In the ancient and early medieval centuries, Karabakh was part of the ancient Azerbaijan state of Caucasian Albania that existed from the end of the fourth century B.C. until 705 A.D. According to Strabo, Caucasian Albania was inhabited by 26 distinct tribes, each speaking different languages. Scholars who have undertaken research into the ethnic and linguistic origins of Alban argued that the etymology of the term “Alban” remains a subject of debate and has yet to be conclusively established. However, the current usage of the words “alban” and “alpan” in Azerbaijan, as well as in Turkmen, Kazakh, and other Turkic languages, proves that this word originates in Turkic languages. Thus, the word Albania gets its origin from the words “alp” and “alb” in the ancient Turkic language, where it means the “land of braves and heroes.”[1]
During the rule of Caucasian Albania, Karabakh territory was divided into four administrative units: Artsakh-Khachyn, Uti, Sunik, and Paytakaran. Although Armenians have tried to relate the origin of the word Artsakh to Armenia, this link has not been proven in scientific literature.[2]
It should be mentioned that two different opinions about the origin of the toponym Artsakh are widespread among historians. Some historians associate the toponym Artsakh with the “Avesta,” the Zoroastrians’ sacred scriptures. In their view, the toponym was used in the “Avesta,” meaning “country or territory of winds.”[3]
According to Farida Mammadova, the region of Artsakh (in Armenian authors) or Orkhistena (in ancient authors) was one of the most important provinces of right-bank Albania. Mammadova further elucidates that according to the Geography of Armenia, Artsakh was divided into 12 small administrative units and mainly populated by Turkic tribes, such as Utis (Utians), Gargars, Huns, Caspians, and Barsils (Basils).[4]
The region of Sunik or Sisakan (Zangazur), which bordered Artsakh, was located in the southwest of Albania on the left bank of the Aras River. Albanologists confirm that the Sunik province was ethnically, politically, and culturally connected to Albania and Atropatene.[5] K. Khubushman and J. Markwart generally considered Sunik to be a province of Albania.[6]
The Artsakh province, unjustifiably claimed by Armenians, was under the rule of the Albanian Arshakids in the 1st-6th centuries, and from the 6th century to the early 8th century, was under the rule of the great princes of Albania, the Mehranids. Works by Christian authors reveal that Albanian rulers sent religious figures from Artsakh to propagate Christianity among the Huns and Khazars.[7] This fact itself indicates a connection and a shared origin between the ethnic group known as Albanians and the Turkic tribes.
However, most historians are sure that the toponym has its roots in the Sak-Scyth tribes. Thus, even historians with a biased view of Azerbaijan are convinced that the toponym Artsakh comes from the Sak-Scyth tribes, not Armenia.[8] Researchers maintain that the toponym Uti, like the origin of the toponym Artsakh, is related to the name of different Turkic tribes that settled in this area. Research conducted in recent years has proved that the etymology of each toponym has a meaning only in Turkic. The toponym Uti means “black people” or the “place where black people live.” However, while referring to the Turkic tribes that settled in this territory, it was stated that the meaning of the toponym Artsakh has its root either in the combination of er (hero-in Turkic) + sak (a Turkic tribe) or in art (mountain place, highland) + sak.[9] The region was called Artsakh until the occupation of Azerbaijan by the Arab Caliphate.
After the defeat of the Sasanid Empire (226–651) in the mid-seventh century, the Arab Caliphate began to gradually take the northern part of Azerbaijan under its control (705). During the Arab rule, the territory between the Kura and Aras rivers was called Arran and covered a large swathe of territory, including today’s Karabakh region. In the latter part of the seventh century and the early years of the eighth century, Islam spread rapidly to Azerbaijan as well as to Karabakh. Only in some parts of the highlands and the foothills the spread of Islam was not widespread. This was related to the living conditions of Arabs in the desert or the steppe, meaning that they found it difficult when they tried to get used to live in a mountainous area. The Christian Albanians living in Upper Karabakh replaced the name Artsakh, which had previously been used to refer to this territory, with Agvan, and called the territory they settled in “land of Agvan.”[10] In the ancient and early medieval centuries, the historical territory of Karabakh, therefore, covered the Uti and Artsakh regions of the Azerbaijan state of Caucasian Albania. During the rule of the Arabs in Azerbaijan, Uti and Artsakh were renamed Arran and Agvan, respectively.
The name Karabakh, referring to the inseparable part of Azerbaijan, originates in the words “black” and “garden” in the Azerbaijani language. The combination of “black” and “garden” has an old history. It is undeniable fact that the combination of these words was accepted as a name for the specific territory of Azerbaijan all over the world. The name Karabakh was used for the first time in Azerbaijan’s historiography in the thirteenth century as “Arran Qarabağı/Arran Karabakhi-Karabakh of Arran,” by Rashiduddin Fazlullah (1247–1318), Grand Vizier of Hulakues (Elkhanies) state (1256–1357), in his Jamiʻuʾt-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles: A History of the Mongols), when talking of the events of 1284.[11] Scholars maintain that historians of that period named this region “Arran Karabakh” to avoid confusing it with other Karabakhs outside Azerbaijan, especially “Bagdis Karabakh,” which is located in the south-east of Turkmenistan and the south-west of Afghanistan.[12]
Upper and Lower Karabakh, which have shared close economic and cultural ties throughout history, were geographically part of Arran. Although in some historical sources, Karabakh and Arran were presented as the same territorial unit, as a greater administrative-geographical unit Arran was part of Azerbaijan, and according to Azerbaijani historian Abu Bakr al-Gutbu al-Ahri, Karabakh was considered to be a “capital of Arran” or, more precisely, as a center of it.[13]
The frequent occurrence of the term “Arran Karabakh” in sources proves the connection between Karabakh and Arran. Here, “Arran Karabakh” does not refer to the Lowland Karabakh but rather to Karabakh located in the territory of Arran (Karabakh of Arran). In other words, it indicates belonging, meaning that the discussed Karabakh is specifically part of Arran and located in Arran, and in Persian-language sources written in the 13th–15th centuries, it is presented in the same way – in the form of “Arran Karabakh.” The medieval authors used the expression “Arran Karabakh” to show that it was located within the Arran territory and to distinguish it from other regions called Karabakh inhabited by Turkic peoples.[14]
It is natural for every country to have plains, mountains, and valleys. Therefore, there is no basis or need to interpret Arran Karabakh as Lowland Karabakh in contrast to the fabricated term “Nagorno-Karabakh,” focusing on the more mountainous part of Karabakh. The sources do not mention the term “Nagorno-Karabakh.” The sources discuss both the lowland and mountainous parts of it as a unified Karabakh.[15]
In the latter part of the fourteenth century and the early years of the fifteenth century, Karabakh was used alongside the word Arran, and it sometimes even replaced it. However, as an administrative unit, it covered the central part of the territory of Arran. As a territorial unit, it consisted of a territory that comprised highlands and foothills areas. During the Middle Ages, it was possible to come across various villages and cities in Azerbaijan called Karabakh. In the mid-seventeenth century, Evliya Celebi, an Ottoman traveler, stated in his Seyahatnâme (Book of Travels) that besides the historical Karabakh region, there was a Qarabaglar (Eng: Garabaghlar, Garabağlar, Garabaglylar) village in Nakhchivan and a city called Karabakh, with approximately 10,000 inhabitants, in the Arasbar region of South Azerbaijan.[16]
Opinions and ideas vary regarding the meaning of Karabakh [Black Garden]. People called Karabakh because of the “black grape” planted in its fertile soil or the existence of various “black-leaved gardens” in this area.[17]
The history of how “Garabagh/Karabakh” became a name for the specific region and area of Azerbaijan requires further, better scientific explanations concerning its etymology because, in addition to the meaning of color, the word “qara” (black) in Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages has other meanings, such as “sıx” (dense), “qalın” (thick), “böyük” (big, large), and “tünd” (strong). The word Karabakh, therefore, acquires such meanings as “qara bağ” (dark garden), “böyük bağ” (a large garden), “sıx bağ” (a dense garden), “qalın bağ” (a thick garden), and “səfalı bağ” (a picturesque garden).[18] According to some scholars, the spread of “Karabakh” as a name within the territory of Azerbaijan was due to the Pechenegs (a semi-nomadic Turkic people), who lived in the territory known as Artsakh, the upper part of today’s Karabakh, between the fifth and the tenth centuries. Afterward, this name referred also to the lower or steppe side of Karabakh.[19]
Kitabi-Dede Gorgud (The Book of Dede Gorgut), a legendary and heroic epic poem of the Azerbaijan and Turkic world, also proves that Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, and various Turkic ethnos have lived in this region since ancient times. The heroic stories in the Book of Dede Korkut were spread widely around all territories of Azerbaijan, including Karabakh and the region around Goyche Lake, during the sixth and seventh centuries. In addition, the famous Oguzname (Oguz epic) in the name of Kitabi-Diyarbekriyye, written by Abu Bekr al-Tehrani al-Isfahani at the request of the great statesman of Azerbaijan Uzun Hasan (Hasan the High) (1468–1478), the emperor of Agqoyunlu (White Sheep Turkmen) Empire, shows that the summer mountain pastures around Goyche Lake and Karabakh belonged to ancient Oguz Turks; Oguz Khagan, who was considered the ancestor of Oguz Turks and was buried on the shore of Goyche Lake; and Bayandur Khagan lived and was buried in Karabakh on the pastures around the Goyche Lake.[20]
[1] Гейбуллаев, Гиясаддин, К этногенезу Азербайджанцев (Баку: Элм, 1991), p. 74.
