Azerbaijan
 The Republic of Azerbaijan is a small country located in the eastern part of the Isthmus of Caucasus and inhabited mostly by Turkic-speaking Muslim Azerbaijani. The region belonged for centuries to Persia, but became part of the Russian Empire in the early 1800s. Azerbaijani are a proud and ancient people of Turkic stock. They speak Azeri Turkish, a language whose script uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Azerbaijani are predominantly Shi'ite Muslims, but decades of official Soviet atheism have contributed to a decline in religious fervor.
Azerbaijan lies south of the Great Caucasus mountain range, bordering on Armenia and Georgia to the west, Russia to the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, and Iran to the south. It is a country of varied scenery, with lowlands and steppes taking up about half of its area. The Great Caucasus ridges in the north are noted for their rugged beauty. The climate of Azerbaijan is subtropical in the center and east, and moderately cold in the north and west. The capital of the country, Baku, has a very pleasant, dry climate for most of the year.
Two autonomous regions are part of Azerbaijan. The predominantly Armenian-inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh ("Nagorno" means "Upper," indicating its mountainous character) is located in southwestern Azerbaijan, and only a narrow strip of land separates it from Armenia.
The other autonomous region is Nakhichevan, which lies sandwiched between Armenia and Iran. There is also a large territory called Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, which is separated from the Azerbaijan Republic by the Araks River.
Illiteracy was substantially reduced during the Soviet era. There are almost 20 institutes of higher learning, the largest being the Azerbaijan Institute of Petroleum and Chemistry. In 1989, a higher Islamic school, a madrassa, was opened in Baku for Shi'ite Muslims. It was the first such institution permitted since 1920, when all 'eligious schools were closed down.
Azerbaijani trace the beginning of their literature to the 7th century, when the area came under Arab influence. The greatest medieval literary flourishing took place in the 11th and 12th centuries, after Azerbaijan became part of the Persian Empire. Following the Russian conquest in the early 1800s, Azerbaijani culture was influenced by Europe.
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