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Old Azeri
Azeri/Azari, Adhari
آذری Āzarī
Native toIran
RegionIranian Azerbaijan
EthnicityAzaris
Erac. 700–300 BCE evolved from Median [1],
c. 300–700 CE formation and adoption[2],
891 CE earliest surviving attestation[3],
c. 1600 CE end of dominance[4][5][6]
Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologadha1238
A page from the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi, the Ottoman world traveler, which deals with the spread of the Azeri language among the women of Maragheh city in the 10th century AH.

Old Azeri (آذری, Āzarī; also spelled Adhari, Azeri or Azari) is the extinct Iranian language that was once spoken in the northwestern Iranian historic region of Azerbaijan (Iranian Azerbaijan) before the Turkification of the Azerbaijani people. Some linguists believe the southern Tati varieties of Iranian Azerbaijan around Takestan such as the Harzandi and Karingani dialects to be remnants of Old Azeri.[7][8][9] Along with Tat dialects, Old Azeri is known to have strong affinities with Talysh and Zaza language and Zaza and Talysh are considered to be remnants of Old Azeri.[10][11] Iranologist linguist W. B. Henning demonstrated that Harzandi has many common linguistic features with both Talysh and Zaza and positioned Harzandi between the Talysh and Zaza.[11]

Old Azeri was the dominant Iranic language in Azerbaijan before it was replaced by Azerbaijani, which is a Turkic language.[9]

Initial studies

[edit]

Ahmad Kasravi, a preeminent Iranian Azeri scholar and linguist, was the first scholar who examined the Iranian language of Iran's historic Azerbaijan region. He conducted comprehensive research using Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Greek historical sources and concluded that Old Azeri was the language of this region of Iran before it adopted the Turkic language of the same name. Historical research showed that Azeris were an Iranic people before the arrival of Seljuq Turks to the region.[12]

Linguistic affiliation

[edit]

Old Azari was spoken in most of Azerbaijan at least up to the 17th century, with the number of speakers decreasing since the 11th century due to the Turkification of the area. According to some accounts, it may have survived for several centuries after that up to the 16th or 17th century. Today, Iranian dialects are still spoken in several linguistic enclaves within Azarbaijan. While some scholars believe that these dialects form a direct continuation of the ancient Azari languages,[9] others have argued that they are likely to be a later import through migration from other parts of Iran, and that the original Azari dialects became extinct.[13]

According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th or 10th century:

The original sedentary population of Azarbayjan consisted of a mass of peasants and at the time of the Arab conquest was compromised under the semi-contemptuous term of Uluj ("non-Arab")—somewhat similar to the raya (*ri’aya) of the Ottoman empire. The only arms of this peaceful rustic population were slings, see Tabari, II, 1379-89. They spoke a number of dialects (Adhari, Talishi) of which even now there remains some islets surviving amidst the Turkish speaking population. It was this basic population on which Babak leaned in his revolt against the caliphate.[14]

Clifford Edmund Bosworth says:

We need not take seriously Moqaddasī’s assertion that Azerbaijan had seventy languages, a state of affairs more correctly applicable to the Caucasus region to the north; but the basically Iranian population spoke an aberrant, dialectical form of Persian (called by Masʿūdī al-āḏarīya) as well as standard Persian, and the geographers state that the former was difficult to understand.[15]

Igrar Aliyev states that:[16]

1. In the writing of medieval Arab historians (Ibn Hawqal, Muqqaddesi..), the people of Azarbaijan spoke Azari.

2. This Azari was without doubt an Iranian language because it is also contrasted with Dari but it is also mentioned as Persian. It was not the same as the languages of the Caucasus mentioned by Arab historians.

3. Azari is not exactly Dari (name used for the Khorasanian Persian which is the Modern Persian language). From the research conducted by researchers upon this language, it appears that this language is part of the NW Iranian languages and was close to Talyshi language. Talyshi language has kept some of the characteristics of the Median language.

Aliyev states that medieval Muslim historians like al-Baladhuri, al-Masudi, ibn Hawqal and Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned this language by name.[16] Other such writers are Estakhri, Ibn al-Nadim, Hamza al-Isfahani, al-Muqaddasi, Ya'qubi, Hamdallah Mustawfi and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.[9]

According to Gilbert Lazard, "Azarbaijan was the domain of Adhari, an important Iranian dialect which Masudi mentions together with Dari and Pahlavi."[17]

According to Richard N. Frye, Azari was a major Iranian language and the original language of Iranian Azerbaijan. It gradually lost its status as the majority language by the end of the 14th century.[18]

Historical attestations

[edit]

Ebn al-Moqaffa’ (died 142/759) is quoted by ibn Al-Nadim in his famous Al-Fihrist as stating that Azerbaijan, Nahavand, Rayy, Hamadan and Esfahan speak Fahlavi (Pahlavi) and collectively constitute the region of Fahlah.[19]

