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Azerbaijanis, Azeris, Azerbaijani Turks, or Azeri Turks, are a people of the Caucasus and Middle East numbering between 23 to 45 million people. They are commonly associated with Republic of Azerbaijan and the regions of northwestern Iran (mainly in the Iranian Azerbaijan), as well as neighbouring areas.

Origins

Their origins are disputed, with some historians calling them descendants of Iranian and Caucasian peoples and others maintaining that they are descendants of various Turkic peoples.

Most historians agree that they are descendants of Iranian and Caucasian peoples who were linguistically assimilated by Turkic tribes (primarily Oghuz Turks and Kipchaks). A minority among professionals believe instead that they are descendants of various bodies of Turks but primaraly the Oghuz Turks who had inhabited Azerbaijan since the 6th century, and who in a series of mass-migrations from Central Asia during Seljuk rule in the 10th and 11th centuries created a majority population in the land, uniting previous Turkic inhabitants. The later group also believe that prior to that there were also traces of Caucasian peoples, such as the tribe of Chols as well as Indo-Europeans, who are often labeled as Iranic people.

The controversy is unlikely to be settled, even by archaoloical evidence from controlled, professionally excavated sites, which would establish cultural connections at inhabited sites, or by population genetics, which would offer clues to the waves of human migration that have repeatedly tranformed the Caucasus. Official ideologies and local social unrest have rendered neutral, scientifically-based resolution difficult.

Language

Main article: Azerbaijani language

The Azerbaijanis speak Azerbaijani (sometimes called Azerbaijani Turkish or Azeri) which is a Turkic language, close to Turkish and Turkmen (see also Turkic peoples). The standard Azerbaijani language developed from the 10th century onwards.

Some claim that prior to the 10th century, there were various Turkic dialects spoken across the region, and that the Book of Dede Qorqud, a historic epic, was written in the Azerbaijani language in the 6th and 7th centuries. Others consider the book to be written in an early Ottoman dialect.

Development

The modern written language of the Azerbaijanis developed from the 10th to the 13th centuries, after the Oghuz Turkic migrations and the decline of the Oghuz Yabgu state in Central Asia. This is the timespan that is called Azerbaijan's cultural and linguistic "golden age".

Demographics

There are about total 23 to 45 million Azerbaijanis in the world, but census figures are incomplete.

It is estimated that there are 16 million to 22 million Azerbaijanis in Iran, 4 million to 8 million in Azerbaijan, 600 thousand to 2.16 million in Russia, possibly over one million in the US, between 50 and 500 thousand in each of Ukraine and Germany, more that 300 thousand in Turkey, 286 thousand in Georgia, and 78.3 thousand to 200 thousand in Kazakhstan. The UK, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan also have some populations of Azerbaijanis living there.

More than 90% of Azerbaijanis are Shia Muslims, but there are also Sunni Muslims, Eastern orthodox, and evangelical Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Baha'is. Some people claim that in recent years there have been many conversions to Sunni Islam.

See also: List of Azerbaijanis

• Azerbaijan