IRS-HERITAGE: ZOROASTRIAN LEGENDS OF THE BAKU MAIDEN TOWER

 by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Baku's Maiden Tower, view from the Sea, photo, 19th century, Baku, Azerbaijan

Posted from:

Khalifa-zadeh M, Khalifazadeh L, Zoroastrian Legends of the Baku Maiden Tower, IRS-HERITAGE, 2023, N 55, pp 33-39, available at: https://irs-az.com/en/journal/no-55-2023/457

Abstract:

The article focuses on the historical heritage of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, discussing cultural sediments related to the Baku Maiden Tower.  The tower is Baku’s architectural and historical landmark, deeply rooted in the ancient history of Azerbaijan, but its design, purpose, and date of construction remain unknown. The Maiden Tower is a source of legends and epics that enrich Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage and identity. The authors refer to legends rooted in the history of Zoroastrians in Azerbaijan, a land of fire. The legends, as the authors believe, mirror the Zoroastrian origin of the tower; however, an academic answer remains a mystery until today.  

Download PDF:

https://irs-az.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/Heritage_55_2023%20%28small%29%20copy%204.pdf

American-British Strategic Partnership: Global and Regional Components

by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Posted from:

Khalifa-zadeh M., British-American Strategic Partnership: Global and Regional Components, Central Asia and Caucasus, CA&C Press AB, Sweden, 2004, Vol. 5 No. 2, 159-164, available at: https://www.ca-c.org/index.php/cac/article/view/402

Download PDF: https://www.ca-c.org/index.php/cac/article/view/402/381         or

https://www.academia.edu/108459197/British_American_Strategic_Partnership_Global_and_Regional_Components 

https://www.ca-c.org/index.php/cac/article/view/402/381

Abstract

The lightning counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan carried out under the U.S. aegis in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11 demonstrated beyond a doubt the special importance of the British-American strategic partnership and its stability. The U.K. actively supported the United States in Afghanistan and in Iraq in March 2003. By their actions, the sides confirmed the partnership’s key role in shaping America’s foreign and defense policy and ensuring its security; they demonstrated that London and Washington could coordinate their foreign policy moves and wage a war in any geopolitical region independently and on their own.

It should be noted that their close foreign policy and military cooperation is based on long-term bilateral cooperation. According to political analysts, consistent bilateral cooperation, a product of several decades, serves as a solid foundation for the sides’ “special relations,” which, in turn, give rise to the sides’ mutually complementary policy. The present developments show that these close ties have created a unique and successful political phenomenon—the British-American alliance—the influence of which will probably rise to the fore in global politics.

The U.S. and U.K. efforts to settle some of the international crises and their recent “blitzkrieg” in Iraq show that with the Eastern bloc out of the way, this alliance is capturing the leading positions in the world and is claiming the role of a global policymaker. The scope and the impact of the alliance on European and world policies are assuming strategic importance.

The very fact that in the post-communist era, the United States, supported by Britain, is actively extending the zone of its political control in Europe and Asia demonstrates that the alliance is acquiring fundamental and policy-forming influence in the world and in geopolitical regions (the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia among them).

 Anybody wishing to assess the alliance’s impact on the U.S.’s policies and strategy should pay particular attention to the European and global components of the alliance’s policies. This approach offers a more correct appraisal of the political situation in such complex geopolitical regions as the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia.

Armenia, Albania and Iberia in the Sasanian Period, III-V Century

 by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Armenia, Albania, and Iberia in the Sasanian period, III-V centuries,
Legend in Russian, Lukonin, Moscow, 1969

The stretching of Albania (Pahlavi: Arrān) over the left and right sides of the Kur/a river (Old Persian: Kuruš⁠, Greek: Κῦρος Kyros, Latin: Cyrus, Azerbaijani/Turkish: Kür) in the Sasanian Period, III-VII centuries. 

Following the division of Sasanian Armin/a (Latin: Armenia) between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires in 387 AD, the Sassanids transferred the Kur/a river right bank's territories (Pahlavi toponyms*): Uti/k, Šakašēn, Kołṭʿ (now Nakhcivan in Azerbaijan), Khachen, Ar’sax, Gardman/Girdiman to Albania (Garsoian 1997, Chaumont 2014). 

In 428 AD, the Sassanids also transferred Armin/a's P'aytakaran (now Baylagan in Azerbaijan) and Parskahayk to Aturpatakan (Pahlavi: Ādurbādagān) [now Iranian Azerbaijan] (Greenwood 2008).

Albania in the Sasanian period, IV-VII centuries, https://www.azerbaijans.com/content_362_en.html

*As American scholar James Robert Russell (1985) correctly mentioned, all Armenian toponyms are borrowings from the Parthian Arsacid and Sasanian periods (Pahlavi).

Sources:

Lukonin V.G., Kultura Sasanidskogo Irana, ("Культура Сасанидского Ирана. Иран в III-V вв"), Moscow, 1969, 244, available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/445940284/Lukonin-v-g-kultura-sasanidskogo-irana-iran-v-iiiv-vv

Garsoian N., The Marzpanate (428-652), in: The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, ed. Richard Hovannisian, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. p. 95-117, available at: https://archive.org/details/garsoian-1997-marzpanate/page/96/mode/2up

Greenwood T., Sasanian Reflections in Armenian Sources, e-Sasanika, 2008; p.15:28, available at: https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/c/347/files/2020/01/e-sasanika3-Greenwood.pdf

Chaumont M.L., "ALBANIA", Encyclopedia Iranica, 2014, Vol. I/8, pp. 806-810, available at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/albania-iranian-aran-arm/

Russell, J.R.,  “Armeno-Iranica,” in D. Bivar and J. Hinnells, eds., Papers in Honor of Professor Mary Boyce (Acta Iranica 25), Leiden, 1985, pp. 447-458, available at: https://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Armenian/armeno-iranica.pdf

Map of Azerbaijan in the Safavid period

by Mahir Khalifazadeh

Created: 4 August, 2025

Azerbaijan within the Safavid Empire, Stephen P. Blake, Cambridge University, 2013

The Safavid Empire, Stephen P. Blake, Cambridge University, 2013

Source:

Stephen P. Blake, “Time in Early Modern Islam Calendar, Ceremony, and Chronology in the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman Empires”; Cambridge University Press, 2013, 21-47, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139343305.004