A very similar statement is given by the medieval historian Hamzeh Isfahani when talking about Sassanid Iran. Hamzeh Isfahani writes in the book Al-Tanbih ‘ala Hoduth alTashif that five "tongues" or dialects, were common in Sassanian Iran: Fahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi and Soryani. Hamzeh (893-961 CE) explains these dialects in the following way:[20]

Fahlavi was a dialect which kings spoke in their assemblies and it is related to Fahleh. This name is used to designate five cities of Iran, Esfahan, Rey, Hamadan, Man Nahavand, and Azerbaijan. Persian is a dialect which was spoken by the clergy (Zoroastrian) and those who associated with them and is the language of the cities of Fars. Dari is the dialect of the cities of Ctesiphon and was spoken in the kings' /dabariyan/ 'courts'. The root of its name is related to its use; /darbar/ 'court* is implied in /dar/. The vocabulary of the natives of Balkh was dominant in this language, which includes the dialects of the eastern peoples. Khuzi is associated with the cities of Khuzistan where kings and dignitaries used it in private conversation and during leisure time, in the bath houses for instance.

Ibn Hawqal states:[9]

The language of the people of Azerbaijan and most of the people of Armenia is Iranian (al-farssya), which binds them together, while Arabic is also used among them; among those who speak al-faressya (here he seemingly means Persian, spoken by the elite of the urban population), there are few who do not understand Arabic; and some merchants and landowners are even adept in it".

Ibn Hawqal mentions that some areas of Armenia are controlled by Muslims and others by Christians.[21]

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Al-Masudi (896-956), the Arab historian states:

The Persians are a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azarbaijan up to Armenia and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz...All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language...although the language differed slightly. The language, however, is one, in that its letters are written the same way and used the same way in composition. There are, then, different languages such as Pahlavi, Dari, Azari, as well as other Persian languages.[22]

Al-Moqaddasi (died late 10th century) considers Azerbaijan as part of the 8th division of lands. He states:"The languages of the 8th division is Iranian (al-‘ajamyya). It is partly Dari and partly convoluted (monqaleq) and all of them are named Persian".[23]

Al-Moqaddasi also writes on the general region of Armenia, Arran and Azerbaijan and states:[24]

They have big beards, their speech is not attractive. In Arminya they speak Armenian, in al-Ran, Ranian (the Caucasian Albanian language). Their Persian is understandable, and is close to Khurasanian (Dari Persian) in sound

Ahmad ibn Yaqubi mentions that the People of Azerbaijan are a mixture of Azari 'Ajams ('Ajam is a term that developed to mean Iranian) and old Javedanis (followers of Javidan the son of Shahrak who was the leader of Khurramites and succeeded by Babak Khorramdin).[25]

Zakariya b. Mohammad Qazvini's report in Athar al-Bilad, composed in 1275, that "no town has escaped being taken over by the Turks except Tabriz" (Beirut ed., 1960, p. 339) one may infer that at least Tabriz had remained aloof from the influence of Turkish until the time.[9]

From the time of the Mongol invasion, most of whose armies were composed of Turkic tribes, the influence of Turkish increased in the region. On the other hand, the old Iranian dialects remained prevalent in major cities. Hamdallah Mostawafi writing in the 1340s calls the language of Maraqa as "modified Pahlavi" (Pahlavi-ye Mughayyar). Mostowafi calls the language of Zanjan (Pahlavi-ye Raast). The language of Gushtaspi covering the Caspian border region between Gilan to Shirvan is called a Pahlavi language close to the language of Gilan.[26]

Following the Islamic Conquest of Iran, Middle Persian, also known as Pahlavi, continued to be used until the 10th century when it was gradually replaced by a new breed of Persian language, most notably Dari. The Saffarid dynasty in particular was the first in a line of many dynasties to officially adopt the new language in 875 CE. Thus Dari is considered the continuation of Middle Persian which was prevalent in the early Islamic era of western Iran. The name Dari comes from the word (دربار) which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished.

The Iranian dialect of Tabriz

[edit]

According to Jean During, the inhabitants of Tabriz did not speak Turkish in the 15th century.[27]

The language of Tabriz, being an Iranian language, was not the standard Khurasani Dari. Qatran Tabrizi (11th century) has an interesting couplet mentioning this fact:[28]

بلبل به سان مطرب بیدل فراز گل
گه پارسی نوازد، گاهی زند دری

Translation:
The nightingale is on top of the flower like a minstrel who has lost her/his heart

It bemoans sometimes in Parsi (Persian) and sometimes in Dari (Khurasani Persian)

There are extant words, phrases, sentences and poems attested in the old Iranian dialect of Tabriz in a variety of books and manuscripts.[29]

Hamdullah Mustuwafi (14th century) mentions a sentence in the language of Tabriz:[30]

تبارزه اگر صاحب حُسنی را با لباس ناسزا یابند، گویند "انگور خلوقی بی چه در، درّ سوه اندرین"؛ یعنی انگور خلوقی (انگوری مرغوب) است در سبد دریده

"The Tabrizians have a phrase when they see a fortunate and wealthy man in a uncouth clothes: "He is like fresh grapes in a ripped fruit basket."

