Irandoost

After reading some other posts: About the name "Khankendi" is actually is a compound of two words Khan and Kand. The first word "Khan" is definitely of altaic origin, but the word "Kand" is actually Iranian origin and has entered Turkish. For example the word Khandagh in Arabic comes from the word Kandak in Persian. It means trench in that sense. Similarly the word Karabagh, Kara probably is the word Black in Altaic and Bagh means garden in persian. Actually Kara in Old Persian also means fort. But the word is most likely a compound and if I had to guess, the Kara part is taken from Altaic and not the Old Persian fort because the name is fairly recent. Of course as mentioned the name Azarbaijan, Baku, Lankoran, Ganja.. are all Persian. The Qajar kings spoke Persian in their court and were supporters of Persian culture like the Seljuqs. There are some people that of Qajar tribe but they speak mainly Persian now a days. It depends in which area of Iran they reside. Actually virtually almost (over 90%) you can find before the 20 century from the area of republic of Azarbaijan written by Muslims was Persian. But with the growth of pan-turkism, and also a desire to cut of that area from Iran, Persian language fell from its place and so did the connection of that area with Iran became severed. The Ghezedlbash today refers to people (mainly of Kurdish and Zaza) origin who practice a heterodox form of Islam. But actually the Ghezedlbash was a confederation of mainly Turkic speaking tribes (with some Kurdish admixture) that were followers of the Safavid dynasty in the religious sense. So they were formed in this era. The name Javanshir is again Persian Javan (young) and Shir (lion) and he was of Parthian(Iranian) descent and not Albanian. He ruled over the Albanian kingdom. This is a good article to read as well: http://www.iranchamber.com/geography/articles/arran.php

Hi there, Sorry to jump in, but I see some very distorted information. I am Iranian and this is my first post. Persian has been the common lingua franca of Iran for over 1000 years. Also the majority of Iran speak Persian language and 10-15% are languages very close to persian which do not have written literature: for example Gilaki/Mazandarani/Luri are considered dialects within Persian. This makes about 65-70% of Iran's population. In Iran despite the pan-turkist propaganda you might read in the newspapers of the republic of Azarbaijan, there are newspapers, radio, TV programs and etc. in all major minority languages like Kurdish, Azeri-Turkish and etc. There is also university departments that teach minority languages. The supreme leader of Iran is actually Azarbaijani (Ayatollah Khaemeni). Khaeme is a village close to Tabriz. Couple points I want to mention. Nezami Ganjavi was not Turkish and actually has derogatory terms describing turks. In all major Persian poems, including that of Nezami, Turks are usually described Cheshm-Tang (Narrow-eyed) which means of mongolian stock. Neither was Khaghani Turkish. Neither was Babak Khorramdin Turkish. Neither Zarthustra was Turkish. Neither Mahasti Ganjavi was Turkish. The Shervaanshahs were not Turkis either. The name Azarbaijan actually is Atrapaatekaan. Atoor meaning fire as in modern Kurdish Atir and Persian Azar and Pahlavi Atir. The name Azarbaijan predates the arrival of the first Oghuz tribesmen by about 1500 years. This name is not Turkish. Azari people are as much as Turkic as Black people that speak English are Anglo-Saxons. The war between the republic of Azarbaijan and Armenia is tragic. But I do not think neither country specially Azarbaijan is in a position to give lessons to Iran on how to treat its minority. Especially with its Lezgi, Talysh and Armenian separatist movement which reflects the states policty of pan-turkism prevalent in that country! Irandoost.