Caucasian Albania

This article is about the political entity. For the geographic region, see Arran (Caucasus). For the province, see Caucasian Albania (Sasanian province).

Caucasian Albania
2nd century BC  – 8th century AD
Caucasian Albania in the 5th and 6th centuries[1]
Caucasian Albania in the 5th and 6th centuries[1]
StatusInitial state/s unknown; later vassal kingdom and province of the Sasanian Empire and the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates
CapitalKabalak (Qabala); Partaw (Barda)
Common languagesCaucasian Albanian, Parthian,[2] Middle Persian,[3][4] Armenian[5]
Religion
Paganism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
2nd century BC  
• Disestablished
 8th century AD
Today part ofAzerbaijan
Georgia
Armenia

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 the Udi people, who regard themselves as descended from the inhabitants of Caucasian Albania. However, its original endonym is unknown.[6][7][8]

The name Albania is derived from the Ancient Greek name Ἀλβανία and Latin Albanía,[9] created from Greek sources that incorrectly translated the Armenian language.[10][11] The prefix "Caucasian" is used to avoid confusion with Albania in the Balkans, which has no geographical or historical connections to Caucasian Albania.

Little is known of the region's prehistory, including the origins of Caucasian Albania as a geographical and/or ethnolinguistic concept. In the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, the area south of the Greater Caucasus and north of the Lesser Caucasus was divided between Caucasian Albania in the east, Caucasian Iberia in the center, Kolchis in the west, Armenia in the southwest and Atropatene to the southeast.

In 252, Caucasian Albania acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire, appearing among its provinces in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. The kingdom would remain an integral part of the empire until its fall. By the end of the 3rd-century, the kings of Caucasian Albania were replaced with an Arsacid family, and would later be succeeded by another Iranian royal family in the 5th century AD, the Mihranids.

  1. ^ Hewsen 2001, p. 41.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ToumanoffIranica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference VAS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fortson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Walker, Christopher J. (2000). "Mountainous Karabagh". In John Wright; Richard Schofield; Suzanne Goldenberg (eds.). Transcaucasian Boundaries. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 145. ISBN 9781135368500. Armenian culture became important in Caucasian Albania and, by the eight century, Armenian appears to have been spoken throughout much of the region.
  6. ^ Robert H. Hewsen. "Ethno-History and the Armenian Influence upon the Caucasian Albanians", in: Samuelian, Thomas J. (Ed.), Classical Armenian Culture. Influences and Creativity. Chicago: 1982, pp. 27-40.
  7. ^ Bosworth, Clifford E. Arran. Encyclopædia Iranica.
  8. ^ U.S. Army Special Forces Language Visual Training Materials - ARMENIAN + Defense Language Institutue (DLI) Selected Aspects of the New Independent States Religion/Culture Volume I: Country Area Studies--Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia. p. 259.
  9. ^ James Stuart Olson. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. ISBN 0-313-27497-5
  10. ^ Bais, Marco. Albania Caucasica: Ethnos, Storia, Territorio Attraverso Le Fonti Greche, Latine E Armene. Mimesis, 2001.
  11. ^ Dudwick, Nora. “The Case of the Caucasian Albanians: Ethnohistory and Ethnic Politics.” Cahiers Du Monde Russe et Soviétique, vol. 31, no. 2/3, 1990, pp. 377–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20170734.