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Azerbaijan Early History
As a crossroads of tribal migration and military campaigns,
Azerbaijan underwent a series of invasions and was part of
several larger jurisdictions before the beginning of the
Christian era.
Persian and Greek Influences
In the ninth century B.C., the seminomadic Scythians settled
in areas of what is now Azerbaijan. A century later, the Medes,
who were related ethnically to the Persians, established an
empire that included southernmost Azerbaijan. In the sixth
century B.C., the Archaemenid Persians, under Cyrus the Great,
took over the western part of Azerbaijan when they subdued the
Assyrian Empire to the west. In 330 B.C., Alexander the Great
absorbed the entire Archaemenid Empire into his holdings, leaving
Persian satraps to govern as they advanced eastward. According to
one account, Atropates, a Persian general in Alexander's command,
whose name means "protected by fire," lent his name to the region
when Alexander made him its governor. Another legend explains
that Azerbaijan's name derives from the Persian words meaning
"the land of fire," a reference either to the natural burning of
surface oil deposits or to the oil-fueled fires in temples of the
once-dominant Zoroastrian religion
(see Religion
, this ch.).
Data as of March 1994
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