[2] Mehdiyev, Ramiz, Gorus-2010: Season of Theater of Absurd (Universal, 2010) p. 40.
[3] Мамедова, Фарида, Кавказская Албания и албаны (Баку: Азернешр, 2005), p. 647.
[4] Məmmədova, Fəridə, Azərbaycanın (Albaniyanın) siyasi tarixi və tarixi coğrafiyası (Bakı: Azərnəşr, 1993), p. 94.
[5] Məmmədova, Azərbaycanın (Albaniyanın) siyasi tarixi və tarixi coğrafiyası, p. 95. See also: Тревер К.В. Очерки по истории и культуре Кавказской Албании (Москва-Ленинград, 1959), p. 146.
[6] Məmmədova, Azərbaycanın (Albaniyanın) siyasi tarixi və tarixi coğrafiyası, p. 96.
[7] Məmmədova, Azərbaycanın (Albaniyanın) siyasi tarixi və tarixi coğrafiyası, pp. 94–95
[8] Худадов, В.Н., Закавказье. Историко-экономический очерк (Москва-Ленинград, 1926), p. 32.
[9] Məmmədov, Tofiq, Qafqaz Albaniyası ilk orta əsrlərdə (Bakı: Təhsil, 2006), p. 49.
[10] Qeybullayev, Qiyasəddin, Qarabağ (etnik və siyasi tarixinə dair) (Bakı: Elm, 1990), p. 136.
[11] Рашид-ад-дин, Фазлуллах, Сборник летописей, Том III, (Перевод с персидского А.К. Арендса. Под редакцией А.А. Ромаскевича, Е.Э. Бертельса и А.Ю. Якубовского), (Москва-Ленинград, 1946), p. 104.
[12] Mahmudov Y.M., and Şükürov K.K., Qarabağ: real tarix, faktlar, sənədlər (Bakı, 2009), p. 11. See also: Nəcəfli, Tofiq, “XV–XVII yüzilliklərdə Qarabağın ictimai-siyasi həyatı,” in Yılmaz, Reha (ed.), Qarabağ bildiklərimiz və bilmədiklərimiz (Qafqaz Universiteti, 2010), p. 65.
[13] Əl-Əhəri, Əbu Bəkr əl-Qütbü, Tarix-e Şeyx Uveys (Translation from Persian language, preamble, comments, and notes by M.D. Kazımov and V.Z. Piriyev) (Bakı, 1984), p. 57. See also: Nəcəfli, “XV–XVII yüzilliklərdə Qarabağın ictimai-siyasi həyatı,” p. 65.
[14] Ağayev, Ramil, “Azərbaycanın Qarabağ bölgəsi VII–IX əsrlərdə,” İpək Yolu, Xüsusi buraxılış 2021, p. 42.
[15] Ağayev, “Azərbaycanın Qarabağ bölgəsi,” p. 42.
[16] Çelebi, Evliya, Seyahatnâme (Book of Travels), Vol. 2 (İstanbul, 1314), pp. 235–242.
[17] Sami, Şemsettin, Kamusu’l – A’lam, Vol. 5 (Ankara: Kaşgar neşriyat, 1996), p. 3621.
[18] Piriyev, V. Z., Azərbaycanın tarixi-siyasi coğrafiyası (Bakı: Araz, 2002), p. 98.
[19] Гейбуллаев, Г. А., Топонимия Азербайджана (Баку, 1986), p. 145. See also: Piriyev, V. Z., Azərbaycan XIII–XIV əsrlərdə (Bakı, 2003), p. 98.
[20] Mahmudov and Şükürov, Qarabağ: real tarix, faktlar, sənədlər, p. 19.
