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Caucasian Albania
Wikipedia
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This region should not be confused with modern Albania and Albanians (Shqiptarë), who are a separate people from the Balkans, and only share the name coincidentally.

Caucasian Albania (or Aghbania) was an ancient state that covered what is now southern Dagestan and most of today's Azerbaijan of the Caucasus. For much of its history, the Caucasian Albania was a part of the Persian Empire.


Ancient population of Aghbania

Aran was a legendary ancestor and the eponym of the Albanians (Aghvan). Caucasian Albanians were one of the Ibero-Caucasian peoples, the ancient and indigenous population of modern southern Dagestan and Azerbaijan. The Mannaeans had one of the earliest states recorded as being established in the area as far as the Kura from ca. 800 BC, and they were rivals of Urartu and Assyria, but later fell under the rule of Urartu until their destruction and eventual assimilation by the Medes under Cyaxares in 616 BC. In ancient times, they were heavily mixed with the Persian people who settled in the area during the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid periods; and beginning with Alexander's conquests, the region south of the Kura became known as Media Atropatene (after Atropates, one of his generals).

Ancient tribes of the Caucasian Albania were: Abaris or Avars, Savir or Sabirs, Hers, Gargars, Gels, Caspians, Uties, Saks, and Sodes, who along with other tribes, constituted the Albanian tribal union. According to Strabo (1st C), the number of the Albanian tribes reached 26.


Creation of the Caucasian Albanian kingdom and its regions

The kingdom of Caucasian Albania (Aghbania) or (Aghvania) was founded in the late 4th - early 3rd century BC.The word "Aqva" and "Aqvanu" in modern Avar lannguage means "Life", and there is Valley named "Aqvanu" north of Kebel-oba in Zakatala rayon of Azerbaijan, were is singificant part of population is Avars. The Avars of Zakatala and Belokan rayon speak the dialekt of Avar language called "Thabelazul Matz" which means "The Language of Thabala". Thabala is akin to the name of the initial capital of the kingdom that pronounced in many different way Kabalaka, Shabala, Tabala, (present-day Gabala). And then later capital moved to the south to Partaw (present-day Barda).

One of main regions of Caucasian Albania, Hereti, was a part of Georgia (Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia) since the end of the 7th century. For centuries, this region had been a part of Persia. Since 1921, the part of Hereti now in the districts of Kakhi, Belakani and Zakatala, has been a part of Azerbaijan.

Another historical part of Albania, Artsakh (present-day Nagorno-Karabakh), is presently occupied by Armenian military forces. Armenian historians claim that Artsakh is and has been culturally a part of Armenia since ca. 100 BC.


Caucasian Albania and Armenian conquests

Parts of Caucasian Albania, including Artsakh and Uti on the right bank of the Kura river, were conquered by the Armenians. Armenia, according to Strabo, "a small country" on the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was expanded at this time by the kings Artashes and Zariadrij. They created an empire, often called Greater Armenia by Armenian historians.

Strabo, Ptolemy and Pliny all write that at this time, the border between Albania and the Greater Armenian empire was through the river Kura.

In 66 BC, following the defeat of the Armenian king Tigranes II at the hand of the Romans, the Armenian empire lost most of its territory. At this time, the Albanians regained control over their right bank territories conquered by Armenians. According to the ancient historian, Moses Kalankaytuk, author of "History of Aghvank", at this time, the southern border of Caucasian Albania was along the Araks river. Thus, referring to the events in 1st c. AD, he mentions "…someone from the family of Sisakan, one of the descendants of Yafet-Aran who inherited the plains and mountains of Albania beginning from the river Yeraskh (Araks) up to the castle of Hunarakert." (II, 21). The Armenian historian Moses of Chorene, who is considered in Armenian historiography "the father of Armenian history", also confirmed that Caucasian Albania's border was along the Araxes in the 1st century A.D.

Little is known about the history of Caucasian Albania during the 1st-4th centuries. During this time, part of Aghbania was conquered again by the Armenian kings, and they alternated control over the territory on the right bank of Kura (Artsakh and Uti provinces) several times until 387, when the Armenian kingdom was partitioned between the Persians and Romans. Aghbania, as an ally of Sassanid Persia, regained all the right bank of the river Kura up to river Araxes, including Artsakh.
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