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Azerbaijan The Introduction of Islam and the Turkish Language
Between the first and third centuries A.D., the Romans
conquered the Scythians and Seleucids, who were among the
successor groups to the fragmented empire of Alexander. The
Romans annexed the region of present-day Azerbaijan and called
the area Albania. As Roman control weakened, the Sasanid Dynasty
reestablished Persian control. Between the seventh and eleventh
centuries, Arabs controlled Azerbaijan, bringing with them the
precepts of Islam. In the mid-eleventh century, Turkic-speaking
groups, including the Oghuz tribes and their Seljuk Turkish
dynasty, ended Arab control by invading Azerbaijan from Central
Asia and asserting political domination. The Seljuks brought with
them the Turkish language and Turkish customs. By the thirteenth
century, the basic characteristics of the Azerbaijani nation had
been established. Several masterpieces of Azerbaijani
architecture and literature were created during the cultural
golden age that spanned the eleventh through the thirteenth
centuries. Among the most notable cultural monuments of this
period are the writings of Nezami Ganjavi and the mausoleum of
Momine-Khatun in Nakhichevan
(see The
Arts
, this ch.).
Under the leadership of Hulegu Khan, Mongols invaded
Azerbaijan in the early thirteenth century; Hulegu ruled
Azerbaijan and Persia from his capital in the Persian city of
Tabriz. At the end of the fourteenth century, another Mongol,
Timur (also known as Tamarlane), invaded Azerbaijan, at about the
same time that Azerbaijani rule was reviving under the Shirvan
Dynasty. Shirvan shah Ibrahim I ibn Sultan Muhammad briefly
accepted Timur as his overlord. (In earlier times, the Shirvan
shahs had accepted the suzerainty of Seljuk overlords.) Another
extant architectural treasure, the Shirvan shahs' palace in Baku,
dates from this period. In the sixteenth century, the Azerbaijani
Safavid Dynasty took power in Persia. This dynasty fought off
efforts by the Ottoman Turks during the eighteenth century to
establish control over Azerbaijan; the Safavids could not,
however, halt Russian advances into the region.
Data as of March 1994
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