Pages: 363-373| DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp255363373

This study explores the sedentarization of medieval Turkic tribes and its role in the Turkification of non-Turkic populations and in strengthening the Turkic ethnic units in Azerbaijan. The objectives of the study are to examine a wide range of written sources and archaeological data using methods of historical analysis and cultural anthropology. 
Monotheization, particularly Islamization, was a significant factor, as religious practices required regular visits to holy places, encouraging a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Military successes also played a crucial role, enabling the establishment of state formations and the sedentarization of the Turkic military elite through systems like the feudal iqta system. Conquests of urbanized regions further promoted urbanization among nomadic nobility. For the broader Turkic population, sedentarization was a gradual process, involving shifts in livestock management toward sedentary pastoralism.
In Azerbaijan, these factors led to the integration of Turkic tribes with local populations, resulting in the dominance of the Turkic language and ethnic unions.

Keywords: sedentarization, nomadism, Turks, Middle East, Azerbaijan

Information about author:

Lala Aliyeva (Baku, Azerbaijan). PhD. Baku State University. Academic Zahid Khalilov St., 23, AZ 1148, Baku, AZ-1073/1, Azerbaijan
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-4831-6915