User:Brandmeister/Pre-1918 mentions of Azerbaijan

Before the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918, the toponym "Azerbaijan", sometimes with slightly different spelling, has been occasionally extended from southern Iranian Azerbaijan to the north, up to the modern Republic of Azerbaijan. After the treaties of Gulistan and of Turkmenchay, several imperial Russian sources retained the name "Azerbaijan" ("Aderbijan") for Russia's possessions that would later become the ADR.

9th century

Districts of Aderbeijan: Ardabil, Berzend, Varsan, Berda'a.

— Ya'qubi, Kitab al-Buldan, in Nikolay Karaulov, Сведения арабских писателей X и XI веков по Р. Хр. о Кавказе, Армении и Адербейджане (Information from Arab Writers of the 10th and 11th Centuries AD About the Caucasus, Armenia and Aderbeijan), Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племен Кавказа. Вып. XXXVIII. Тифлис: Упр. Кавказск. Учебн. Окр., 1908.

10th century

We connect Armenia, Arran and Aderbeijan on one map and consider them as one area.

— Istakhri, Kitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik, in Nikolay Karaulov, Сведения арабских писателей X и XI веков по Р. Хр. о Кавказе, Армении и Адербейджане (Information from Arab Writers of the 10th and 11th Centuries AD About the Caucasus, Armenia and Aderbeijan), Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племен Кавказа. Вып. XXXVIII. Тифлис: Упр. Кавказск. Учебн. Окр., 1908.

There are four provinces of Aderbeijan: Ardabil, Merand, Jabravan, Varsan, and the capital city of Berda'a.

— Qudama ibn Ja'far, Kitab al-Kharaj, in Nikolay Karaulov, Сведения арабских писателей X и XI веков по Р. Хр. о Кавказе, Армении и Адербейджане (Information from Arab Writers of the 10th and 11th Centuries AD About the Caucasus, Armenia and Aderbeijan), Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племен Кавказа. Вып. XXXVIII. Тифлис: Упр. Кавказск. Учебн. Окр., 1908.

13th century

...in certain passages, he (Yaqut al-Hamawi) annexes to it (Azerbaijan), in addition to the steppes of Moḡān, all of the province of Arrān, bringing the frontier of the country up to Kor, indicating, however, that from this period the conception of Azerbaijan tended to be extended to the north and that its meaning was being rapidly transformed.

— Xavier de Planhol, Azerbaijan, Encyclopædia Iranica

14th century

In Nuzhat al-Kulub (730/1340), 89, Nakhicewan and Ordubad, on the left bank of the Araxes, are mentioned under Adharbaydjan.

— Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1986, vol. I, p. 191

16th–18th centuries

In Safavi times, Azerbaijan was applied to all the Muslim-ruled khanates of the eastern Caucasus as well as to the area south of the Aras River...

— Muriel Atkin, Russia and Iran, 1780-1828, University of Minnesota Press, 1980, p. xi

1727

The Turkish borders, having encompassed the entire area between the Kura and the Araks, that is, the entire Adirbijan, and more... stretch in a straight line to Kermanshah.

— A document ratifying the 1724 treaty between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, in Semyon Bronevsky, Историческия выписки о сношениях России с Персиею, Грузиею и вообще с горскими народами, в Кавказе обитающими, со времен Ивана Васильевича доныне (Historical Notes on Russia's Relations with Persia, Georgia, and Generally with the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, from the Time of Ivan Vasilyevich to the Present), 1810

