History of Azerbaijan

Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan is the city which units East and West cultures in itself. If you walk in city you can observe mix of Islamic world and modern European culture. Ancient  modern and postmodern buildings are built in Baku during its existence. One of these buildings is the complex of Flame Towers. The complex with three buildings is the biggest in country. Construction of Flame Towers  started in 2007 and continued till 2012. The buildings consist of apartments, office blocks and a hotel. The facades of the three Flame Towers functuion as large display screen with more than ten thousand LED luminaires.

Trepanated skull was found in Aghdam region of Azerbaijan. In 1985 archaeological expedition to Chalaghantepe Chalcolithic settlement unearthed this wonderful artefact. The head of excavations was Ideal Narimanov, one of the leaders of Azerbaijani archaeology. Researches of skull show that it is most probably skull of woman. I. Narimanov thinks the operation was done by the surgery knife made of flint. We can observe traces of operationin near the broken lines of skull in the top part.  Artefact dating to the mid of V millenium BC. Nowadays it is being exhibited in The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan. 

Shahryeri is a historical - archaeological site in South Azerbaijan, nowadays, Sabalan ostan of Iran Islamic Republic. It is situated in the province Meshkin. Shaharyeri site is about  60 km to the west from Meshkin city. The area is one of the ancient settlements where exist many archaeological and historical monuments. In this region, there are also rock art sites which are waiting to be discovered by scholars - archaeologists. Most of them can be dated back to the Bronze age. Shaharyeri monument is believed to go back to the period of Urartu state. And there is a version that at that time Urartu occupied this territory and fired Shaharyeri. There are stone sculptures which look like stone balbals, but I suppose that they are more ancient than balbals. During our visit to Shaharyeri Iranian friends talked a lot of information about Shahryeri site. But, unfortunately, they were not scientifically proved and was the words of people who love their region. Hope one day to go back...

Photo credit: S. Mikayilova  Covering north and north-east regions of Azerbaijan territory Shirvanshahs` state was one of the long-lasting states in the history of Azerbaijani. Shamakhi, Baku, Shabran, Bandovan, Darband were the biggest cities and cultural centers of Shirvanshahs` state. Shamakhi was the first capital of the state, after the earthquake happened in 1192 they moved the capital to Baku. But Shamakhi was keeping its cultural dominance during the ages. During the archaeological excavations held in the cities of Shirvanshahs were found many artifacts showing us the life in the Medieval Ages in Azerbaijan. We can observe daily, agricultural, religious life, also craftsmanship with the help of archaeological finds. Craftsmen making handicrafts sometimes put some inscriptions on it. There are lots of epigraphic inscriptions on artifacts which are related to Shirvanshahs state. But mostly inscriptions were written on the stones. It could be pillars, pedestal...

From 28 of July, 2018 in Barda starts new excavation season by leading of Dr. P. Wordsworth from Oxford University. Barda is one of the ancient cities of Azerbaijan and it is rich for its culture. Barda was capital of Albania state which formed in Northern Azerbaijan. So, it has great archaeological perspectives. But, Barda's history isn't limited only with Albania. After arab occupation life continued here. Untill Mongols come and destroy most cities Barda could keep its existance. In Caliphate period many arabian travellers came to Azerbaijan and wrote about this country and cities. There are lots of information about Barda city, too. In one of the writings Barda was called "Mother of Arran". Arran was the territory of Northern Azerbaijan from nowadays  Tbilisi to the Caspian Sea. Another arabian author who had been to Azerbaijan in the 20s of X century al-Estakhri writes: "After Esfehan and Rey there is no other city which has fertile lands and conve...

Nizami Ganjavi was great Azerbaijani poet, born in Ganja city. He wrote five poems which together they are called "Khamsa", means five from arabic language. One of leader-creaters of our Republic Mahammad Emin Rasulzade wrote a book to the honor of Nizami Ganjavi. Book  is called "Azərbaycan şairi Nizami", in English means "Azerbaijani poet Nizami". The book was written for 800 years anniversary of the great poet. Book was published in 1951, in Ankara city of Turkey Republic, where M. E. Rasulzade migrated after the occupation of Azerbaijan Republic by bolshevik Russia in 1920. You can see photo of that book with the autograph of great leader M. E. Rasulzade.  The book is being exhibited in The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan. 

The map included to this blogpost was published in 1910 in Saint Petersburg, the capital of Russian empire. "A. F. Marks spciety" made big geographical atlas. It was named "Mark's Big World Table Atlas". That included in itself many maps of those times. Why we show this map in post. The main reason is that when we observe in this map - which were made by Russian geographers in Saint Petersburg - toponyms of modern Armenia are all in Azerbaijani language. There is no any Armenian words in the map in 1910. After Soviet occupatian of Azerbaijan, and creating Armenia SSR in the lands of Azerbaijan these toponyms were changed and armenized. The map is being exhibited in the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan.