Caucasian Albania: an International Handbook, edited by Jost Gippert and Jasmine Dum-Tragut. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2023. xi, 735 pp. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794687.

Abstract

The international handbook is devoted to a detailed analysis of Caucasian Albania, focusing on an intricate analysis of Caucasian Albania. The investigation is particularly attuned to the extent of activation of Azerbaijani revisionist tendencies subsequent to the Second Karabakh War in 2020 concerning the historical narrative, cultural nuances, and cultural heritage of the Caucasus region. Within the expanse of this handbook’s discourse, a meticulous examination is undertaken of the various pivotal junctures characterizing the phenomenon of historical revisionism surrounding the relatively lesser known “Caucasian Albania” and its populace, the “Caucasian Albanians,” both within the purview of academic scholarship and public discourse. Comprising sixteen in-depth chapters, this scholarly compendium rigorously scrutinizes and elucidates the primary factors underpinning the process of “Albanianization” as espoused by the Azerbaijani government and affiliated scholars, particularly regarding the Armenian civilizational heritage entrenched within Nagorno-Karabakh. The conceptual underpinnings of historical revisionism are methodically substantiated within this handbook. The post-Second Karabakh War landscape is delineated as a fertile ground where the Azerbaijani state apparatus and associated intellectual circles fervently advocated the “Albanianization” theory. This theory seeks to interconnect the historical trajectories of Azerbaijanis and Albanians, thereby positioning the Azerbaijani nation-state upon a shared historical bedrock alongside Armenia and Georgia. Against this backdrop, the conceptual framework of “Albanization” or the so-called “Albanian myth” emerges as a salient paradigm during and subsequent to the First and Second Karabakh Wars. This paradigm functions as a strategic instrument for discrediting the Armenian historical lineage vis-à-vis the disputed Karabakh territory.

Keywords

• First Karabakh War
• Second Karabakh War
• post-Soviet ethnogenesis
• Azerbaijanian revisionism
• historical revisionism
• Albanianising theory