Azaris

Not to be confused with Azerbaijanis.

Azaris, also known as Azeris, Old Azeris or Adharis, were an Iranian people who spoke Old Azeri. They were the inhabitants of the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran, and resided there prior to the Turkification of the region during the Seljuk Empire. Some researchers believe that modern Tats, specifically Harzdani and Karingani speakers, are descendants of ancient Azaris.

History

Their name derived from their native region. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the name of the region was Ādurbādāgān in Middle Persian, Ādarbādagān or Ādarbāyagān (آذربادگان/آذرآبادگان) in older modern Persian, and Āzerbāydjān/Āzarbāydjān in modern Persian. Many believed it derived from Atropat, the founder of Atropatene. The name Atropat in Old Persian became Adharbad in Middle Persian and was influenced by Zoroastrianism. Due to the historic significance of Zoroastrianism in the region, many believed that Zoroaster was Azari, although modern scholars have not reached an agreement on the location of his birth. The region later became Azerpayegan (Persian: آذرپایگان) meaning "the guardians of fire". The name was Arabized to "Azerbaijan" after the Muslim conquest of Persia, as Arabic lacked "P" and "G". The word Azarpayegan is from Old Persian Āturpātakān (Persian: آتورپاتکان).

Mannea was a kingdom in Iranian Azerbaijan which ruled a region south-east of Lake Urmia centered around modern Saqqez. They were a confederation of Iranian and non-Iranian groups. Professor Zadok stated that it was "unlikely that there was any ethnolinguistic unity in Mannea. Like other peoples of the Iranian plateau, the Manneans were subjected to an ever-increasing Iranian penetration."

The Mannaeans were conquered by an Iranian people called Matieni, and the country was called Matiene, with Lake Urmia called Lake Matianus. In the ninth century BC, some Scythians settled in the region. The Medes later conquered Matiene, which became a satrapy of the Median kingdom and then a satrapy within the Median satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. The Medes were an Iranian people. By the time they were under the Medes, the Azaris had also became an Iranian people. They were later also influenced from Zoroastrianism. These shaped the Iranian identity of Azerbaijan until the Turkic invasions.

The neighboring region north of the Aras was inhabited by Caucasian-speaking Albanian tribes. Alexander the Great defeated the Achaemenids in 330 BC, but allowed Atropates to stay in power. The Seleucids of Persia declined in 247 BC, afterwards the Kingdom of Armenian captured parts of Caucasian Albania. Caucasian Albanians established a kingdom in the first century BC until the Sasanian Empire made their kingdom a vassal state in 252 AD.

The Rashidun Caliphate defeated the Sasanians in 642 AD during the Muslim conquest of Persia. The Arabs made Caucasian Albania a vassal state after Javanshir surrendered in 667. Between the ninth and tenth centuries, the Arabs began to refer to the region between the Kura and Aras rivers as Arran. During this time, Arabs from Arab Iraq came to Azerbaijan and seized lands that indigenous Azaris had abandoned. Azaris resisted Islam for centuries and their resentment grew as Arabs began migrating to cities such as Tabriz and Maraghah. This sparked a rebellion from 816 to 837, led by Babak Khorramdin. Vladimir Minorsky stated that Azaris formed the majority of the Khurramites. Eventually, they mostly accepted Islam with the rest of Iran, although resistance continued at a smaller rate.

According to Vladimir Minorsky, the sedentary population of Azerbaijan were mostly peasants at the time of the Muslim conquest of Persia and were known as "Uluj" ("non-Arab"). Their language, Old Azeri, had different dialects. Ahmad ibn Yaqubi mentioned that the "people of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Azari 'Ajams and old Javedanis". Javedanis were followers of Javidhan, the predecessor of Babak.

The Seljuk Empire captured Azerbaijan in the eleventh century, beginning the Turkification. Oghuz Turks migrated to Azerbaijan in large numbers, and it remained high through the Mongol period, as the bulk of the Ilkhanate troops were Turkic. By the Safavid period, the Turkification of Azerbaijan increased with the influence of the Qizilbash. According to Soviet historians, the Turkification of Azerbaijan was largely completed during the Ilkhanate. Turkish scholar Faruk Sumer divided the Turkification into three phases: Seljuk, Mongol (Ilkhanate) and Post-Mongol (Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid). Turkic elements in Iran were predominantly Oghuz, with lesser admixtures of Uyghur, Qipchaq, Qarluq as well as Turkified Mongols.

By the 14th century, the Azari language had been overshadowed by Turkoman. Turkish was not the majority language of Tabriz until the 15th century. Although the majority of the region was Turkified, some Azaris survived in small dispersed groups, and Ottoman Turkish explorer Evliya Çelebi mentioned that some elites and educated people of Nakhchivan and Maragheh spoke Old Azari. Russian scholar Rostislav Rybakov claimed that Iranian Azerbaijan was almost fully Turkified by the 14th and 15th centuries.

Professor Richard Frye stated that the Azari people were the ancestors of the Azerbaijanis, a Turkic people. He also claimed that descendants of the Azaris remained in "several pockets" throughout the region. Professor Xavier De Planhol also added that Azerbaijani descended from Iranian peasants who began speaking Turkish.

Tadeusz Swietochowski stated that "Azerbaijan maintained its national character after its conquest by the Arabs in the mid-seventh century A.D. and its subsequent conversion to Islam. At this time it became a province in the early Muslim empire. Only in the 11th century, when Oghuz Turkic tribes under the Seljuk dynasty entered the country, did Azerbaijan acquire a significant number of Turkic inhabitants. The original Persian population became fused with the Turks, and gradually the Persian language was supplanted by a Turkic dialect that evolved into the distinct Azerbaijani language. The process of Turkification was long and complex, sustained by successive waves of incoming nomads from Central Asia".

Azerbaijanis were historically known as Tatars (see Tatars (ethnonym)), and the ethnonyms "Azeri" and "Azerbaijani" were adopted upon the formation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918. Before 1918, the term "Azerbaijan" was solely used for Iranian Azerbaijan, and "Azeri" or "Azerbaijani" was used for its inhabitants.

Persian was also known in the region as a literary language, even before the Turkic invasions. The Talyshs and Tats might've descended from Azari tribes that survived Turkification. Some even referred to Tati as "Azeri", believing it to be the direct descendant of Old Azeri. Along with Tati, Talyshi and Zazaki also had similarities to Old Azeri and were also considered to be its remnants. Scholars often noted cultural similarities between Persians and Azerbaijanis.

Ahmad Kasravi was the first Iranian Azerbaijani intellectual to firmly oppose Pan-Turkism. He expounded on the Iranian identity of the Azerbaijanis, and wrote important books on the Iranian history of Azerbaijan and the Old Azeri language. Kasravi stated that Old Azeri, the "true national language" of Azerbaijan, was closely related to Persian, and advocated for the Azerbaijani language to be replaced with Persian and a revival of Azari identity. Kasravi became widely despised by Pan-Turkists, who viewed him as a "traitor" to Azerbaijanis. Mohammad Khiabani also preferred the Iranian identity of Azerbaijanis and supported the Persianization of Azerbaijan.