Arran (
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
form;
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: ارّان), also known as Aran, was a geographical name used in
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
and
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
times to signify a historically-
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
which lay within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of the
Kura and
Aras rivers,
including the highland and lowland
Karabakh
Karabakh ( az, Qarabağ ; hy, Ղարաբաղ, Ġarabaġ ) is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and ...
,
Mil plain and parts of the
Mughan plain. In pre-Islamic times it corresponded roughly to the territory of modern-day
Republic of Azerbaijan
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...
.
The term is the
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...
[''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland''. The Society, published 1902, page 64. Text states: ''"In Mustawfi's lists, however, the Arabic article has everywhere disappeared and we have Ray, Mawsil, etc.; while names such as Ar-Ran and Ar-Ras (spelt Al-Ran, Al-Ras in the Arabic writing), which in the older geographers had thus the false appearance of Arab names, in the pages of Mustawfi appear in plain Persian as Arran and Aras."''] equivalent to the
Greco-Roman ''Albania''. It was known as ''Aghvania'', ''Alvan-k''
[V. Minorsky. Caucasica IV. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 15, No. 3. (1953), p. 504] in
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, and ''Al-ran''
(Arabized form of ''Arran''
) in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
.
Today, the term Aran is mainly used in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
to indicate territories consisting of
Mil and
Mughan plains (mostly,
Beylaqan,
Imishli,
Kurdamir,
Saatli
Saatly District () is one of the 66 Administrative divisions of Azerbaijan, districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the centre of the country and belongs to the Central Aran Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Imishli District ...
,
Sabirabad provinces of the
Republic of Azerbaijan
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...
). It has also been used by
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian
historian Enayatollah Reza Enayatollah Reza ( fa, عنایتالله رضا; June 18, 1920 in Rasht – July 20, 2010 in Tehran) was an Iranian historian and professor of philosophy, a former member of the Iranian Communist Party, and a former Iranian military officer. He ...
to refer to the country of Azerbaijan, freeing the name "Azerbaijan" to refer to a region within Iran. The bulk of the territory of the republic of Azerbaijan was the historic
Shirvan
Shirvan (from fa, شروان, translit=Shirvān; az, Şirvan; Tat: ''Şirvan''), also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical Iranian region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both pre-Islam ...
, as well as
Kuba/Qubbah).
Etymology
The region is known as ''Ardhan'' in
Parthian, ''Al-Ran'' in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
,
''Aghvank'' or ''Alvank'' in
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, ''Rani'' ( ka, რანი) in
Georgian and ''
Caucasian Albania'' in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
.
According to the Albanian
Movses Kagankatvatsi, ''Arran'' or ''Arhan'' was the name of the legendary founder of
Caucasian Albania, who in some versions was the son of
Noah's son Yafet (
Japheth) and also, possibly the eponym of the ancient Caucasian Albanians (''Aghvan''), and/or the Iranian tribe known as
Alans
The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...
(Alani). The nearby
Araks (Aras) river was known to
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
s as the ''Araxes'', and has a source near
Mount Ararat.
James Darmesteter, in his discussion of the geography of the
Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.
The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...
's ''
Vendidad
The Vendidad /ˈvendi'dæd/ or Videvdat or Videvdad is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the ''Vendidad'' is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual.
Name
...
'' I, observes that the 12th century ''
Bundahishn
''Bundahishn'' (Avestan: , "Primal Creation") is the name traditionally given to an encyclopedic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi. The original name of the work is not known.
Although the ''Bundahishn'' ...
'' (29:12) identified the "
Airyana Vaego by the Vanguhi Daitya" on the northern border of Azerbaijan, and did so "probably in order that it should be as near as possible to the seat of the Zoroastrian religion yet without losing its supernatural character by the counter-evidence of facts." Darmesteter further associated the Vanguhi Daitya river with the Araxes, and compared the name "Airyana Vaego" with that of Arran.
According to
C.E. Bosworth:
Later Greek writers also call the country Ariania instead of Albania, and the people Arianoi instead of Albanoi. In some Classical authors one finds the form Arian/Aryan.
Boundaries
In pre-Islamic times, Caucasian Albania/Arran was a wider concept than that of post-Islamic Arran. Ancient Arran covered all of eastern
Transcaucasia, which included most of the territory of the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic and part of the territory of
Dagestan. However, in post-Islamic times the geographic notion of Arran shrank to the territory between the rivers of Kura and Araks.
A medieval chronicle, the "''Ajayib-ad-Dunya''", written in the 13th century by an unknown author, says Arran was 30
parasang
The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of walking distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the league. In modern terms the distance is about 3 or 3½ miles (4.8 or 5.6 km).
His ...
s (200 km) in width, and 40 ''farsakhs'' (270 km) in length. The entire right bank of the
Kura river until it joined with the Aras was attributed to Arran (the left bank of the Kura was known as
Shirvan
Shirvan (from fa, شروان, translit=Shirvān; az, Şirvan; Tat: ''Şirvan''), also spelled as Sharvān, Shirwan, Shervan, Sherwan and Šervān, is a historical Iranian region in the eastern Caucasus, known by this name in both pre-Islam ...
). The boundaries of Arran have shifted throughout history, sometimes encompassing the entire territory of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, and at other times only parts of the
South Caucasus. Sometimes Arran was part of Armenia.
Medieval
Islamic geographers gave descriptions of Arran in general, and of its towns, including
Barda,
Beylagan
Beylagan District ( az, Beyləqan rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the centre of the country and belongs to the Central Aran Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Fuzuli, Aghjabadi, Zardab, Imis ...
, and
Ganja.
History of Arran
:''History of Arran is summarized in
History of Azerbaijan
The history of Azerbaijan is understood as the history of the region now forming the Republic of Azerbaijan. Topographically, the land is contained by the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains in the north, the Caspian Sea in the east, and t ...
section, where you can refer for detailed description.''
Pre-Islamic
Islamic
Following the
Arab invasion of Iran, the Arabs invaded the Caucasus in the 8th century and most of the former territory of
Caucasian Albania was included under the name of Arran. This region was at times part of the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
based on
numismatic and historical evidence. Dynasties of
Parthian or
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
descent, such as the
Mihranids The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mihran, a distant relative o ...
had come to rule the territory during
Sassanian times. Its kings were given the title ''Arranshah'', and after the Arab invasions, fought against the caliphate from the late 7th to middle 8th centuries.
Early
Muslim ruling dynasties of the time included
Rawadids,
Sajids
The Sajid dynasty ( fa, ساجیان, sajyan), was an Iranian Muslim dynasty that ruled from 889/890 until 929. The Sajids ruled Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia first from Maragha and Barda and then from Ardabil.''Azerbaijan IV'', C.E. Bosworth, ' ...
,
Salarids,
Shaddadids
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
,
Shirvanshahs
''Shirvanshah'' ( fa, شروانشاه), also spelled as ''Shīrwān Shāh'' or ''Sharwān Shāh'', was the title of the rulers of Shirvan from the mid-9th century to the early 16th century. The title remained in a single family, the Yazidids, ...
, and the
Sheki and
Tiflis emirates. The principal cities of Arran in early medieval times were
Bardha'a (Partav) and
Ganja. Bardha'a reached prominence in the 10th century and was used to house a
mint. Bardha'a was sacked by the
Rus and
Norse several times in the 10th century as a result of the
Caspian expeditions of the Rus Caspian can refer to:
*The Caspian Sea
*The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea
*The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea
*Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian peopl ...
. Bardha'a never recovered after these raids and was replaced as capital by
Beylaqan, which in turn was sacked by the Mongols in 1221. After this Ganja rose to prominence and became the central city of the region. The capital of the
Shaddadid
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
dynasty, Ganja was considered the "mother city of Arran" during their reign.
The territory of Arran became a part of the
Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to t ...
, followed by the
Ildegizid state. It was taken briefly by the
Khwarizmid dynasty and then overran by
Mongol Hulagu empire
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, ...
in the 13th century. Later, it became a part of
Chobanid,
Jalayirid
The Jalayirid Sultanate was a culturally Persianate, Mongol Jalayir dynasty which ruled over Iraq and western Persia after the breakup of the Mongol khanate of Persia in the 1330s.Bayne Fisher, William. ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', p.3: ...
