Arab historian states: 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 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.

Ahmad ibn Yaqubi (d. 897) in his work Al-Buldan (The Countries) writes
 * And whoever wants to travel to Azerbaijan, must leave Zanjan and travel four stages to reach the city of Ardabil. And Ardabil is the first city, among the cities of Azerbaijan, he will encounter. From Ardabil to Barzand region in Azerbaijan is three stages.  And from Barzand to Warthan city in Azerbaijan, and from Warthan to Beylakan and from Beylakan till the city of Maragheh, which is a city in the center of upper Azerbaijan, and the cities of Azerbaijan are: Ardabil, Barzand, Varthan, Barda', Shiz, Saraat, Marand, Tabriz, Miyaneh, Urmia, Khoy and Salmas. And the people of cities and regions of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Old Ajam (Persian Muslims) Azariyya and followers of Javidan.

Ahmad ibn Yaqubi (d. 897) in his work Al-Tarikh (The History) writes :Khazars took positions of all the cities of Armenia and they had king by the title of Khaghan. He had a successor whose name was Yazid Balash and he ruled upon Aran, Jurzan, Basfurjan, Sisjan and this province was called the Fourth Armenia which Kobad the Iranian king had won in battle.

Ahmad ibn Yaqubi quoted by the Arabian historian Abul Fida has stated: Armenia is divided into three parts. The first part encompasses QaliQala, Khilat, Shimshat and the territories in between them. The second part contains Jurzan, Tiflis and the city of Bab Al-lan. And the third part encompasses Barda which is the chief city in Aran, Bailakan and Darband.

Al-Istakhri, in 930, wrote:

In Aderbeijan, Armenia and Arran they speak Persian and Arabic, except for the area around the city of Dabil: they speak Armenian around that city, and in the country of Barda people speak Arranian.

Al-Muqaddasi (b. 945) lists the cities of Azerbaijan and Armenia and Aran: Al-Ran constitutes about one third of the region. it is like an island, between the lake and the River Al-Rass. The River Al-Malik (Kura) cuts through its length. Its capital is Bardha'a, and among its towns are Tiflis, Al-Qal'a, Khunan, Shamkur, Janza, Bardij, Al-Shamakhiya, Shirwan, Bakuh, Al-Sahabaran, Bab al-Abwab, Al-Abkhan(Abkhaz), Qabala, Shakki, Malazkird, Tabla. Arminiya is an important district. Its capital is Dabil, and among its towns are Bidlis, Khilat, Arjish, Barkari, Khuy, Salamas, Urmiya, Dakharraqan, Maragha, Ahar, Marand, Sanjan, Qaliqala, Qandariya, Qal'at, Yunus, Nurin. Azarbaijan: Its capital, and it is the metropolis of the region, is Ardabil. Among its towns are: Rasba, Tabriz, Jabirwan, Khunaj, Al-Miyanj, Al-Sarat, Barwa, Warthan, Muqan, Mimadh, Barzand.

Ibn Hawqal (943-977), the 10th century Arabian traveler gives an eyewitness account of his stay in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran. Fakhr ad-din Asad Gorgani, a 11th century poet, who rhymed the pre-Islamic story of Vis o Ramin into new Persian poetry, mentions Azerbaijan, Armenia and Aran in two couplets as the special domain of the princess vis Ḥamd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr Qazvīnī Mustawfi, in his Nuzhat al-qulub (d. 1339-40) also mentions Azerbaijan, Arran, Mughan, and Shirvan as different provinces. Bal'ami (946-973), the 10th century Persian court chronicler of Samanids, translated an abridged version of Tabari's history into Persian and wrote his own additional comments. He states : Fereydun divided his land amongst his three sons. The area of Turkestan and Khazar and Chinestan and the east were given to Tooj and he gave him the title Faghfur. The lands of Iraq, Basra, Baghdad, Waset, Persia, Sind, Hind and Yemen were given to Iraj and his territory was designated as Iranshahr. And the land of West, Rome, Siqlab, Azerbaijan and Aran and Karaj were all given to Salm and his title was Qaysar

Bala'ami also states: Azerbaijan’s border starts in Hamadan and passing through Abhar and Zanjan, ends in Darband of the Khazars. All of the citites in the middle of these (territories) are called Azerbaijan

