Editing Azerbaijan (section)

== Etymology ==
{{further|Atropatene|Caucasian Albania|Azerbaijan (toponym)}}
The term ''Azerbaijan'' derives from ''[[Atropates]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Houtsma |first=M. Th. |author-link=Martijn Theodoor Houtsma |year= 1993 |title= First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936 |edition= reprint|publisher= Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09796-4}}</ref><ref name="Schippmann">{{cite book |last=Schippmann |first=Klaus |year=1989 |title=Azerbaijan: Pre-Islamic History |pages= 221–224 |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica |isbn=978-0-933273-95-5}}</ref> a [[Persians|Persian]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Chamoux |first=François |year=2003 |title=Hellenistic Civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/hellenisticcivil00cham |url-access=limited |page= [https://archive.org/details/hellenisticcivil00cham/page/n37 26] |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |isbn=978-0-631-22241-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Bosworth A.B. |first=Baynham E.J. |year=2002 |title=Alexander the Great in Fact and fiction |page= 92 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-925275-6}}</ref> [[satrap]] under the [[Achaemenid Empire]] who was reinstated as the satrap of [[Medes|Media]] under [[Alexander the Great]].<ref name="Chaumont">Nevertheless, "despite being one of the chief vassals of Sasanian ''[[Shahanshah]]'', the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sassanid ''[[marzban]]'' (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority.</ref><ref name="dictionary">{{cite book |last=Swietochowski |first=Tadeusz |author-link=Tadeusz Swietochowski |year=1999 |location= Lanham, Maryland |title=Historical Dictionary of Azerbaijan |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-3550-4}}</ref> The original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant [[Zoroastrianism]]. In the [[Avesta]]'s ''Frawardin [[Yasht]]'' ("Hymn to the Guardian Angels"), there is a mention of {{lang|ae|âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide}}, which translates from [[Avestan]] as "we worship the ''[[fravashi]]'' of the holy [[Atropatene]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Darmesteter |first=James |author-link=James Darmesteter |year=2004 |title=Avesta Khorda Avesta: Book of Common Prayer |page=93 |edition=reprint |chapter=Frawardin Yasht |chapter-url=http://www.avesta.org/ka/yt13sbe.htm |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=978-1-4191-0852-5 |access-date=4 February 2007 |archive-date=29 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929002203/http://www.avesta.org/ka/yt13sbe.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The name "Atropates" is the Greek transliteration of an [[Iranian languages|Old Iranian]], probably [[Median language|Median]], compounded name with the meaning "Protected by the (Holy) Fire" or "The Land of the (Holy) Fire".<ref name="Library of Congress">{{cite web |title=Azerbaijan: Early History: Iranian and Greek Influences |publisher=U.S. Library of Congress |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+az0014) |access-date=7 June 2006 |archive-date=12 December 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212005248/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+az0014) |url-status=live }}</ref> The Greek name was mentioned by [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Strabo]]. Over the span of millennia, the name evolved to {{transliteration|pal|Āturpātākān}} ([[Middle Persian]]), then to {{transliteration|fa|Ādharbādhagān}}, {{transliteration|fa|Ādhorbāygān}}, {{transliteration|fa|Āzarbāydjān}} (New Persian) and present-day ''Azerbaijan''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sabahi |first1=Farian |title=La pecora e il tappeto: i nomadi Shahsevan dell'Azerbaigian iraniano |date=2000 |publisher=Ariele |isbn=978-88-86480-74-1 |page=23 |language=it}}</ref>

The name ''Azerbaijan'' was first adopted by the government of [[Musavat]] in 1918<ref name="Atabaki2006">{{cite book |last=Atabaki |first=Touraj |author-link=Touraj Atabaki |title=Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3adD9kNH1gC&pg=PA132 |date=4 September 2006 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-964-6 |page=132}}</ref> after the [[Russian Revolution|collapse of the Russian Empire]], when the independent [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic]] was established. Until then, the designation had been used exclusively to identify the [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran]],<ref name="I.B.Tauris">{{cite book |last1=Atabaki |first1=Touraj |title=Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran |date=2000 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-554-9 |page=25}}</ref><ref name="I.B. Tauris">{{cite book |last1=Dekmejian |first1=R. Hrair |last2=Simonian |first2=Hovann H. |title=Troubled Waters: The Geopolitics of the Caspian Region |date=2003 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-922-6 |page=60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_jdnke35AgC|quote=Until 1918, when the Musavat regime decided to name the newly independent state Azerbaijan, this designation had been used exclusively to identify the [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Iranian province of Azerbaijan]].}}</ref><ref name="Amsterdam University Press">{{cite book |last1=Rezvani |first1=Babak |title=Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan: academisch proefschrift |date=2014 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-90-485-1928-6 |page=356 |quote="The region to the north of the river Araxes was not called Azerbaijan prior to 1918, unlike the region in northwestern Iran that has been called since so long ago."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fragner |first1=B.G. |title=Soviet Nationalism: An Ideological Legacy to the Independent Republics of Central Asia |date=2001 |publisher=I.B. Tauris and Company |pages=13–32 |quote=In the post Islamic sense, Arran and [[Shirvan]] are often distinguished, while in the pre-Islamic era, Arran or the western [[Caucasian Albania]] roughly corresponds to the modern territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In the Soviet era, in a breathtaking manipulation, [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|historical Azerbaijan]] (northwestern Iran) was reinterpreted as "South Azerbaijan" for the Soviets to lay territorial claim on historical Azerbaijan proper which is located in modern-day northwestern Iran.}}</ref> while the area of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was formerly referred to as ''[[Arran (Caucasus)|Arran]]'' and ''[[Shirvan]]''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MybbePBf9YcC |first=Touraj |last=Atabaki |title=Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2000 |page=8|isbn=978-1-86064-554-9 }}</ref> On that basis Iran protested the newly adopted country name.<ref>{{cite book |quote=(...) the Baku and Elisavetpol guberniias, declared their independence (to 1920), and, despite Iranian protests, took the name of Azerbaijan (as noted, the same designation as the historical region in northwestern Iran) (...) |last=Bournoutian |first=George A. |year=2016 |title=The 1820 Russian Survey of the Khanate of Shirvan: A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of an Iranian Province prior to its Annexation by Russia |publisher=Gibb Memorial Trust |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5u4mDwAAQBAJ|isbn=978-1-909724-83-9 }}</ref><!-- BEFORE MODIFYING THIS SENTENCE, PLEASE DISCUSS AT TALK -->

During Soviet rule, the country was also spelled in Latin from the [[Russian transliteration]] as ''{{transliteration|ru|Azerbaydzhan}}'' ({{langx|ru|Азербайджа́н}}).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTU7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA162|title=The languages of the Soviet Union|last=Comrie |first= Bernard|date=1981|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29877-3|location=Cambridge [England]|page=162|oclc=6627395}}</ref> The country's name was also spelled in [[Cyrillic script]] from 1940 to 1991 as ''{{lang|ru|Азәрбајҹан}}''.