Azerbaijanis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Azeri redirects here. For other uses, see Azeri (disambiguation).
This article is about the Azerbaijani ethnic group. For an analysis of the
population of the Republic of Azerbaijan, see Demographics of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijanis
Az?rbaycanlilar, Az?ril?r
??????????????? ??????
Azerigirls.JPG
Azerbaijani girls in traditional dresses
Total population
c. 30-35 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Iran more than 15 million (Encyclopdia Britannica)[2]
12.918 million (CIA factbook,[3] Knppel,[4] Izady,[5] Swietochowski[6])
1827 million (e.g. Elling,[7] Shaffer,[8] Minahan,[9] Gheissari[10])
Azerbaijan 9,100,000[11]
Russia 603,0701,500,000[12][13]
Turkey 530,000800,000[13][14]
Georgia 233,178[15]
Israel 100,000[16]
Kazakhstan 85,292[17]
France 70,000[18]
Ukraine 45,176[19]
Uzbekistan 44,400[20]
Turkmenistan 33,365[21]
United States 24,377400,000[22][23][24]
Netherlands 18,000[25]
Kyrgyzstan 17,823[26]
Germany 15,219[27]
United Arab Emirates 7,000[28]
United Kingdom 6,220[29]
Belarus 5,567[30]
Canada 4,580[31]
Sweden 2,935[32]
Latvia 1,657[33]
Austria 1,000[34]
Estonia 923[35]
Lithuania 648[36]
Norway 501[37]
Australia 290[38]
Religion
Predominantly Shia Islam; minority Sunni Islam, Judaism,[39][40] Bah' Faith,[41]
[42] Zoroastrianism,[43] Irreligion,[44] Christianity[45][46]
Related ethnic groups
Turkish people (Oghuz Turks)
Part of a series on
Azerbaijanis
Culture
Architecture Art Cinema Cuisine Dance Dress Folk art Literature Media Music
Folklore Religion Sport Theatre Tourism
Traditional areas of settlement
Iran (Iranian Azerbaijan) Azerbaijan Russia (Derbent) Georgia (Borchali) Armenia
Turkey (Kars, Igdir)
Diaspora
Belarus Canada France Germany Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Turkmenistan Ukraine
Uzbekistan United Kingdom United States
Religion
Pre-Abrahamic religions Islam Christianity Judaism Zoroastrianism Yarsanism
Language
Azerbaijani
Persecution
March Days Deportations from Armenia Black January Khojaly Massacre
Azerbaijan Portal
Iranian Azerbaijan portal
v t e
Azerbaijanis (?z?rba?'d???niz) or Azeris (Azerbaijani Az?
rbaycanlilar ??????????????, Az?ril?r ??????), also known as Azerbaijani Turks[47]
[48][49] (Azerbaijani Az?rbaycan trkl?ri ????????? ???????), are a Turkic[50][51]
[52] ethnic group living mainly in Iranian Azerbaijan and the independent Republic
of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic
peoples after Anatolian Turks.[53] They are predominantly Shi'i Muslims,[54] and
have a mixed cultural heritage, including Turkic,[55] Iranian,[56] and Caucasian
elements. They comprise the largest ethnic group in Republic of Azerbaijan and by
far the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran.[57] The world's largest
number of ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran, followed by Azerbaijan.[58]

Following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1813 and 1828, the territories of the Qajar
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.[59][60] 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.[2]
However, northerners and southerners differ due to nearly two centuries of separate
social evolution of Iranian Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijanis in RussianSoviet-
influenced Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani language unifies Azeris, and is mutually
intelligible with Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, Turkish, and the dialects spoken by the
Iraqi Turkmen, all of which belong to the Oghuz, or Western, group of Turkic
languages.[61]

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology of Azerbaijan
2 Ethnonym
3 History of Azerbaijan
3.1 Ancient period
3.2 Medieval period
3.3 Early modern period
3.4 Modern period in Azerbaijan
3.5 Modern period in Iran
4 Origins of the Azerbaijani people
4.1 Turkification
4.2 Iranian origin
4.3 Caucasian origin
4.4 Genetics
5 Demographics and society
5.1 In Azerbaijan
5.2 In Iran
5.3 Subgroups
5.4 Diaspora
5.5 Women
6 Culture
6.1 Language and literature
6.2 Religion
6.3 Performing arts
6.4 Sports
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Etymology of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is believed to be named after Atropates, a Persian[62][63][64][65]
satrap (governor) who ruled in Atropatene (modern Iranian Azerbaijan) circa 321
B.C.[66][67]2 The name Atropates is the Hellenistic form of Aturpat which means
'guardian of fire'; itself a compound of atur (Aturpahlavi.png) 'fire' (later
garbled into adur and then into aar (???) in (early) New Persian, and is
pronounced azar today)[68] + -pat (Patpahlavi.png) suffix for -guardian, -lord,
-master[68] (-pat in early Middle Persian, -bad (???) in New Persian). Present-day
name Azerbaijan is the Arabicized form of Azarbaigan. The latter is derived from
Adurbadagan, itself ultimately from Aturpatakan[69][70] meaning 'the land
associated with (satrap) Aturpat' (-an, here garbled into -kan , is a suffix for
association or forming adverbs and plurals;[68] e.g. Gilan 'land associated with
Gil people').[71]

Ethnonym

Painting of Atropates, meeting with Alexander the Great. Historical Azerbaijan

(also known as Iranian Azerbaijan) is believed to be named after him.
The modern ethnonym Azerbaijani or Azeri refers to the Turkic peoples of Iranian
Azerbaijan and Republic of Azerbaijan, who historically called themselves or were
referred to by others as Muslims, Turks, Turkmens,[72] Persians, or Ajams (by
Kurds),[73] 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
(???????????????) Tatars to distinguish them from other Turkic groups.[74] The
Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, written in the 1890s, also
referred to Tatars in Azerbaijan as Aderbeijans (????????????),[75] but noted that
the term had not been adopted widely.[76] 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 Turkic
language, have the same physical type as the Hadjemi-Persians, who speak an Iranian
tongue.[77]

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.[78]

History of Azerbaijan
Main articles History of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan_(Iran) History
Ancient residents of the area spoke the Old Azeri, which belonged to the Iranian
branch of the Indo-European languages.[79] In the 11th century AD 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.[80] Here, the Oghuz tribes divided into various
smaller groups, some of whom mostly Sunni moved to Anatolia (i.e., the later
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 (historic Azerbaijan, al