Ibn Rusta, a 9th/10th century Persian explorer and geographer traveled to region and has mentioned the names of the districts and provinces. He writes in his famous book al-A'laq Al-Nafisah:

Iranshahr is divided amongst these regions: Khorasan, Sajestan, Kerman, Fars, Al-Ahwaz, Al-Jabal, Azerbaijan, Armaniya, Al-Mosul, Al-Jazira, Al-Sham and Surestan. ...The districts and cities of Azerbaijan are Ardabil, Marand, Bajarwan, Warthan, and Maraghah. ..The districts and cities of Armenia are Arran, Jurzan, Nashavi, Khilat, Dabil, Seraj, Soghdabil, Arjish, Sisajan, and the city of Bab al-Abwab.

The Hodud al-Alam, finished in 982, "considered Azerbaijan, Arran, and Armenia as the pleasantest of all the Islamic lands.'' It also states:

Another ricver, called Aras, rises on the eastern side of the Armenian mountains, from a place adjoining the Rum. Taking the eastern direction it flows on until, having skirted Vartan and followed the frontier between Adharbadhagan, Armenia, and Arran, it joins the Khazar sea.

Ali ibn al-Athir on the Mongol invasions (1163–1233):

...whence they marched on the towns of Adharbayjan and Arraniyya, destroying them and slaying most of their inhabitants, of whom none escaped save a small remnant; and all this in less than a year; this is a thing whereof the like has not been heard. And when they had finished with Adharbayjan and Arraniyya, they passed on to Darband-i-Shirwan, and occupied its cities, none of which escaped save the fortress wherein was their King;

Zakariya ibn Muhammad Qazvini (1208/1209-1283/1284), the writer of Athar Al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-'ibad writes :Azerbaijan is a wide region in the middle of Aran and Qahestan.

Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229), a Syrian born geographer is famous for his geography bible Mu'jam Al-Buldan. He states: According to Hamza 'Isfahan, Pahlavi (Middle Persian) ..is the language of the district of Fahlah. And Fahlah is composed of Esfahan, Ray, Hamadan, Mah Nahavand and Azerbaijan...Arran is a Persian name and is a wide land with many cities and one of its cities is Janza which people there call Ganja. Barda' and Shamkur and Beylaghan are its other cities. Between Azerbaijan and Aran there is a river which is called Aras. The region to the North and West of this river is Aran, and whatever lies to its south is Azerbaijan. ...Azar means fire in Pahlavi and Baykan means protector and holder. Thus the name means house of fire or protector of the fire. The boundaries of Azerbaijan is from Barda' to the east to Arzanjan to the west and to south, its boundaries are the lands of Deylam, Gilan and Tarom. And Azerbaijan is a wide and expansive land and its most famous city is Tabriz which is its center and most important city. Before that, its center was Maragheh. Among its cities are Khoy, Salmas, Urmia, Ardabil, Marand, and others.

Hamdollah Mostowfi (1281-1349 AD), Persian chronicler who worked for the Ilkhanid administration and was familiar with administrative affairs of his time writes: :

The distances from Tabriz to the various places in Adharbayjan are as follows; to Ujan 8 leagues; to Ardabil 30; to Ushnuyah 30; to Urmiyah 24; to Ahar 14; to Pishkin 18; to Khoi 20; to Salmas 18, but going round by Maraghah it is 26 leagues; to Sarav 20; to Maraghah 20; to Dih-Khwarqan 8; to Marand 15; and lastly to Nakhchivan 24 leagues. ... The Shirvan country extends from the bank of the Kura River to Darband of the Gate of Gates. The revenues thereof during the days of the Khans of Shirvan amounted to one million dinars of the money of our time; but at present, all that is inscribed on the registers is 113,000 dinars. Further in the matter of the military fiefs there are many of these in the divers districts. ... The Arran province is the land ''Between the Rivers'’ namely from the bank of the Aras to the river Kur.