A Macaronic (mula'ma which is popular in Persian poetry where some verses are in one language and another in another language) poem from Homam Tabrizi, where some verses are in Khorasani (Dari) Persian and others are in the dialect of Tabriz.[31]

بدیذم چشم مستت رفتم اژ دست // كوام و آذر دلی كویا بتی مست // دل‌ام خود رفت و می‌دانم كه روژی // به مهرت هم بشی خوش گیانم اژ دست // به آب زندگی ای خوش عبارت // لوانت لاود جمن دیل و گیان بست // دمی بر عاشق خود مهربان شو // كزی سر مهرورزی كست و نی كست // به عشق‌ات گر همام از جان برآیذ // مواژش كان بوان بمرت وارست // كرم خا و ابری بشم بوینی // به بویت خته بام ژاهنام

Another Ghazal from Homam Tabrizi where all the couplets except the last couplet is in Persian. The last couplet reads:[32]

«وهار و ول و دیم یار خوش بی // اوی یاران مه ول بی مه وهاران» Transliteration: Wahar o wol o Dim yaar khwash Bi Awi Yaaraan, mah wul Bi, Mah Wahaaraan

Translation: The Spring and Flowers and the face of the friend are all pleasant But without the friend, there are no flowers or a spring.

Another recent discovery by the name of Safina-yi Tabriz has given sentences from native of Tabriz in their peculiar Iranian dialect. The work was compiled during the Ilkhanid era. A sample expression from the mystic Baba Faraj Tabrizi in the Safina:[33]

انانک قده‌ی فرجشون فعالم آندره اووارادا چاشمش نه پیف قدم کینستا نه پیف حدوث

Standard Persian (translated by the author of Safina himself):

چندانک فرج را در عالم آورده‌اند چشم او نه بر قِدَم افتاده است نه بر حدوث

Modern English:

They brought Faraj in this world in such a way that his eye is neither towards pre-eternity nor upon createdness.

The Safina (written in the Ilkhanid era) contains many poems and sentences from the old regional dialect of Azerbaijan. Another portion of the Safina contains a direct sentence in what the author has called "Zaban-i-Tabriz" (dialect/language of Tabriz)[34]

دَچَان چوچرخ نکویت مو ایر رهشه مهر دورش
چَو ِش دَ کارده شکویت ولَول ودَارد سَر ِ یَوه
پَری بقهر اره میر دون جو پور زون هنرمند
پروکری اَنزوتون منی که آن هزیوه
اکیژ بحتَ ورامرو کی چرخ هانزمَویتی
ژژور منشی چو بخت اهون قدریوه
نه چرخ استه نبوتی نه روزو ورو فوتی
زو ِم چو واش خللیوه زمم حو بورضی ربوه

A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-i-Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa:[35]

«علیشاه چو در آمد گستاخ وار شیخ را در کنار گرفت و گفت حاضر باش بزبان تبریزی گو حریفر ژاته یعنی سخن بصرف بگو حریفت رسیده است. در این گفتن دست بر کتف مبارک شیخ زد شیخ را غیرت سر بر کرد» The sentence: "Gu Harif(a/e)r Zhaatah" is mentioned in Tabrizi Dialect.

A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz by Pir Zehtab Tabrizi addressing the Qara-qoyunlu ruler Eskandar:[28]

اسکندر، رودم کشتی، رودت کشاد "Eskandar, Roodam Koshti, Roodat Koshaad!"

(Eskandar, you killed my son, may your son perish!")

The word Rood for son is still used in some Iranian dialects, especially the Larestani dialect and other dialects around Fars.

Four quatrains titled fahlavvviyat from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani (died 677/1278-79); born in Kojjan or Korjan, a village near Tabriz, recorded by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi.[29][36] A sample of one of the four quatrains from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani

همه کیژی نَهَند خُشتی بَخُشتی
بَنا اج چو کَه دستِ گیژی وَنیژه
همه پیغمبران خُو بی و چو کِی
محمدمصطفی کیژی وَنیژه

Two qet'as (poems) quoted by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi in the dialect of Tabriz (died 838/1434-35; II, p. 142).[29][36] A sample of one these poems

رُورُم پَری بجولان
نو کُو بَمَن وُرارده
وی خَد شدیم بدامش
هیزا اَوُو وُرارده

A Ghazal and fourteen quatrains under the title of fahlaviyat by the poet Maghrebi Tabrizi (died 809/1406-7).[29][37]

