Shirvan - Medieval History and Etymology

Medieval History and Etymology

Vladimir Minorsky believes that names such Sharvan (Shirwan), Layzan and Baylaqan are Iranian names from the Iranian languages of the Coast of Capsian. Shervan is a male name is Persian, means cypress tree (Sarv is the Arabic equivalent, used in today's Persian language to describe a cypress tree), reference (Dehkhoda dictionary). However the name is also connected popularly to Anushiravan, the Sassanid King. Another meaning of Shirwan according to the Dehkhoda dictionary is protector/protected of/by the lions. Shirvan in Kurdish means protector of the lion, the name is widely used for male and there is a castle near Kirkuk (south Kurdistan or Turkmeneli) called Qalai Shirwana or Shirvana.

According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Shirwan proper comprised the easternmost spurs of the Caucasus range and the lands which sloped down from these mountains to the banks of the Kur river. But its rulers strove continuously to control also the western shores of the Caspian Sea from Ḳuba (the modern town of Quba) in the district of Maskat in the north, to Baku in the south. To the north of all these lands lay Bab al-Abwab or Derbend, and to the west, beyond the modern Goychay, the region of Shaki. In mediaeval Islamic times, and apparently in pre-Islamic Sāsānid ones also, Shirwan included the district of Layzan, which probably corresponds to modern Lahidj, often ruled as a separate fief by a collateral branch of the Yazidi Shirwan Shahs.

The 19th century native historian and writer Abbasgulu Bakikhanov defines it as: "The country of Shirvan to the east borders on the Caspia Sea, and to the south on the river Kur, which separates it from the provinces of Moghan and Armenia".