The 17th century Persian dictionary/quasi-encyclopedia Burhan Qati' under the words Aras and Aran gives two definitions Aras: the name of a famous river which flows past Teflis and forms a boundary between Azerbaijan and Aran. Aran: It is a province from/of (Persian: از ) Azerbaijan, Barda' and Ganja are parts of its territories

In his book entitled The travels of Sir John Chardin, by the way of the Black Sea, through the countries of Circassia, Mingrelia, the country of the Abcas, Georgia, Armenia, and Media, into Persia proper, Sir John Chardin, a traveller from France who visited the Middle East at the end of the 17th century described Azerbaijan as follows:

Media, which formerly ruled all Asia with an imperial dominion, at present makes but one part of a province, though the largest in the Persian empire, called Azerbeyan or Asapaican. It borders on the east upon the Caspian Sea and Hyrcania, on the south upon Parthia, on the west upon Araxes and the Upper Armenia, of which Assyria is a part, and on the north on Dagestan, which is that mountainous country that borders upon the Muscovite Cossacks, and part of Mount Taurus. The Persians affirm, that the name of Azerbeyan implies, the country of fire, by reason of the famous temple of fire which was there erected, where was kept that fire which the fire-worshippers hold to be a god. Nimrod is said first to have brought in this worship, and there is a certain sect called Guebres which still maintain it.

Modern (18th, 19th, and 20th centuries)
William Jones, an English Historian and translator of Mirza Muhammad Mahdi Khan Astrabadi's Tarikh-i Jahangusha-yi Naderi (a history book written about Nader Shah) mentions Azerbaijan and its major cities in the preface, which include Tabriz and Ardabil. It also describes the major cities of Arran and Armenia, and Shirvan and Daghestan, which were Gangia and Erivan, and Baku, Shamakhi, and Derbent respectively. William Jones, Esq., The history of the life of Nader Shah, King of, Prinded by J. Richardson, MDCCLXXIII (1773). Some quotes from the book: ''AZARBIGIAN*, or Media, ARRAN or Atropatia, and ARMENA, or Armenia, are considered by some Eastern Geographers as One Province or Kingdom, and we may, therefore, describe them together. They are bounded on the east by part of Cuhistan, and the Caspian provinces, on the west, by Rum, or the lower Asia; on the north they have Georgia and Circassia, on the south, a canton of Mesopotamia, and Curdistan, part of the ancient Assyria. The most remarkable cities of Azarbigian are; 1. ARDEBIL, considered as sacred by the Persians, for containing the tombs of Sefiaddin and Heider, the venerable ancestors of the Sefi family. 2. TABRIZ, commonly called Tauris, which, in the last century, was a large and beautiful city, but has been much impaired during the late disorders in Persia: it stands at the foot of a mountain, which the Greeks called Orontes, a word cor¬rupted, perhaps, from Orond; and a small river winds through its streets''

..

''The great cities of Arran and Armenia are, GANGIA, and ERIVAN, its Capital, a large but unpleasant town, without any fine edifice in it, or any other ornament than a number of gardens, and vineyards. Some Geographers, and among them the prince of Hamah, place in Armenia the cities which we consider as belonging to Georgia or Gurgistan; these are SHAMCUR, and TEFLIS, a city not large but tolerably elegant: it is washed on the eastern side by the river Ker or Cyrs, and defended on the other sides by strong and beautiful walls.''

..

''SHIRVAN and DAGHESTAN or The country of rocks... The cities of Shirvan are, 1. BACU, a port on the Caspian lake, whence it is called the Sea of Bacu: 2. SHAMAKHI, a city well known to the Russians: and 3. DERBEND or the barrier, which stands at the foot of Mount Caucasus or Keitaf, and commands the Caspian: this place was called by the ancients Caspiæ portæ, by the Turks, Demir Capi, or, the gate of iron, and by the Arabs, Babelabwab or the important passage. It was anciently considered as the boundary of the Persian Empire, and an old king of Persia built to the north of it a vast wall, like that of China, which has been repaired at different times, in order to prevent the incursions of the Khozars, and other savage nations, who infested the rocks between the Caspian and Euxine seas. In A System of Geography'', published in 1832, the Asiatic Caucasian provinces of Russia are called Daghistan, Shirwan, and Aran. Persia's boundary is limited to the Araxes, and the land below the Araxes is labeled as Azerbaijan.

Keith Abbot, British Consular General in Persia, wrote in the Memorandum on the Country of Azerbaijan in 1863:

The country known to the Persians as Azerbaijan is divided between them and Russia, the latter Power possessing about five-eighths of the whole, which may be roughly stated to cover an area of about 80000 sqmi, or about the size of Great Britain; 50000 sqmi are therefore about the extent of the division belonging to Russia, and 30,000 of that which remains to Persia.