A text probably by Mama Esmat Tabrizi, a mystical woman-poet of Tabriz (died 15th century), which occurs in a manuscript, preserved in Turkey, concerning the shrines of saints in Tabriz.[9][38]

A phrase "Buri Buri" which in Persian means Biya Biya or in English: Come! Come! is mentioned by Rumi from the mouth of Shams Tabrizi in this poem:

«ولی ترجیع پنجم درنیایم جز به دستوری
که شمس‌الدین تبریزی بفرماید مرا بوری
مرا گوید بیا، بوری که من باغم تو زنبوری
که تا خونت عسل گردد که تا مومت شود نوری»

The word Buri is mentioned by Hussain Tabrizi Karbali with regards to the Shaykh Khwajah Abdur-rahim Azh-Abaadi as to "come".[39]

In the Harzandi dialect of Harzand in Azerbaijan as well as the Karingani dialect of Azerbaijan, both recorded in the 20th century, the two words "Biri" and "Burah" means to "come" and are of the same root.[40][clarification needed]

On the language of Maragheh

[edit]

Hamdollah Mostowfi of the 13th century mentions the language of Maragheh as "Pahlavi Mughayr" (modified Pahlavi).[41]

The 17th-century Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Chelebi who traveled to Safavid Iran also states: "The majority of the women in Maragheh converse in Pahlavi".[28]

According to the Encyclopedia of Islam:[42] "At the present day, the inhabitants speak Adhar Turkish, but in the 14th century they still spoke "arabicized Pahlawi" (Nuzhat al-Qolub: Pahlawi Mu’arrab) which means an Iranian dialect of the north western group."

See also

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References

[edit]

Sources

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Old Azeri

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Old Azeri, also known as Āḏarī or Azari, is an extinct northwestern Iranian language formerly spoken across the historic region of , encompassing parts of modern-day northwestern and adjacent areas of the . It belonged to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European , exhibiting affinities with Parthian and other Median-derived dialects such as those of Ray, , and . The language served as the vernacular of the region from antiquity until the CE, when Oghuz Turkic migrations under the Seljuqs initiated a process of linguistic shift, leading to a progressive decline in Old Azeri speakers. Historical accounts by medieval Persian geographers, including Hamdallah Mustaufi in the , attest to Old Azeri as distinct from Persian yet mutually intelligible to some degree, underscoring its status as a major Iranian dialect. By the 16th to 17th centuries, Old Azeri had largely vanished, supplanted by the Turkic , though pockets persisted in rural areas; the latest direct evidence includes a verse in Old Azeri from recorded by the 17th-century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi. Modern scholarly reconstruction, pioneered by Iranian linguist in his 1930s treatise Azari, or the Ancient Language of Azerbaijan, relied on such sporadic attestations, toponymic evidence, and surviving related dialects like Tati to affirm its Iranian character and trace its phonological and lexical features. This linguistic transition reflects broader patterns of Turkicization in the region driven by demographic movements rather than cultural erasure, with Old Azeri leaving substratal influences in local Turkic varieties.

Linguistic Classification

Affiliation and Subgrouping

Old Azeri belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian , part of the broader Indo-European family. Within , it is classified as a Northwestern Iranian language, distinct from the Southwestern subgroup that includes Persian. This affiliation is supported by lexical, phonological, and morphological features preserved in surviving attestations and related dialects, aligning it more closely with ancient influences than with Persian proper. Linguists subgroup Old Azeri within the Caspian or southeastern Northwestern Iranian cluster, showing strong genetic affinities to modern Talyshi, spoken along the southern Caspian coast. Some scholars, including Ahmad Kasravi, propose that southern Tati varieties—such as Harzandi in eastern Azerbaijan and Karingani near the Aras River—represent direct remnants or continuations of Old Azeri, retaining archaic features like conservative consonant clusters and vocabulary not found in Southwestern Iranian languages. Medieval Arabic sources, such as al-Masʿūdī (d. 956 CE), describe Āḏarī as a language akin to but separate from "Dari" Persian, reinforcing its independent status within the Iranian continuum. Debates persist on precise subgrouping, with Igrar Əliyev arguing for a Median-Parthian substrate linking Old Azeri to other Northwestern languages like Gilaki and Mazandarani, though limited textual evidence precludes definitive trees. Unlike Southwestern languages, Old Azeri exhibited Northwestern traits such as the preservation of initial *w- (e.g., in place names) and ergative alignments in early forms, distinguishing it from Persian's nominative-accusative structure. These features underscore its role as a major pre-Turkic idiom in the Caucasus-Iranian linguistic zone until the 16th–17th centuries.

