Azeri mythology

Azeri mythology brings together the myths and legends of the following peoples: Azeri, Azerbaijani, Albanian, Mede, Oghouze

The Albanians of the Caucasus 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 Araxia. The Medes founded a vast empire between 900 and 700 BC. AD, which was overthrown by the Achaemenids around 600 BC. During this period, Zoroastrianism spread to Azerbaijan. The Achaemenids were in turn overthrown by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. AD, but the satrap Medes Atropates taking advantage of the disorders that follow the death of the sovereign (wars of the diadoces) creates an independent kingdom for about a century and a half.

Following the decline of the Seleucids in Persia in -247, an Armenian kingdom under the domination of the Arsacids exercised control over parts of Azerbaijan between - 190 and 428. The Albanians of the Caucasus founded a kingdom in the 1st century BC. AD and remained largely independent until the Sassanids made it a vassal in 252. The King of the Caucasian Albanians, Urnayr, officially adopted Christianity as a state religion in the 4th century, and the Caucasian Albania will remain a Christian kingdom until the 8th century. Sassanid control ended with their defeat against the Arab Muslims in 642.

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

The Encyclopædia Britannica says that the Azeris "are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the indigenous 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 Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, the inhabitants were Turkified, and the Turkishization of the population s 'is continued over the following centuries. "