The Russian division is bounded on the north and north-east by the mountains of Caucasus, extending to the vicinity of Bakou on the Caspian. On the west it has the provinces of Imeritia, Mingrelia, Gooriel, and Ahkhiska (now belonging to Russia); on the east it has the Caspian Sea, and on the south the boundary is marked by the course of the River Arrass (Araxes) to near the 46 th parallel of longitude, thence by a conventional line across the plains of Moghan to the district of Talish, and by the small stream of Astura which flows to the Caspian through the latter country. In this area are contained the following territorial divisions: - Georgia or Goorjistan, comprising Kakhetty, Kartaliny, Somekhetty, Kasakh; the Mohammedan countries of Eriwan, Nakhshewan, Karabagh, Ghenja, Shirwan, Shekky, Shamachy, Bakou, Koobeh, Salian and a portion of Talish. Georgia is traversed by the River Koor (Cyrus), a stream of no commercial importance, since it is not navigable except by boats. .. The population of Russian Azerbaijan consists of mixed races... The country included in these boundaries and, perhaps a large part, if not all, of Russian Azerbaijan recognized as Medea Atropotena in ancient geography.

Charles Anthon (d. 1888) writes:

Atropatia or Atropatene, a name given to the North Western part of Media, between Mount Tauris and the Caspian Sea. It received its name from Atropates...it is now called Aderbigian from the Persian term Ader, signifying fire; according to the tradition that Zerdust or Zoroaster lighted a pyre, or temple of fire, in a city named Urmia, of his native country. Its metropolis was Gaza, now Tebriz, or as it is more commonly pronounced, Tauris.

Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, published in 1890, states the following in the article called "Azerbeijan":

Azerbeijan, or Aderbeijan — fire land; 'Atrupatkan' in Pahlavi and 'Aderbadekan' in Armenian, is the north-westernmost province and the richest trade and industrial region of Persia. It borders Persian Kurdistan and Iraq of Adjam (Media) to the south, Turkish Kurdistan and Armenia to the west, Russian Armenia (Southern Transcaucasia), from which it is separated by the Aras River, to the north, Russian province of Tashil to the east and Persian province of Gilan near the Caspian sea.

The Methodist Magazine and Review (d. 1900) states:

The boundaries of Armenia have varied at different periods, but, without attempting precision, it may be said to have the Caucasus on the North and the Mountains of Kurdistan on the South, the Caspian Sea on the East, and Asia Minor on the West.

According to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (d. 1901):

Description of Marvels in various parts of Iran: -In Khurasan, Kumis, Mazandaran, and Kuhistan, 243n; in 'Irak 'Ajam, Kurdistan, Luristan, and Gilan, 243s; in Fars, Kirman, and Shabankarah, 246e; in Adharbayjan, Mughan, Arran, and Shirvan, 247;...Mughan or Mukan is still the name of the Steppe country lying south of the lower course of the Aras river. ...The territory of Arran, which the Arab geographers always spell Al-Ran (pronounced Ar-Ran), as though it were an Arabic name, is the triangle of land included between the rivers Aras and Kur - the Arazes and Cyrus....The province of Shirvan lay to the north of the Kur river, and extended to the foot of that part of the Caucasus range known to Moslem geographers as Darban-i-Bab-al-Abwab - 'the Barrier of the Gate of Gates.' Bakuyah, or Baku, was its port on the Caspian, and Shamakhi inland - now called Shemakha - was the capital city...

'The Nuttall Encyclopædia'' (d. 1907) states:

Azerbaijan (2,000), prov. of Armenian Persia, S. of the river Aras, with fertile plains, cattle-breeding, and rich in minerals.

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (d. 1908) states:

Armenia is a country situated in western Asia between the Black and Caspian Seas and the Taurus and Caucasus Mountains.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (d. 1911), states the following in the article called "Azerbaijan":

AZERBAIJAN (also spelt ADERBIJAN; the Azerbadegan of medieval writers, the Athropatakan and Atropatene of the ancients), the north-western and most important province of Persia. It is separated from Russian territory on the N. by the river Aras (Araxes), while it has the Caspian Sea, Gilan and Khamseh (Zenjan) on the E., Kurdistan on the S., and Asiatic Turkey on the W.