Relation to Modern Iranian Languages

Old Azeri, also known as Āḏarī, is classified as a , specifically within the Tatic subgroup, which encompasses dialects historically spoken in the region of prior to widespread Turkicization. This affiliation places it alongside other Northwestern branches, including those linked diachronically to dialects, distinguishing it from Southwestern Iranian languages like Persian. Linguistic features such as the retention of personal enclitics, ergative constructions with oblique cases, and the present indicative marker *-ant align Old Azeri with broader Northwestern patterns observed in modern Caspian dialects like Gilaki and Mazandarani. The language shares significant isoglosses with contemporary Northwestern Iranian tongues, particularly Talysh and Tati, which are spoken today in southern and adjacent areas of northern . Talysh, for instance, exhibits phonological parallels, such as certain clusters, and morphological traits like aspect marking that echo Old Azeri's inferred structures. Tati dialects, grouped under the same Tatic umbrella, preserve right-branching typologies and / distinctions potentially inherited from Old Azeri substrates. These connections suggest that Talysh and Tati may represent partial survivals or conservative continuations of Old Azeri, though direct descent is debated due to limited textual attestations of the , with inferences drawn primarily from toponyms, glosses in sources, and comparative reconstruction. Further affinities extend to the Zaza-Gorani cluster, another Northwestern Iranian group spoken in eastern Anatolia and western Iran, sharing ergative alignments and ezafe constructions that reflect common regional innovations. Unlike the Oghuz Turkic Azerbaijani that supplanted it, Old Azeri contributed substrates to local Iranian varieties, evident in shared vocabulary and phonological shifts, but its influence on modern Southwestern languages like Persian remains minimal beyond areal contacts. Scholarly consensus, as articulated by linguists like Gernot Windfuhr, positions Old Azeri as a key link in the diversification of Northwestern Iranian languages, with its decline by the 16th century leaving these modern pockets as the primary evidentiary heirs.

Historical Attestations

Early References in Arabic Sources

The earliest documented reference to the of , termed Āḏarī (Ar. al-āḏarīya), appears in a statement attributed to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ (d. 759 CE), as quoted by the bibliographer Ebn al-Nadīm in his (compiled ca. 987 CE). Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ described the speech of as differing from that of the Persians (Fārs), indicating a distinct dialect within the Iranian linguistic continuum rather than a non-Iranian . This observation, from the mid-8th century, underscores the pre-Turkic Iranian character of the region's vernacular, though direct textual remnants from this period are absent. By the 10th century, Arabic geographers provided more detailed attestations. Abu Dolaf Misʿar b. Moḥalhel al-Yaʿqubī (d. after 891 CE) noted in his geographical compendium that the people of Azerbaijan spoke a language akin to Persian but with local variations. Similarly, Ebn Ḥawqal (fl. mid-10th century), in his Ṣūrat al-arż, affirmed that the inhabitants of Azerbaijan and adjacent Arran employed an Iranian tongue (al-fārsīya), distinct from Arabic, which was limited to scholarly and administrative use. These accounts portray Āḏarī as a northwestern Iranian dialect, embedding it firmly within the Median-Parthian branch rather than equating it wholesale with central Persian (Dārī). Al-Moqaddasī (d. ca. 991 CE), in his Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm, elaborated that the of was Iranian (al-ʿajamīya), comprising elements of Dārī alongside indigenous features, and explicitly contrasted it with the spoken by elites. He remarked on linguistic diversity, suggesting up to seventy dialects in the province, though this likely reflects from and migration rather than discrete languages; cross-references with contemporaries like Eṣṭaḵrī confirm Āḏarī's dominance among the populace. These sources collectively evidence an established Iranian in through the , predating significant Turkic influxes. Later compilations, such as Yaʿqūbī's syntheses drawing from earlier itineraries, reinforced these observations without introducing novel contradictions, maintaining Āḏarī's Iranian affiliation. The consistency across these texts—spanning administrative reports and travelogues—lends credence to their depictions, as the authors relied on direct inquiries and local informants amid the Abbasid era's cultural exchanges, though potential biases toward Arabic-centric views may understate non-standard dialects.

