History of Azerbaijan

Historical territory of Azerbaijan covers huge areas including in itself Darband city and Great Caucasus range in the North, Easteran Anatolia, Eastern Georgia in the West, Sultaniyye - Hamadan - Zanjan in the South and Caspian Sea in the East. These territories were inhabitated by different tribes during history and formatted Azerbaijani nation. Nowadays, more than 50 million Azerbaijanis live in the borders of mentioned above territories and outside of homeland. Azerbaijanis made extraordinary commitments the world human advancement living in the region of Azerbaijan for a large number of years. Wars, upheavals, military clashes, social-political procedures on the planet destructed Azerbaijan, a portion of the Azerbaijanis asked to leave their properties, expelled, left their nation with the reason to discover a work, and to get training and settled in various nations. Today Azerbaijanis live in each side of the world. The history of Solidarity Day of World Azerbaijanis sta...

After collapse of Nadir shah Afshar empire in the territories of Azerbaijan were formed little feudal states called khanate. These khanates were fighting each other, and some of them wanted to unite Azerbaijan. But their efforts were not enough for this idea.  One of the khanates was Tabriz. This city played great role in Azerbaijan history  as well as in Middle East. Tabriz city was the capital of many big states formed in Middle East. During the rules ofHulakid, Aghkoyunlu, Safevid and other states Tabriz was considered as the main city and capital. But Tabriz khanate was not so strong, and couldn't play its role in the unification of Azerbaijan. So, in the first quarter of XIX century Azerbaijan was the territory where Gajars dynasty and Russian empire were fighting. There occured two Russian - Iranian wars, after that historical territories of Azerbaijan was divided into two parts. Most part, including Tabriz city was given to Iran according to Gulustan and Turkmanchay...

It is the image of key of the Shusha fortress. Shusha is one of the ancient towns of Azerbaijan. It was destroyed during mongol conquests of the country. But later on in 1751 khan of Karabakh Panahali built new fortress there. Karabakh was independent after the collapse of Nadeer shah Afshar empire. So, its first head Panahalu khan pay attention to establish strong defence. He built three towers and one of them was Shusha. It is made of mostly river stones, cobble stones and plasters. It had three gates - Ganja, Erivan, and Aghoghlan gates are the entrances to the city.  The key we see on photo was given to Russian army as the symbol of accepting the Russian power. In 1805 Karabakh khanate and Russian empire was signed Kurekchay treaty. According this treaty Karabakh was accepting Russian imperial authority, but also was keeping its internal independence. So, after the agreement keys of the fortresses were given to Russian military forces.  Now, the key if Shusha fortres...

Photo below is the image of bridge which is situated on the river Tartar. It is im the centre of Barda city of Azerbaijan. According to historical sources bridge was built in the VI-VII  centuries AC. At that times Barda was one of the main cities in Azerbaijan which was the capital of Albanian state, and later became adminstrative centre of Arran region of Arab caliphate.  Tartar river was dividing Barda into two parts. Though ancient Barda city was bigger than modern Barda, now Barda city is divided into two parts by Tartar river, too. So there is new bridge there. Ancient bridge was built with fired bricks. Length of bridge was 170 m, and width 5 m. In historical period Tartar river changed its routes several times. So, some parts of bridge was destroyed by river flow. Only small part of this bridge now remaining. It is located on the right bank of Tartar river. In this coast of the river there is modern boulevard which local people and tourists come to rest and watch h...

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.

ОРНАМЕНТЫ КЕРАМИКИ ПЕРИОДА ПОЗДНЕЙ БРОНЗЫ В АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНЕ Ключевые слова : Период поздней бронзы, орнаменты, керамика Территория Каваказа с древних пор играет роль моста соединяющего цивилизации Востока и Запада. Люди начали заселять эту территорию уже с периода палеолита. На территории Кавказа,и в частности в Азербайджане, который был центром возникновения нескольких археологических культур, протекали важные исторические процессы . Предметом изучения археологов, являются сложившиеся в период поздней бронзы Ходжалы-Кедабекская и Муганская археологические культуры . Характерной чертой этих культур, как и культур, более раннего периода, являются особенности керамики. Керамика периода поздней бронзы, наряду с орнаментами, дающими нам представление о культурной и духовной жизни, содержит также сведения о быте людей того периода. Ареал распространения Ходжалы-Кедабекской культуры охватывает западную часть Азербайджана-Гарабаг, Гянджа-Газахскую зону, а также прилегающие к Азер...