Also, according to The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (d. 1908), Persia: The Land of the Magi (d. 1913), and The Foreign Doctor: A Biography of Joseph Plumb Cochran, M.D. of Persia  (d. 1917), Azerbaijan is described as a province of Persia. In Persian, the word is translatable to both "the treasury" and "the treasurer" of fire.

Assessments of modern scholars
According to Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world:

Originally, Media Atropatene was the north part of greater Media. To the north, it was separated from Armenia by R. Araxes. To the east, it extended as far as the mountains along Caspian Sea, and to the west as far as Lake Urmia (ancient Matiane Limne) and mountains of present-day Kurdistan.

According to Professor of History Muriel Atkin :

In referring to the disputed border zone, I have used the term "eastern Caucasus" rather than the Russian name Transcaucasia or the Iranian names Azerbaijan and Daghestan. Eastern Caucasus is a polically neutral term describing the location of the kingdom of Kartlo-Kakheti, known as Georgia, and the Muslim-ruled khanates that had been part of Iran and became part of Russia. In contrast, Transcaucasia reflects a Russian perspective, while the Iranian names, apart from presuming that country's hegemony over the region at a time when that was hotly contested, are subject to confusingly different interpretations. In Safavi times, Azerbaijan was applied to all the Muslim-ruled khanates of the eastern Caucasus as well as to the area south of the Aras River as far as the Qezel Uzan River, the latter region being approximately the same as the modern Iranian ostans of East and West Azerbaijan. It seemed clearer to me to use Azerbaijan only for the southern part of the province that has remained under Iranian control.

According to Professor. George Bourtounian : The use of the term "Azerbaijan" requires clarification, as well. Although Azerbaijan was a geographical entity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term was only used to identify the province in northwestern Persia. The Safavids, at one time, for revenue purposes, included some of the lands north of the Arax River as part of the province of Azerbaijan. This practice gradually fell out of use after the fall of the Safavids. To Mirza Jamal and Mirza Adigozal Beg, as well as other eighteenth and nineteenth-century authors, Azerbaijan referred to the region located south of the Arax River.

According to Vladimir Minorsky:

The territory of the present-day Soviet republic of Azarbayjan roughly corresponds to the ancient Caucasian Albania (in Armenian Alovan-k', or Alvan-k', in Arabic Arran > al-Ran)

According to Professor Tadeusz Swietochowski:

Azerbaijan is the name of the land populated today by the Azeri Turks, the people who inhabit the region stretching from the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains along the Caspian Sea to the Iranian plateau. As a political or administrative unit, and indeed as a geographic notion, Azerbaijan's boundaries were changing throughout history. Its northern part, on the left bank of the Araxes River, was known at times under different names – Caucasian Albania in the pre-Islamic period, and, subsequently, Arran. From the time of ancient Media and the Achaemenid Kingdom, Azerbaijan usually shared its history with Iran.

According to C.E. Bosworth:

The influx of Oghuz and other Türkmens was accentuated by the Mongol invasions. Barda'a had never revived fully after the Rus sacking, and is little mentioned in the sources. It seems to have been replaced as the capital of Arran by Baylaqan, but this was in turn sacked by the Mongols en route for Shervan and Darband in spring 1221; after this, Ganja, the later Elizavetopol and now Kirovabd, rose to prominence, the southern part of Arran now becoming known as Qarabag. The old name Arran drops out of use, and the history and fortunes of the region now merge into those of Azerbaijan.''

According to Professor Xavier De Planhol:

The imprecise and sometimes contradictory information given by Yaqut in the beginning of the 7th/13th century, occasionally extends Azerbaijan to the west to Erzinjan (Arzanjan). On the other hand in certain passages, he annexes to it, in addition to the steppes of Mogan, all of the province of Arran, bringing the frontier of the country up to Kor, indicating, however, that from this period the conception of Azerbaijan tended to be extended to the north and that its meaning was being rapidly transformed.