Dialectal Evidence from Tabriz and Maragheh

Samples of the Tabrizi dialect of Old Azeri, an extinct Northwestern Iranian language, are preserved in quatrains and phrases recorded by 15th-century scholars associated with the region. Abd al-Qadir al-Maraghi (d. 1430), a music theorist born in nearby Maragha, quoted two qet'as (short poems) and additional verses in the local Tabrizi vernacular, which exhibit Iranian morphological patterns such as verb conjugations and vocabulary distinct from Oghuz Turkish influences prevalent by that era. These attestations, drawn from oral traditions amid ongoing Turkicization, indicate partial language retention among urban elites and commoners in Tabriz as late as the Timurid period (c. 1370–1507). ![Page from Seyednameh Olya Chalbi, known to exemplify Old Azari language usage in Maraghe][center] In Maragheh, dialectal remnants similarly point to Old Azeri's persistence as a local Iranian variety. The 14th-century geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi al-Qazwini described the speech of Maragheh's inhabitants as an "altered" form of Persian (fars-e moḥawwal), reflecting phonological shifts like those in other Āḏarī dialects but retaining core lexical and syntactic Iranian features. Manuscripts such as the Seyednameh Olya Chalbi document phrases and poetic fragments in this dialect, underscoring its use in religious and literary contexts into the post-Safavid era. Both Tabriz and Maragheh dialects shared traits like conservative vowel systems and case remnants, providing substrate evidence against complete pre-11th-century Turkic dominance, though elite adoption of Turkish accelerated shift by the 16th century. Persistence of such pockets into the 19th century, including Old Azeri compositions by poets like Ruhi Onarjani in Tabriz, corroborates gradual rather than abrupt replacement.

Linguistic Features

Phonology and Morphology

Old Azeri phonology featured several innovations typical of Northwestern , including the shift of intervocalic *t to r, as seen in forms like * "life" from Proto-Iranian *jit- and *āmarim "I came" from *āmat-. Intervocalic *č developed into j, evidenced in verbs such as *riji "he pours" deriving from *raēca-. Initial *j shifted to ž, appearing in words like * "life" and *žar "struck." Old Iranian *x and *xw simplified to h, as in * "he ate." Vowel changes included *ā to ū in some contexts, yielding *āžūr "free" contrasting with Persian āzād. Additionally, initial *fr became hr, as in *ahrā "tomorrow" versus Persian fardā. These traits align with those in surviving Tati dialects, such as Harzandi near and Kalasuri, supporting the reconstruction of Old Azeri sound changes from limited attestations and toponyms. Morphologically, Old Azeri retained inflectional characteristics of , with personal pronouns showing multiple forms: first person az or man with enclitic -m, and second person te or eštö with enclitic -r, the latter used in constructions like *ḥarīf-ar žāta "your contender has come." Nominal morphology included an or genitive marked by *-i, as in *ōyān-i banda "the servant of the Lord." Verbal morphology featured a second-person singular present indicative ending in -i, exemplified by *riji "you pour," and continuous presents formed from the past stem, such as *be-koštim "I kill." These patterns, inferred from residual dialects and comparative evidence with Talysh (e.g., žen "" sharing the j > ž shift), indicate less analytic structure than Southwestern like Persian, preserving older synthetic elements.

Vocabulary and Lexical Evidence

Lexical evidence for Old Azeri, also known as Āḏarī, is sparse and fragmentary, deriving primarily from scattered words, phrases, and verses preserved in medieval Persian and sources, as well as loanwords into Azeri Turkish and remnants in contemporary Tati dialects spoken in pockets of . These attestations, dating from the 8th to 15th centuries CE, reveal a Northwestern Iranian with features akin to Parthian and dialects, including phonetic shifts like Middle Iranian x to h and retention of archaic forms not found in standard Persian. Key sources include dobaytīs (double distichs) attributed to Shaikh Ṣafī-al-dīn of Ardabīl in Ṣafwat al-ṣafā (compiled ca. 1358 CE) and Selselat al-nasab-e Ṣafawīya, which contain 11 such poems mixing Āḏarī with Persian, providing verbs, nouns, and adverbs. Specific vocabulary items include ḥān meaning "house" or "caravanserai," attested in Balāḏorī’s Fotūḥ al-boldān ( CE) with the shift xān > ḥān, distinguishing it from Persian equivalents. From Shaikh Ṣafī’s dobaytīs, examples encompass dardažar ("ailing"), kušn ("field"), asra ("tear"), and ahra ("tomorrow"), the latter showing dialectal variants like Šāhrūdi asərk in modern Tati. Loanwords into Azeri Turkish, such as dīm ("face"), zamī ("land, field"), and olis (Azeri ulas, ""), persist from Āḏarī substrates, as documented in comparative studies of Tati influences. Further evidence appears in poetic forms: an anonymous qaṣīda from a 1329-1330 CE yields gūn ("soul," cf. Parthian gyān), sag ("stone," cf. Persian sang), and vūn ("blood," cf. vohunī). Badr Šīrvānī’s 15th-century ḡazals in the "Kanār Āb" include possessive čəman ("my"), prepositions až ("from") and vī ("without"), and present stems kar- ("to do") and vāč- ("to say"), highlighting enclitic pronouns like -r (e.g., mehr-ər "your love"). Homām Tabrīzī’s macaronic ḡazal (14th century CE) intersperses Tabrīzī words within Persian, while Maḡrebī Tabrīzī’s dobaytīs and Māmā ʿEṣmat’s mystical verses from Tabrīz manuscripts add to the corpus, though interpretations vary due to orthographic ambiguities in Arabic-script renderings. Place names and toponyms offer indirect lexical clues, such as Esparaḵūn (near Tabrīz, from spētak- "white," akin to Persian safīd), reflecting substrate morphology. Modern Tati dialects (e.g., in Kalāsūr, Ḵalḵāl, and Ṭāleš), surveyed through fieldwork from 1955-1972, preserve Āḏarī-derived lexicon, confirming continuity despite Turkic dominance, though scholars note limited substrate impact on Azeri Turkish vocabulary compared to Persian loans. This evidence, while not forming a full lexicon, underscores Old Azeri’s distinct Iranian profile, with analyses by scholars like W. B. Henning linking it to ancient Median varieties through stem formations and etymologies.

