Azeri mythology

The mythology Azeri group the myths and legends of the following peoples: Azeri, Azerbaijanis, Albanian, Mede, Oghouze

Caucasian Albanians are said to be the first inhabitants of Azerbaijan. The oldest invaders would be the Scythians in the 9th century BC. AD After the Scythians, the Medes came to dominate the region south of the Araxes. The Medes founded a vast empire between 900 and 700 BC. AD, which was overthrown by the Achaemenids around 600 BC. AD During this period, the Zoroastrianism is spreading in Azerbaijan. The Achaemenids were in turn overthrown by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. J.-C., but the satrap mede Atropates taking advantage of the disorders which follow the death of the sovereign (wars of the diadoques) creates an independent kingdom for approximately one century and half.

Following the decline of the Seleucids in Persian in -247, a kingdom Armenian under domination of the Arsacids exercises control over parts of Azerbaijan between – 190 and 428. The Caucasian Albanians founded a kingdom in the 1st century BC. and remained largely independent until the Sassanids made them a vassal in 252. The king of the Caucasian Albanians, Urnayr, officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century, and the Caucasian Albania will remain a Christian kingdom until the 8th century. Sasanian control ended with their defeat by the Arab Muslims in 642.

It is commonly believed that Azerbaijan takes its name from Atropates, a Median satrap (governor) who ruled Atropatene (Azerbaijan Iranian. Atropates derives from an Old Persian root meaning "protected by fire". Azerbaijan was the place where various conquerors settled, including the Medes, Scythians, Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Romans, Khazars, Arabs, Oghuzes, Seljuks, Mongols and the Russians.

The Encyclopædia Britannica says that the Azeris “are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the native populations of eastern Transcaucasia, and possibly the Medes of northern Persia. This population was Persianized during the Sassanid era in Iran (3rd century-7th century, but, after the conquest of the region by the Turks Seljuks in the 11th century, the inhabitants were Turkified, and the Turkization of the population continued in the following centuries. »