According to Professor Ben Fowkes:

In fact, in medieval times the name 'Azarbaijan' was applied not to the area of present independent Azerbaijan but to the lands to the south of Araxes river, now part of Iran. The lands to the north west of the Araxes were known as Albania; the lands to the north east, the heart of present-day post-Soviet Azerbaijan, were known as Sharvan (or Shirwan) and Derbent''

According Professor Bert. G. Franger :

In the case of Azerbaijan, there is another irrational assault on sober treatment of history to be witnessed: its denomination. The borders of historical Azerbaijan crossed the Araxcs to the north only in the case of the territory of Nakhichevan. Prior to 1918, even Lenkoran and Astara were perceived as belonging not to Azerbaijan proper but to Talysh, an area closely linked to the Caspian territory of Gilan. Since antiquity, Azerbaijan has been considered as the region centered around Tabriz, Ardabil, Maraghch, Orumiych and Zanjan in today's (and also in historical) Iran. The homonym republic consists of a number of political areas traditionally called Arran. Shirvan, Sheki, Ganjeh and so on. They never belonged to historical Azerbaijan, which dates back to post-Achaemcnid, Alexandrian 'Media Atropatene'. Azerbaijan gained extreme importance under (and after) the Mongol Ilkhanids of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when it was regarded as the heartland of Iran.

...

Under Soviet auspices and in accordance with Soviet nationalism, historical Azerbaijan proper was reinterpreted as 'Southern Azerbaijan', with demands for liberation and, eventually, for 'reunification with Northern (Soviet) Azerbaijan a breathtaking manipulation. No need to point to concrete Soviet political activities in this direction, as in 1945-46 etc. The really interesting point is that in the independent former Soviet republics this typically Soviet ideological pattern has long outlasted the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan as the name of an independent republic
Tadeusz Swietochowski comments on the Czarist reforms during the 19th century :For all the built-in pitfalls in Russian administrative reforms, it was also apparent that these reforms enhanced its internal consolidation of Azerbaijan in at least two important respects: the dismantling of Khanates weakened deeply rooted local particularisms, and the formation of the two gubernias of Eastern Transcaucasia resulted in territorial block that the “Shirvanis” or “Arranis” would regard as the core of their homeland. Even the term Azerbaijan, although seldom used for the territory north of Araxes, began to appear in the works of European scholars or journalists.

With the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917, the Musavat Party met in Tbilisi on May 28, 1918 and proclaimed independence of their country with the name Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Tadeusz Swietochowski also comments on the Iranian reaction and subsequent response from the new government :Although the proclamation restricted its claim to the territory north of the Araxes, the use of the name Azerbaijan would soon bring objections from Iran. In Teheran, suspicions were aroused that the Republic of Azerbaijan served as an Ottoman device for detaching the Tabriz province from Iran. Likewise, the national revolutionary Jangali movement in Gilan, while welcoming the independence of every Muslim land as a "source of joy", asked in its newspaper if the choice of the name Azerbaijan implied the new republic's desire to join Iran. If so, they said, it should be stated clearly, otherwise Iranians would be opposed to calling that republic Azerbaijan. Consequently, to allay Iranian fears, the Azerbaijani government would accommodatingly use the term Caucasian Azerbaijan in its documents for circulation abroad.

He also states:

What is now the Azerbaijan Republic was known as Caucasian Albania in the pre-Islamic period, and later as Arran. From the time of ancient Media (ninth to seventh centuries b.c.) and the Persian Empire (sixth to fourth centuries b.c.), Azerbaijan usually shared the history of what is now Iran.

According to Igor M. Diakonoff:

Until the twentieth century, the term Azerbaijan (a late form of the term Atropatene derived from the name Atropates, satrap and later king of Western Media at the end of the fourth century BC) was used solely for the Turkic-speaking regions of North-Western Iran. When, in 1918-1920, the power in Eastern Transcaucasia (Shirvan, etc.) was taken over by the party of Musavatists, they gave to their state the name ‘Azerbaijan’, hoping to unite it with Iranian Azerbaijan, or Azerbaijan in the original sense of the term; that territory had much greater Turkic population; the Musavatists relied on the state of complete political disintegration of Iran at that period, and hoped to easily annex Iranian Azerbaijan into their state. Until the twentieth century, the ancestors of the present-day Azerbaijanis called themselves Turki, while the Russians called them Tatars, not distinguishing them from the Volga Tatars. The Azerbaijani language belongs to the Oghuz branch of Turkic; the Volga Tatar language belongs to the Kipchak branch of Turkic.