Decline and Language Shift

Timeline of Turkicization

The Turkicization of , involving the gradual replacement of the Iranian Old Azeri (Āḏarī) language with Oghuz Turkic dialects ancestral to modern Azerbaijani, commenced in the amid the Seljuk Empire's expansion. Oghuz Turkic tribes, migrating from , began settling in the region following Seljuk conquests in the 1030s–1070s, which integrated into their domains and introduced significant nomadic pastoralist populations that promoted Turkic as a of military elites and settlers. This initial phase marked the onset of bilingualism and lexical borrowing, with Old Azeri persisting as the substrate language among sedentary Iranian-speaking communities. The 13th century accelerated the shift through Mongol invasions (1219–1258), as the hordes under and successors incorporated large contingents of Turkic-speaking auxiliaries, leading to further demographic influxes and disruptions that favored mobile Turkic groups over rural Iranian speakers. Under the (1256–1335), administrative use of Persian coexisted with growing Turkic vernacular dominance in Azerbaijan, evidenced by toponyms and oral traditions shifting toward Turkic forms. The process remained incomplete, with Old Azeri attested in local dialects and poetry into the 14th–15th centuries, particularly in districts like and . From the 16th century, the (1501–1736), founded by Turkicized Shia tribes and led by Shah Ismail I—who composed verse in Oghuz Turkish—entrenched Turkic as the language of the ruling class and military, hastening elite-driven language adoption among the populace. By the mid-17th century, Turkic had become the majority language in urban centers and lowlands, though Old Azeri lingered in mountainous enclaves and among Talysh-related groups until the 18th–19th centuries, when Qajar administrative centralization and further migrations finalized the shift. Isolated Tati and other northwestern Iranian dialects, potential remnants of Old Azeri, survive today in pockets, underscoring the protracted, uneven nature of the transition driven by successive migrations rather than abrupt replacement.

Causal Factors: Migrations and Elite Adoption

The primary causal mechanism for the Turkicization of , supplanting Old Azeri, involved successive waves of Oghuz Turkic migrations from beginning in the . The Seljuk Turks, originating as nomadic confederations, initiated large-scale settlement following their victory at the Battle of Dandanakan in 1040 CE, which enabled conquests across Persia and by the 1050s under Tughril Beg; these migrations brought substantial numbers of Turkic speakers who established pastoral and military communities, altering the demographic balance in favor of Turkic linguistic dominance. Subsequent influxes, including Turkic auxiliaries accompanying the Mongol invasions from 1219–1258 CE under and his successors, intensified this process, as Mongol Ilkhanid rulers (1256–1335 CE) integrated Turkic tribal forces into their administration, leading to further settlement and bilingualism that marginalized Iranian vernaculars like Old Azeri. Elite adoption compounded these migratory pressures, as indigenous Iranian-speaking aristocracies and urban administrators pragmatically shifted to Turkic for access to power structures dominated by nomadic warrior elites. Dynasties such as the Eldiguzid Atabegs of (1136–1225 CE), who governed as Seljuk vassals, exemplified this, with local nobles adopting Oghuz dialects to facilitate military alliances and governance, thereby diffusing Turkic downward through patronage networks and courtly prestige. Later confederations like the Kara Koyunlu (1375–1468 CE) and Ak Koyunlu (1378–1501 CE), composed of Turkic tribes, reinforced this pattern, as Iranian elites in cities like integrated linguistically to retain influence amid recurrent Turkic-led polities, accelerating the erosion of Old Azeri in administrative and literary domains while it lingered in peripheral dialects until the 16th–17th centuries. This elite-driven mechanism, rooted in the prestige of Turkic as a of conquest and mobility, explains the incomplete but pervasive replacement without necessitating total population turnover, as evidenced by persistent Iranian substrate influences in modern Azerbaijani Turkish phonology and lexicon.