,
Timurid, and Iranian
Safavid,
Afsharid, and
Qajar
Qajar Iran (), also referred to as Qajar Persia, the Qajar Empire, '. Sublime State of Persia, officially the Sublime State of Iran ( fa, دولت علیّه ایران ') and also known then as the Guarded Domains of Iran ( fa, ممالک م ...
states which means at least from 1500 until 1828, when Iran lost a major battle to the expanding Russian Empire and as a result had to sign the
Treaty of Turkmenchay
The Treaty of Turkmenchay ( fa, عهدنامه ترکمنچای; russian: Туркманчайский договор) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–28). It was second ...
(russian: Туркманчайский договор, fa, عهدنامه ترکمنچای) in which it had to concede all the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
territories to Russia.
People
The population of Arran consisted of a great variety of peoples.
[ Hewsen, Robert H. ''Ethno-History and the Armenian Influence upon the Caucasian Albanians'', in: Samuelian, Thomas J. (Hg.), Classical Armenian Culture. Influences and Creativity, Chico: 1982, 27-40.] Greek, Roman and Armenian authors provide the names of some peoples who inhabited the lands between the Kur and Araxes rivers:
*
Utians and Mycians — apparently migrants from the south,
*
Caspians
The Caspians ( fa, کاسپیها, ''Kaspyn''; el, Κάσπιοι, ''Káspioi''; Aramaic: ܟܣܦܝ, ''kspy''; xcl, Կասպք, ''Kaspk’''; la, Caspi, ''Caspiani'') were a people of antiquity who dwelt along the southwestern shores of the ...
, Gargarians and Gardmans
* Sakasenians — of
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
origin,
* Gelians, Sodians,
Lupenians, Balasanians — possibly
Caucasian tribes,
* Parsians and Parrasians — were probably
Iranian
In the late 4th century, when the region passed to Caucasian Albania, its population consisted of Armenians and Armenicized aborigines, though many of the latter were still cited as distinct ethnic entities.
In pre-Islamic times the population of Arran and most of Caucasian Albania had mostly been Christian who belonged to the
Church of Caucasian Albania.
Under Arabic rule (7th to 9th centuries) a part of the population was Islamicized and adopted
Alevism. Muslim chronicles of the 10th century reported that some of the population of Arran spoke al-rānīya, as well as
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...
s.
[Al-Muqaddasi, 985](_blank)
Because there is no written evidence, some scholars have presumed al-rānīya to be an
Iranian dialect while others have presumed it to be a remnant of a Caucasian Albanian language. The area in which there was Ganja, during the 9th to 12th century named Arran; its urban population spoke mainly in Persian.
Дьяконов, Игорь Михайлович. Книга воспоминаний. Издательство "Европейский дом", Санкт-Петербург, 1995., 1995
- . cтр. 730-731 Igor Diakonov
Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff (occasionally spelled Diakonov, russian: link=no, И́горь Миха́йлович Дья́конов; 12 January 1915 – 2 May 1999) was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert on th ...
. The book of memoirs.
After the Turkification of the region, the population became Turkic speaking, and thus referred to by Europeans, particularly the Russians, as Tartars. They were much later called Azerbaijanis.
With the exception of some Uti, the population of Arran which remained Christian, was ultimately absorbed by the Armenians and in part by the Georgians.
See also
* Caucasian Albania
*Aghuank
Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among t ...
* South Caucasus
* Transcaucasia
*Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), or simply as Azerbaijan in Paris Peace Conference, 1919–1920,''Bulletin d'Information de l'Azerbaidjan'', No. I, September 1, 1919, pp. 6–7''125 H.C.Debs.'', 58., February 24, 1920, p. 1467. Caucasian A ...
* Azerbaijan SSR
* Iranian Azerbaijan
Sources
* Bashi, Munnjim, Duwal Al-Islam
* Minorsky, V., Studies in Caucasian History, Cambridge University Press, 1957
* Volkmar Gantzhorn, Oriental Carpets
References
{{coord missing, Iran
Historical regions in Azerbaijan
Former regions of Armenia
Historical regions of Iran
Medieval Azerbaijan