1786

One of Fatali Khan's contemporaries, Colonel Burnashev, [...] in his 1786 description of political situation in Azerbaijani districts, wrote the following: "As for the current state of those lands that are known under the name Adrebijani: Starting from the north Georgia is adjacent, that is, the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartveli, from the east the Caspian Sea and Gilan province, Iraq region from the south, Turkey from the west... [...] The Khan of Derbent or Kuba is among the most powerful ones [...] he calls for major endeavors against his neighbors like the neighboring Aderbijan khans, such as those of Nukha, of Shirvan and of Shusha" [...] It is also important to note that Colonel Burnashev [...] calls Azerbaijan not only the regions of Maragha, Tabriz, Ardabil, but also the lands of Sheki, Ganja, Shusha, Nakhichevan, Shamakhi, Baku. [...] While in Tbilisi, Burnashev, when preparing the description, used information that he had obtained from contemporaries, the people who knew Azerbaijan. The text of his description clearly shows the absence of any borrowings from Arabic or Iranian written sources, it relies on live narrative. From the above, it follows that already at the time of Burnashev's writing, Azerbaijan meant among people not only the southern, but also the northern part of the country.

— Vadim Leviatov, Очерки из истории Азербайджана в XVIII веке (Essays On the History of Azerbaijan in the 18th Century), 1948, p. 114

1795

If Aga-Magomet-khan wants to achieve recognition of his shah title, then it is necessary, firstly, that he cease his actions in the areas adjacent to the Caspian Sea and against the lords who are subjects to our authority, namely... the khans of Derbent, Baku, Talysh, also Shusha and others, residing in Aderbeijan...

— Rescript of Catherine the Great to Ivan Gudovich from 4 September 1795, in Nikolai Dubrovin, История войны и владычества русских на Кавказе (History of War and Russian Rule in the Caucasus), 1886, vol. 3, p. 25

1804

The local position of the Ganja Fortress commands all Adribeijan.

— Pavel Tsitsianov, Report of Pavel Tsitsianov to Alexander I, in Vladimir Lapin, Цицианов (Tsitsianov), М.: Молодая гвардия, 2011, p. 386

1820s

During the campaign of 1827–1828 Russian troops occupied Azerbaijan. A difficult issue of organizing the administration in the occupied territory arose. The important task to draw up "The Statute on the Governance of Azerbaijan" was entrusted to Griboyedov. He had prepared "The General Rules for the Operation of the Azerbaijani Administration", which were then approved by the commander-in-chief.

— Sergey Shostakovich, Дипломатическая деятельность А. С. Грибоедова (Diplomatic Activity of A. S. Griboyedov), М.: Изд-во соц.-эконом. лит., 1960, p. 114

1845

The Province (Azerbaijan) appears, indeed, to have varied in extent at different periods, and comprehended several tracts not belonging to modern Azerbaijan, such as Moghan, near the mouths of the Cyrus (Kur), Talish or Talij...

— Media, in Encyclopædia Metropolitana, B. Fellowes, 1845, vol. 22, p. 67

1850

He (Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren) shows, from the places mentioned in the Zend Avesta, that the native land of Zoroaster was Northern Media, Azerbaijan, the country between the river Kur and Araxes [...]

— William Sandys Wright Vaux, Nineveh and Persepolis: An Historical Sketch of Ancient Assyria and Persia, with an Account of the Recent Researches in Those Countries, 1850, A. Hall, Virtue & Company, p. 96

1861

— Dmitri Osten-Sacken, "Об управлении Адербиджаном во время персидской войны 1827–1828 годов" ("On the Governance of Aderbijan During the Persian War of 1827–1828"), Russky Invalid, 1861, no. 79

— Pyotr Ustimovich, "Пояснение к статье Д. Е. Остен-Сакена «Об управлении Адербиджаном во время персидской войны 1827–1828 годов" ("Explanatory Note to the Article by D. E. Osten-Saken “On the Governance of Aderbijan During the Persian War of 1827–1828”"), Russky Invalid, 1861, no. 136

1914

...the Ganja Fortress, considered the best in all of Azerbaijan, fell after an hour and a half of the assault.

— Andrei Zayonchkovski and others, История русской армии. Том второй (History of Russian Army, vol. 2)

Maps

• 
  By John Thomson, with Azerbaijan (Aderbeijan), 1817
• 
  By John Pinkerton with Azerbaijan (Aderbijan) extending to the 40th parallel north, 1818
• 
  By James Wyld, 1864