Mirza Adel F. Hei'atlary

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬 (𝐏𝐚𝐡𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐢 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧: 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧), 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐡 💚🕊️❤️ 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐧: ✳️ Yaqut al-Hamawi is one of the greatest geographers and historians of the Islamic world in the 6th-7th century AH, whose fame stems from his monumental book Mu'jam al-Buldan; a book that provides us with invaluable information about the cities of that era, and Yaqut himself had traveled to most of these regions. ✳️ Yaqut al-Hamawi has said much about Azerbaijan, but he makes not the slightest reference to the people of Azerbaijan being "Turkic-speaking"; rather, he calls the language there "Azari," which no one but themselves could understand. ✳️ Hamavi said: "The people there [Azerbaijan] have beautiful, rosy-complexioned faces and soft skin; and they have a language called Azari, which no one understands except themselves." ✳️ The term "Azeri language" refers to the Azerbaijani Pahlavi language, which apparently was used in Azerbaijan until just before the Mongol invasion, and the people of other regions of Iran who spoke New Persian could not understand that dialect. ✳️ Yagut, continuing in the same report, says that at that time, Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah was the ruler of Iran; meaning that, without a doubt, prior to the Mongol invasion and the establishment of the Ilkhanate government with its capital in Azerbaijan, the language of Azerbaijan had not yet changed to Turkish. ✳️ A century later, and after the Mongols had settled in Iran, we see that the Turkish language gradually took root in the region. Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini, the eminent geographer and historian of the 8th Hijri century and a member of the administrative bureaucracy of the Ilkhanid government, in his book Nuzhat al-Qulub, makes an interesting observation about the city of Kaghazkhanan: ✳️ Kāghazkān: ... it is now in ruins, with only about ten villages remaining, and the people there follow the Shāfiʿī school [of thought] ... the places that were initially among its dependencies numbered nearly thirty-five, which were destroyed during the Mongol interregnum, and now, since it is a Mongol settlement and they engage in agriculture there, it is called Māghūliya. ✳️ Placing these two documents side by side—one written before the Mongol invasion and the other after—vividly illustrates how the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, after gaining dominance over Iran and ruling the cities of Azerbaijan, gradually and over time supplanted the widespread use of the native Pahlavi dialects with Turkish. 🟣🟣🟣 P.S.: In the text, Yaqut says: "The people of Azerbaijan have beautiful, rosy-complexioned faces and delicate skin." This physical characteristic, which is still clearly visible in Azerbaijan today, is an interesting document proving that the people of Azerbaijan have not undergone any particular genetic changes over these past seven centuries, and only their language has changed.