The Place of Toponyms in The History of Azerbaijan

Abstract

The formation of each nation is the result of an uninterrupted ethnic process that has continued throughout history. The ethnic process in society takes place on the basis of certain components. The components of the ethnic process are tribes, clans, peoples and nations. In a word, as a result of the processes of consolidation and assimilation, an ethnos known under one name leaves the stage of history after a certain historical stage, replaces another ethnos, one melts and the other dominates. In other words, in order to study the origin of our people, it is necessary to reveal the names of ethnic groups living in the South Caucasus and their ethnicity. It is clear that different tribes and tribal associations played a great role in the formation of peoples. Neighboring peoples and especially the various Turkic-speaking tribes that have existed throughout history should unite. These relations can be realized as a result of some toponymic research, because toponymic units reflect this process.
 The toponymy of Azerbaijan has a very ancient history. Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, as well as Russian and European travelers were interested in Azerbaijan and expressed different views on the geographical names of its territory. After the 1950s, the research of a number of prominent scientists developed the science of toponymy and made it somewhat independent. Although toponyms are subject to morphological changes in some cases, on the whole they are stronger than the grammatical structure of the language. An example of this is the Azerbaijani toponymy. Research, historical-typological-analysis of toponymic names and their scientific generalization help to reveal very complex and necessary issues of the language and history of our people. The discovery of these facts once again confirms that the toponyms of Turkish origin are older in the South Caucasus.
 The aim of the article is to investigate the history of toponyms and the place of toponyms in the history of Azerbaijan.