Origin of the Azerbaijanis

This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. (September 2014)

The Azerbaijani people are a Turkic ethnic group of mixed ethnic origins, primarily the indigenous peoples of eastern Transcaucasia, the Medians, an ancient Iranian people, and the Oghuz Turkic tribes that began migrating to Azerbaijan in the 11th century CE.^{[N 1]} Modern Azerbaijanis are the second most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks^[2] and speak North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and/or South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq and Syria). Both languages also have dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects^[3] and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects.^[4]

The Azerbaijani are of mixed ethnic origin, the oldest element deriving from the indigenous population of eastern Transcaucasia and possibly from the Medians of northern Persia.^[5] Between the 3rd and 7th centuries CE, there was a Persianization of the population, during the period of the Sassanian dynasty.^[5] A subsequent Turkification of the population occurred after the region’s conquest by the Seljuq Turks in the 11th century and a continued influx of Turkic peoples over subsequent centuries – including groups that migrated during the Mongol conquests of the 13th century (most of the tribes that formed the Mongol forces, or were led by them to migrate were Turkic peoples.)^[5]

Cite error: There are <ref group=N> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=N}} template (see the help page).