Caucasian Albania — The Other Albania
When we say “Albania,” most people picture the Adriatic coast and the Balkans. Yet far to the east, between the Greater Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea, there once existed another Albania — Caucasian Albania — a forgotten civilization at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
Caucasian Albania roughly covered what is today Azerbaijan and parts of southern Dagestan. It was a mosaic of tribes living along the Kura River, farmers in fertile valleys and warriors in rugged highlands. Ancient Greek and Roman writers knew it as Albanía, likely a name tied to mountains and highlands.
From the 1st century BCE onward, it existed as a kingdom caught between great empires — Persia to the south, Rome to the west, and steppe peoples to the north. Survival meant negotiation, adaptation, and shifting alliances.
One of its most remarkable chapters began in the 4th century, when Caucasian Albania adopted Christianity, forming its own church and even its own alphabet. For centuries this script was thought lost — until manuscripts were rediscovered in Sinai in the 20th century, proving that Caucasian Albania had a distinct literary and religious tradition.
Over time, however, the kingdom faded. Arab conquest, Islamization, and cultural assimilation slowly dissolved it into surrounding identities. By the medieval period, “Caucasian Albania” had vanished as a political entity, surviving mainly in chronicles and in the small Udi community of today.
Here’s the twist: the name Azerbaijan originally referred mostly to lands south of the Araxes River, in modern Iran. In the 20th century, that name was applied to the northern territory — the heartland of historic Caucasian Albania.
So when you stand in Baku today, you are in what was once Albanian land — bearing a name that migrated from elsewhere.
Caucasian Albania reminds us that borders change, names move, and history is always more layered than the map suggests.
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