The Maiden Tower or Giz Galasi is one of the symbols of Baku city, the capital of Azerbaijan Republic. Giz Galasi is used to date to the 12th century. But researches are continuing and shows that at least Maiden Tower was built in the 6th century BC. In the 12th century it was rebuilt or restored. And it was reconstructed by Masud Davudoghlu (one of the famous architect of that period). Height of the Maiden Tower is 28 m. Interesting point of that is the foot of Giz Galasi is 28 m below the level of World Ocean.  The use of Tower is still arguable. Some researchers say it was a temple, some think it was observatory while others argue on it was defence tower.  Nowadays, Giz Galasi is one of the touristic side in Baku, where in it operate museum. On the top of tower there is nice view of Baku city and Caspian Sea.

Bast or Bastet was ancient Egyptian goddess. According to  Wikipedia  Bast worshiped from the Second Dynasty period. She was the symbol of home, domesticity, fertility, women's secret, childbirth and cats. She protected house, women and children from evil spritis and diseases. Bast was one of the daughters of Egyptian sun god, Ra. The cat was the symbol of Bast. There were found lots of cat statues during archaeological excavations in Egypt. Also, there was found Bast figure from Ganja city, Azerbaijan. It is dated to the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. This little figure is exhibited in the exposition of National Museum of Azerbaijani History. The photo below is the Bast figure found from Ganja.

Keywords: Late Bronze Age, Khojaly-Gedabey culture, zoomorphic ornaments, ceramics, pottery           The Bronze Age is an important period of Primitive Communal System, lasted more than three thousand years in Azerbaijan territory.Some essential changes in human’s life took place over this historical stage.It has to notice as the beginning human’s ability to learn pottery techniques with the help of pottery wheel and decoration of ceramics with certain descriptions by painting or carving among these changes.Generally, Bronze Age, which divides 3 periods are represented four great cultures itself. Naturally, differences among the cultures are observed on ceramic patterns.Khojaly-Gedabey, Nakhchivan and Talysh-Mughan archaeological cultures are spanned in The Late Bronze Age in the territory of Azerbaijan.           Khojaly-Gedabey culture covers the period from the middle of I...

One of the biggest massacres in the XX century was Khojaly genocide. In the 22nd of February of 1992 Khojaly village was destroyed and its inhabitants were killed. It was one of the tragedies of humankind.  #JusticeforKhojaly #justiceforkhojaly

After collapse of the empire of Alexander The Great in South Azerbaijan was formated state under rule of Atropat. State was called Atropatena after the name of its establisher king. Many centuries this kingdom lasted its existence and dynasty of Atropatis sovereigned there. Most scholars agree that the name of Azerbaijan comes from Atropatena, since it is changed form of that word. In Early Medieval Period territory was called as Aturpatakan, Adurbadagan, Adarbadagan. And aftar arab invasion as letter -"d' doesn't exist in arabic alphabet territory was used to write as Azerbaijan. And after some times territories from Darband city in the north till Hamadan in the south, Caspian Sea in the east till Eastern Anatolia in the west was called Azerbaijan. Coin minted after name of King Dari Atropati

In 1918 bolshevik troops who get control in Baku and other eastern parts of Azerbaijan began massacres of Azerbaijani people. The head of bolsheviks was armenian murderer Shaumyan. The genocide was started in 29th of March. In 31st of March in 1918 there was terrible massacres in Baku city. The genocide continued till September 15. When the troops of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and Qafqaz Islamic Army destroyed bolshevik terrorists and entered Baku massacres of Azerbaijani people stopped. National Tricolor flag was raised in Baku. In the result of 1918 genocide 70 thousand people were killed by bolsheviks and armenians.  Every year in 31st of March we recognize the victims of genocide. 

 Qobustan qoruğunda Böyükdaş dağının Yuxarı Terrasında 29 №-li qayanın üzərində aşkar olunmuş ovçu rəsmləri.  Hunter drawings discovered on rock № 29 in the Upper Terrace of Beyukdash mountain in Gobustan preserve.   Рисунки охотников обнаруженные в заповеднике Гобустана в верхней террасе горы Беюкдаша на скале №29. Ovçu qadın. Hunter woman. Жэнщина охотница.