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