According to Vladimir Minorsky:

Historically the territory of the republic corresponds to the Albania of the classical authors (Strabo, xi, 4; Ptolemy, v, 11), or in Armenian Alvan-k, and in Arabic Arran. The part of the republic lying north of the Kur (Kura) formed the kingdom of Sharwan (later Shirwan). After the collapse of the Imperial Russian army Baku was protectively occupied by the Allies (General Dunsterville, 17 August-14 September 1918) on behalf of Russia. The Turkish troops under Nuri Pasha occupied Baku on 15 September 1918 and reorganized the former province under the name of Azarbayd̲j̲ān—as it was explained, in view of the similarity of its Turkish-speaking population with the Turkish-speaking population of the Persian province of Ādharbaydjān.

Vasily Bartold has stated:

Shirvan is not used that way, to encompass the territory of the now day Azerbaijan Republic. Shirvan is "not that big" with the main city of Shemakha, cities like Ganja and others were never part of Shirvan, and whenever it is necessary to choose a name that will encompass all regions of the republic of Azerbaijan, the name Aran can be chosen. But the term Azerbaijan was chosen because when the Azerbaijan republic was created, it was assumed that this and the Persian Azerbaijan will be one entity, because the population of both has a big similarity. On this basis, the word Azerbaijan was chosen. Of course right now when the word Azerbaijan is used it has two meanings as Persian Azerbaijan and as a republic, its confusing and a questions rises as to which Azerbaijan is being talked about.

Terminology today
Today the name Azerbaijan is used to denote both the Republic of Azerbaijan and the north western provinces of Iran, which are East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan. During the Soviet era, the name 'Southern Azerbaijan' was created and propagated throughout the USSR. The USSR also created two organizations for separating the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan from Iran. Today, the nomenclature South Azerbaijan is used by some politicians in the Republic of Azerbaijan and some groups advocating separatism of Iranian Azerbaijan. At the same time, the heavily Kurdish populated province of West Azerbaijan in Iran has also been called East Kurdistan(Rojhelat) by some Kurdish political groups and this nomenclature has also been used by some western sources.

Azerbaijani people
Historically the Turkic-speaking people of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus often called themselves or were referred to by some neighboring peoples (e.g. Persians) as Turks, and religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When Transcaucasia became part of the Russian empire, Russian authorities, who traditionally called all Turkic people Tatars, called them Aderbeijani/Azerbaijani or Caucasian Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic people, also called Tatars by Russians. The Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary also refers to Azerbaijanis as Aderbeijans in some articles. According to the article "Turko-Tatars" of the above encyclopedia, “some scholars (Yadrintsev, Kharuzin, Chantre) suggested to change the terminology of some Turko-Tatar people, who somatically don’t have much in common with Turks, for instance, to call Aderbaijani Tatars (Iranians by type) Aderbaijans”. The modern ethnonym Azerbaijani/Azeri, in its present form, was accepted in 1930s.

7th
Jābir ibn Hayyān 721-815 al-Khwārizmī 780-850

9th
Al-Kindi 801-873 Abu Zayd al-Balkhi 850-934 Farabi 872-950

10th
Ferdowsi 940-1020 Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī 973-1048 Avicenna 980-1037 Abu Nasr Mansur 970-1036 Alhazen 965-1039

11th
Muhammad al-Idrisi 1099-1160

13th
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi 1201-1274

16th
Mulla Sadra 1571-1641

17th
Mir Damad d.1632

mahdi born 869

minor occultation 874 to 941

Kulayni 864-941

al-Mufid (948-1022)

al-Murtadha (965-1044)

al-Radhi (970-1015)

al-Saduq (918-991)

Qummi, Ali ibn Babwayh (??-940)

Tusi, Abu Ja‘far (995-1067)

Theologians

 * Al-Shaykh al-Saduq
 * Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid
 * Al-Sharif al-Radi
 * al-Sharif al-Murtada
 * Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
 * Shaykh Tusi
 * Al-Hurr al-Aamili
 * Shahid Awwal
 * Shahid Thani
 * Qazi Nurullah Shustari
 * Shahid Thani
 * Shahid Rabay
 * Maitham Al Bahrani 13th-century cleric and theologian
 * Al-Hilli 13th-century cleric and theologian

Scientists, mathematicians and philosophers

 * Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali -was a close companion of Imam Ali and grammarian. he was the first to place dots on the Arabic Words and the first to write on Arabic linguistics.


