Mythologies of the Azeri Tribe

The Azerbaijanis or Azeris are a Turkic ethnic group of mixed ethnic origins, primarily the indigenous peoples of eastern Transcaucasia, the Medians, an ancient Iranian people, and the Oghuz Turkic tribes that began migrating to Azerbaijan in the 11th century CE.^[N Modern Azerbaijanis are the second most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks and speak North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and/or South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq and Syria). Both languages also have dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects.The Azerbaijani are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the indigenous population of eastern Transcaucasia and possibly from the Medians of northern Persia. Between the 3rd and 7th centuries CE, there was a Persianization of the population, during the period of the Sassanian dynasty. A subsequent Turkification of the population occurred after the region's conquest by the Seljuq Turks in the 11th century and a continued influx of Turkic peoples over subsequent centuries – including groups that migrated during the Mongol conquests of the 13th century (most of the tribes that formed the Mongol forces, or were led by them to migrate were Turkic peoples.)

The word Azerbaijan means "land of fire." Even today, it is possible to find places in Azerbaijan where fires ignite and burn spontaneously on the surface of the earth. These fires seem to burn eternally because they are fed by gas that seeps through cracks in the surface of the earth. The fires indicate that this land has vast oil reserves deep beneath the surface of the earth; geologists and geophysicists are discovering that Azerbaijan has more oil hidden below its surface than ever imagined before. Azerbaijan is an ancient land. Some of the earliest evidence of all human civilization can be traced to this region. For example, in 1960 archeologists discovered a prehistoric cave (Azikh) that dates to the Neanderthal period. A human jawbone found there is believed to be 350,000–400,000 years old. Stone tools were also unearthed that date back to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, which would make them approximately 1–1.5 million years old. In ancient times, Azerbaijanis were believed to be skilled mariners who lived along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. The people of this advanced culture navigated, explored, and colonized many waterways, from the Volga and Dvina rivers in present-day Russia to the Black, Baltic, and North seas. Some archeologists believe that the ancestors of modern Azerbaijanis may have even traveled as far east as China and as far west as Norway and Sweden and that even modern Scandinavians themselves may have descended from ancient, fair-skinned Azerbaijani explorers and colonists. Azerbaijan is located at the crossroads of Europe and Central Asia along what used to be called the Silk Road, which was a famous web of roads between Europe and China traveled by traders in mule and camel caravans. The Italian explorer and adventurer Marco Polo passed through Azerbaijan in about 1270. He wrote about the eternal fires burning from the earth and about a special oil that was used as medicine for skin diseases and other ailments in people and cattle. He observed that people came from neighboring countries, often from great distances, to obtain oil for their lamps.

The ancient language spoken in Azerbaijan was one of the dialects of the Persian language, which was known to us as Azari tongue. Ahamd Kasravi has proven that based on evidence, the local language of Azari people; at least, to the end of Mogul era (mid-14th century) has been Azari. After that, during a 150-year interval from the time that Chengiz dynasty became defunct since establishment of Safavids, the Azari language was gradually replaced by Turkish dialect. During recent year, Manouchehr Mortazavi, in an article on the ancient language of Azerbaijan, had opined that Azari has been the language of Azerbaijan people and it has included various dialects. However, since there has been a discrepancy with regard to the original language of Azerbaijanis, the compendium of research results is as follows: Ibn al-Nadim writes in his book al-Fihrist that the language of Iranian people could be divided in five classes including Pahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi (ancient language of people in Khuzestan) and Soriani. Relying on what Ibn Muqaffa' said, he opined that Dari was the language of courtiers while Persian was the language of priests and scientists and the language of people of Fars; Khuzi was the language that kings and dignitaries used in their intimate talks. Soriani was the language of people of Iraq while Pahlavi was spoken by people of Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan, Mah (Mede), Nahavand and Azerbaijan. Out of the above-mentioned languages, only two languages, including Dari, spoken in eastern Iran including Khorassan, and Pahlavi that was spoken by people in Isfahan, Rey, Hamedan, Nahavand and Azerbaijan are of concern here. The authors belonging to the 8th century CE have called the language of people of Azerbaijan as 'Azari Pahlavi' and sometimes 'Azari' and maintained that the said language was different from the language spoken in east Iran. However, the difference was not so big as to make them incapable of comprehending what other peoples said. Nasser Khosrow in his itinerary says, "I arrived in Tabriz in 1046.... I saw a poet in Tabriz named Ghetran. He was a good poet, but could not speak Persian correctly. He came to me with poetry books of Manjik and Daqiqi and asked any word that he could not understand..." I presume that Nasser Khosrow meant Dari Persian which was known to him but some of whose words were not known to Khorassani poet. Marquat??, the famous Iranian scholar has written that, "Pahlavi language is, in fact, the same as Azari language." Yagoubi who lived in the 10th century in his book, al-Boldan, he says the language of Azari people was "Azari Pahlavi". Abu Abdollah Bashari Moqaddasi in his book divides Iran into eight climatic regions noting, "The language of these regions is Persian; however, some of them speak Dari and some complicated; and all those dialects are called Persian." According to Masoudi, Pahlavi, Dari and Azari were of the same origin and combination of their works was the same and all of them were considered among Persian dialects.

Azerbaijani Turkish, Azeri Turkish. The country name also is written Azerbaidzhan, Azerbaydzhan, Adharbadjan, and Azarbaydjan in older sources as a transliteration from Russian. Under the Russian Empire, Azerbaijanis were known collectively as Tatars and/or Muslims, together with the rest of the Turkic population in that area. Azeri (also referred to as Azeri Turkish) or Azerbaijani is a Turkic language in the Altaic family; it belongs to the southwestern Oguz group, together with Anatolian Turkish, Turkmen, and Gagauz. Speakers of these languages can understand each other to varying degrees, depending on the complexity of the sentences and the number of loan words from other languages. Russian loan words have entered Azeri since the nineteenth century, especially technical terms. Several Azeri dialects (e.g., Baku, Shusha, Lenkaran) are entirely mutually comprehensible. Until 1926, Azeri was written in Arabic script, which then was replaced by the Latin alphabet and in 1939 by Cyrillic. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan and other Turkic-speaking former Soviet republics reintroduced the Latin alphabet. However, the main body of modern Azeri literature and educational material is still in Cyrillic, and the transition to the Latin alphabet is a time-consuming and expensive process. The generations that learned Russian and read Azeri in Cyrillic still feel more comfortable with Cyrillic. During the Soviet period, linguistic Russification was intensive: although people referred to Azeri as their native tongue, the language many people in the cities mastered was Russian. There were both Azeri and Russian schools, and pupils were supposed to learn both languages. Those who went to Russian schools were able to use Azeri in daily encounters but had difficulty expressing themselves in other areas. Russian functioned as the lingua franca of different ethnic groups, and with the exception of rural populations such as the Talysh, others spoke very little Azeri. Roughly thirteen languages are spoken in Azerbaijan, some of which are not written and are used only in everyday family communication. Azeri is the official language and is used in all spheres of public life.