Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now western Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan. 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.
Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī, was a 12th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet. Nezāmi is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is widely appreciated and shared by Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kurdistan region and Tajikistan.
Arran, also known as Aran, Ardhan, Al-Ran, Aghvank and Alvank, or Caucasian Albania, was a geographical name used in ancient and medieval times to signify the territory which lies within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of Kura and Aras rivers, including the highland and lowland Karabakh, Mil plain and parts of the Mughan plain, and in the pre-Islamic times, corresponded roughly to the territory of modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan. The term is the Middle Persian equivalent to the Greco-Roman Albania. It was known as Aghvania, Alvan-k in Armenian, and Al-ran in Arabic.
The Shaddadids were a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1174 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia.
Dvin was a large commercial city and the capital of early medieval Armenia. It was situated north of the previous ancient capital of Armenia, the city of Artaxata, along the banks of the Metsamor River, 35 km to the south of modern Yerevan. The site of the ancient city is currently not much more than a large hill located between modern Hnaberd and Verin Dvin, Armenia. Systematic excavations at Dvin that have proceeded since 1937 have produced an abundance of materials, which have shed light into the Armenian culture of the 5th to the 13th centuries.
Rawwadid or Ravvadid or Banū Rawwād (955–1071), was a Muslim ruling family centered in historic Azerbaijan between the late 8th and early 13th centuries.
The Sajid dynasty, was an Iranian Muslim dynasty that ruled from 889-890 until 929. The Sajids ruled Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia first from Maragha and Barda and then from Ardabil. The Sajids originated from the Central Asian province of Ushrusana and were of Iranian (Sogdian) descent. Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Saj Diwdad the son of Diwdad, the first Sajid ruler of Azerbaijan, was appointed as its ruler in 889 or 890. Muhammad's father Abu'l-Saj Devdad had fought under the Ushrusanan prince Afshin Khaydar during the latter's final campaign against the rebel Babak Khorramdin in Azerbaijan, and later served the caliphs. Toward the end of the 9th century, as the central authority of the Abbasid Caliphate weakened, Muhammad was able to form a virtually independent state. Much of the Sajids' energies were spent in attempting to take control of neighboring Armenia. The dynasty ended with the death of Abu'l-Musafir al-Fath in 929.
al-Malik al-Afdal Najm ad-Dīn Ayyūb ibn Shādhi ibn Marwān was a Kurdish soldier and politician from Dvin, and the father of Saladin. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Ayyubid dynasty.
Barda is the capital city of the Barda Rayon in Azerbaijan, located south of Yevlax and on the left bank of the Tartar river. It was the capital of Caucasian Albania perhaps since the end of the fourth century, Barda became the chief city of the Islamic province of Arran, the classical Caucasian Albania, remaining so until the tenth century.
Al-Fadhl ibn Muhammad al-Shaddadi (also al-Fadl ibn Muhammad, Fadl ibn Muhammad, Fadlun ibn Muhammad, Fadhlun ibn Muhammad, or Fadl I was the Shaddadid emir of Arran from 985 to 1031. Of Kurdish origin, al-Fadhl was called "Fadhlun the Kurd" by ibn al-Athir and other Arabic historians. Al-Fadhl was the first Shaddadid emir to issue coinage, locating his mint first at Partav and was later transferred to Ganja.
The Sallarid dynasty, was an Iranian Muslim dynasty ruled in Tarom, Samiran, Daylam, Gilan and subsequently Azerbaijan, Arran, some districts in Eastern Armenia in the 2nd half of the 10th century. They constitute the period in history that has been named the Iranian Intermezzo, a period that saw the rise of native Iranian dynasties during the 9th to the 11th centuries.
Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Persian and Kurdish history, geography, literature, and culture.
The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
Sahl Smbatjan Eṙanshahik was an Armenian prince of Arran and Shaki, who played a considerable role in the history of eastern Caucasus during the 9th century and was the ancestor of the House of Khachen established in 821.
Lashkari ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a Kurdish ruler, the son of Muhammad ibn Shaddad. Along with his brothers, he captured Ganja from the Sallarids in 971, coming into control of the region of Arran. After his death in 978, he was succeeded by his brother Marzuban ibn Muhammad.
Marzuban ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a Kurdish ruler, the brother of Lashkari ibn Muhammad. He succeeded his brother to the throne of the Shaddadids in 978. He was incompetent, however, and reigned only until his murder by his younger brother al-Fadhl ibn Muhammad in 985.
Anushirvan ibn Lashkari was the son and successor of Lashkari ibn Musa and briefly the seventh emir of the Shaddadids at Ganja in 1049.
Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the city of Dvin from 1022 as an autonomous lord. A capable warrior, and a wise and cunning ruler, Abu'l-Aswar was engaged in several conflicts with most of his neighbours. During his rule over Dvin, he was mostly involved in the affairs of the Armenian principalities. He collaborated with the Byzantine Empire in its conquest of the last remnants of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, but when the Byzantines later turned on him, he survived three successive offensives that sought to take Ganja. In 1049, a revolt in Ganja overthrew his infant great-great-nephew, Anurshirvan. The rebels invited him to take up the family's emirate, and he moved from Dvin to Ganja. Under his rule, the Shaddadid dynasty reached its zenith. He undertook successful campaigns into Georgia and Shirvan, although the limits of Shaddadid power were exposed by his failure to take over the Emirate of Tiflis and by devastating raids by the Alans. At the same time, his reign witnessed the rapid rise of the Seljuk Empire and the extension of its control over the Transcaucasian principalities. Abu'l-Aswar became a Seljuk vassal in 1054/5. Although he gained control over the former Armenian capital of Ani through Seljuk patronage in 1065, this association also paved the way for the dynasty's decline after his death in November 1067.
Ashot ibn Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl was a Shaddadid prince, the second son of Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl. During the captivity of his older brother Fadl ibn Shavur by the Georgians in 1068, he ruled in his stead as emir of Arran for eight months, even minting coins in his own name and that of his overlord, the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan.
The Justanids or Jostanids was an Iranian dynasty that ruled a part of Daylam from 791 to the late 11th-century.