Scholarship and Debates

Foundational Studies

Ahmad Kasravi's 1925 treatise Āzari, ya zabān-e bāstān-e Āzarbāyjān marked the initial systematic scholarly examination of Old Azeri (Āḏarī), positing it as an Iranian language derived from a fusion of and or other Indo-Iranian elements, with evidence drawn from persistent local dialects in regions like and historical accounts of linguistic persistence amid Turkic migrations. Kasravi emphasized lexical and morphological parallels to Persian, arguing against Turkic origins for the region's ancient speech, though his analysis reflected broader Iranian nationalist efforts to underscore cultural continuity, potentially overstating Iranian exclusivity in the face of mixed Caucasian and other substrates. Vladimir Minorsky built on this foundation in early 20th-century works, including entries in the , where he outlined Āḏarī as the dominant Iranian vernacular of until the 11th-century Oghuz influx, supported by geographers' references to non-Turkic speech among sedentary populations around the 9th-10th centuries. Minorsky's approach integrated with , noting remnants in toponyms, glosses, and dialects like those recorded by 17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi in , while cautioning against romanticized reconstructions due to sparse direct attestations; his emphasis on gradual elite-driven prioritized causal migration patterns over abrupt replacement. These pioneering efforts established Old Azeri as a northwestern Iranian cluster, distinct yet affiliated with Parthian and branches, relying on indirect evidence such as bilingual name forms in medieval inscriptions and traveler observations rather than extensive corpora, as no full texts survive. Subsequent validations, including phonological analyses of relic forms (e.g., retention of Iranian ž and δ sounds), affirmed Minorsky's substrate model but highlighted the challenges of source scarcity, with chroniclers like al-Masʿūdī (d. 956 CE) providing early but incidental confirmations of Āḏarī's prevalence. Kasravi's and Minorsky's frameworks, despite interpretive variances—Kasravi's more prescriptive reconstruction versus Minorsky's empirically restrained —laid the groundwork for later debates on extinction timelines and Turkic superstrate influences.

Modern Controversies on Origins and Continuity

In the early , Iranian scholar established the existence of Old Azari as a distinct Northwestern Iranian through analysis of historical texts, including glosses and place names from sources like Hamza al-Isfahani's Kitab al-Tanbih (10th century), which preserve Azari vocabulary showing affinities with and Parthian dialects rather than Turkic structures. This classification was corroborated by in works such as Studies in Caucasian History (1953), who cited phonological shifts (e.g., preservation of initial w- and intervocalic d- sounds atypical of Oghuz Turkic) and lexical remnants matching modern Tatic languages like Talysh and Harzava. Empirical linguistic evidence, including substrate influences in modern Azerbaijani Turkish (e.g., Iranian-derived terms for agriculture and comprising up to 20-30% of non-Turkic in regional dialects), supports a model of language replacement rather than evolution from a proto-Turkic base, with Turkicization accelerating post-Seljuq migrations around 1070-1200 CE via elite dominance and gradual population admixture. Modern controversies primarily stem from Azerbaijani nationalist historiography, which, since in , has reframed Old Azari origins to assert primordial Turkic continuity, often portraying pre-11th-century as part of an ancient Oghuz-Turkic continuum linked to entities like the hypothetical "Turkic ." This narrative, promoted in state curricula and texts like those from the , dismisses Iranian classification as Iranian-centric fabrication, claiming instead that "Old Azari" remnants reflect archaic Turkic dialects distorted by Persian influence; however, such assertions lack primary linguistic attestation and contradict comparative philology, as no Turkic inscriptions or texts predate the in the region. Scholars critiquing this view, including those in , attribute it to post-Soviet identity construction prioritizing pan-Turkic solidarity over substrate realities, evidenced by suppression of discussions on Iranian toponyms (e.g., over 70% of hydronyms in retaining Indo-Iranian roots like sūp for ). Debates on continuity intensify around residual Azari pockets in southern (modern Iranian ), where 19th-century travelers like Lady Sheil documented monolingual Iranian-speaking villages in the 1840s, suggesting incomplete shift until Qajar-era urbanization; Azerbaijani responses invoke genetic studies (e.g., 2020s autosomal DNA analyses showing 20-40% Central Asian admixture) to argue ethnic persistence without linguistic rupture, yet these conflate genetic continuity with language phylogenetics, ignoring well-documented cases of shift in similar contexts (e.g., Anatolian Greeks adopting Turkish). Peer-reviewed rebuttals emphasize causal factors like 13th-16th century Ilkhanid and Safavid elite Turkicization, where Persian remained administrative but vernaculars yielded to Oghuz due to nomadic incursions displacing sedentary Iranian speakers, with no viable path for gradual "Turkicization" of an Iranian into agglutinative Turkic morphology. While Iranian scholarship occasionally overemphasizes unity to counter , the evidentiary tilt favors extinction of Old Azari as a by the 17th century, with modern Azerbaijani deriving from 11th-century Oghuz imports rather than endogenous .
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