 * Abu Zayd al-Balkhi Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist.
 * Al-Kindi - Iraqi and Arab Polymath
 * Jabir ibn Hayyan- Persian polymath ; known as the father of chemistry
 * Abu Ali Sina- Persian polymath; also known as Avicenna to the West
 * Al-Khwārizmī - polymath; regarded as the father of algebra and algorithm
 * Al-Farabi -Muslim polymath and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of Persia and the Islamic world in his time. He was also a cosmologist, logician, musician, psychologist and sociologist.
 * Abu Nasr Mansur - known for his work with the spherical sine law
 * Muhammad al-Idrisi Islamic geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist descendant of the Idrisid dynasty.
 * al-Biruni - polymath; regarded as the father of geodesy, the founder of Indology, the "first anthropologist" and "one of the greatest scientists of all times"
 * Alhazen -Iraqi polymath; regarded as father of optics for his Book of Optics, as well as the founder of experimental psychology and experimental physics
 * Khalil ibn Ahmad -Iraqi Arab philologist and linguist.
 * Sibawayh -linguist.
 * Ahmed ibn Yusuf -Iraqi Arab mathematician.
 * Abū Sahl al-Qūhī -Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer.
 * Ibn Miskawayh - philosopher and scientist; described the process of evolution in the tenth century
 * Ferdowsi - poet, author of Shahnameh the national epic of Iran
 * Abu Mikhnaf -Iraqi Arab Muslim historian.
 * Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi -Iraqi Arab Muslim historian.
 * Ya'qubi -Iraqi Muslim historian and geographer.
 * Ahmad ibn A'zham -Iraqi Muslim historian.
 * Al-Masudi -Iraqi Arab historian and geographer known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs.
 * Ibn al-Nadim -Iraqi historian.
 * Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī Arab Muslim geographer, poet, grammarian, historian, and astronomer
 * Ibn Wahshiyya Nabataean Arab writer, alchemist, agriculturalist, Egyptologist and historian
 * Abolfadl Harawi -Iranian Muslim astronomer.
 * Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi -Iranian Muslim astronomer, mathematician.
 * Al-Birjandi -Iranian Muslim astronomer.
 * Abū Ja'far al-Khāzin Persian Muslim astronomer and mathematician.
 * Ibn Hawqal Arab writer, geographer, and chronicler
 * Qadi al-Nu'man Isma'ili jurist and the official historian of the Fatimid caliphs.
 * Ibn Yunus Egyptian Muslim astronomer and mathematician.
 * Ali ibn Ridwan Egyptian Muslim physician, astrologer and astronomerphilosopher.
 * Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani Persianphilosopher.
 * Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī - astronomer, mathematician.
 * Nasir al-Din al-Tusi - astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, Early Islamic philosopher, physician and marja; early pioneer of biological evolution.
 * Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi -Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician, architect and engineer.
 * Ibn al-Tiqtaqa -Iraqi Arab Muslim historian.
 * Baha' ad-Din al-`Amili - Lebanese Muslim scholar, philosopher, architect, mathematician.
 * Iskandar Beg Munshi -court historian of the Safavid emperor Shah Abbas I.
 * Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi -chief secretary, historian, biographer, advisor, strategist.
 * Mulla Sadra - philosopher, founder of existentialism and transcendent theosophy
 * Mir Damad -Iranian philosopher
 * Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah electrical and electronics research engineer, mathematician and inventor.
 * Rammal Rammal
 * Allama Rasheed Turabi-Hyderabad, India later migrated to Pakistan theologian, scholar, philosopher
 * Kazem Behbehani -Kuwaiti immunologist and retired professor. He has done research on tropical diseases before he became International Health Advocat at WHO.
 * Hani Al-Mazeedi -Kuwaiti scholar.
 * Lotfi Asker Zadeh Iranian computer scientist; founder of Fuzzy Mathematics and fuzzy set theory.
 * Wissam S. al-Hashimi Iraqi geologist.
 * Jim Al-Khalili Iraqi theoretical nuclear physicist, academic, author and broadcaster.
 * Husain Mohammad Jafri
 * Samad Rizvi
 * Athar Ali
 * Pervez Hoodbhoy
 * Asad Ali Abadi
 * Agha Shahi
 * Razi Abedi
 * Nayyar Ali Zaidi
 * Naveed Zaidi
 * Kalbe Razi Naqvi
 * Syed Tanzeem Hussain Naqvi