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Very little is known about pre-Christian and pre-Islamic mythology in Eastern Transcaucasia; sources are mostly Hellenic historians like Strabo and based on archaeological evidence.
Barhail is one of the two major Pre-Abrahamic gods.[1] He keeps the sun on his right hand and the moon on his left hand. His right hand points East and left hand points West. If he allows his right hand to drop for too long, the world will fall under darkness forever. He decides if days should be longer or shorter.
Sabail is the other major Pre-Abrahamic god. He is protector of sea and wind. He stands perpendicular to Barhail. His left hand prevents floods and separates the oceans from the continents. His right hand keeps the weather calm. If he drops that hand, typhoons and storms can occur.
Strabo names the gods of the sun, the sky, and above of all, the moon, and equates them to the Greek gods Helios, Zeus, and Selene respectively:[2]
According to Strabo, human sacrifice was widely used in pre-Christian Albania:
And any one of those who, becoming violently possessed, wanders alone in the forests, is by the priest arrested, bound with sacred fetters, and sumptuously maintained during that year, and then led forth to the sacrifice that is performed in honour of the goddess, and, being anointed, is sacrificed along with other victims. The sacrifice is performed as follows: Some person holding a sacred lance, with which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, comes forward out of the crowd and strikes the victim through the side into the heart, he being not without experience in such a task; and when the victim falls, they draw auguries from his fall and declare them before the public; and when the body is carried to a certain place, they all trample upon it, thus using it as a means of purification.
Unlike many pagan nations, Caucasian Albanians did not practice ancestor worship. As Strabo states:
The Albanians are surpassingly respectful to old age, not merely to their parents, but to all other old people. And when people die it is impious to be concerned about them or even to mention them. Indeed, they bury their money with them, and therefore live in poverty, having no patrimony.
In East Albania, sacred lands existed in the islands of the Caspian Sea. Pomponius Mela wrote:
Talge [Cheleken], on the Caspian Sea, is fertile without being cultivated and is abundant in every root crop and fruit, but the local peoples consider it an abomination and a sacrilege to touch what grows there. They think that these things have been prepared by the gods and must be saved for the gods. Alongside those coasts that we have called deserted lie a number of equally deserted islands, which, being without names of their own, are called the Scythian Islands [3]
Like Greek, Chinese and Tengrist practices, local inhabitants considered several mountains to be sacred. This is the list of sacred mountains according to local legends:[4]
Almost every pagan temple has been replaced by churches. Notable temples were:
Huns migrated to Caucasus in 6th century AD. They established a polity here. Bishop Israel wrote about the customs of the Huns and their deities:
According to a legend, Bartholomeus came to a place on the shore of the Caspian Sea which is likely to be Baku, cured the daughter of the local king, Polymius, of her madness, and was subsequently granted the right to preach freely in his territory by the king. The Apostolic Acts of Abdias tell that locals worshipped a goddess by the name of Astaroth. In a competition with the local priesthood, Bartholomeus assembled a large crowd in front of an image of the goddess and challenged the deity to show itself. Instead, the statue shattered and an angel appeared. The angel revealed the exorcised demon-deity to the crowd. The goddess, totally black, "sharp faced", and breathing fire and brimstone, was bound in chains by the angel and sent away. The king, amazed at what he had just seen, was immediately baptized along with many of his subjects. The king's brother, Astyages, heard of the baptisms and declared war on the Christian community. Bartholomeus was beaten with clubs, skinned alive and then finally beheaded in front of Maiden Tower.
According to Movses Kaghanvatsi, Vachagan III the Pious of Albania persecuted pagan priests, tortured and forcibly converted them to Christianism. He established a Church School in a city called Rustak and raised children of pagan couples as Christian.
Not much information exists about pagans living during Islamization process of Azerbaijan, because they were converted or executed before arrival of Islam. According to Azerbaijani historian Sara Ashurbeyli several Shahs of Shirvan fought against infidels and were even killed by infidels. But it's likely to be country of Sarir.[8] Estakhri states that pagans still existed during the 10th century.[9] Andalusian traveler Abu Hamid al-Qarnati states that pagans were living in mountainous villages near city of Derbent in the 12th century.
The Mongol invasion can be considered a second wave of paganism in Azerbaijan, but after Ghazan's adoption of Islam as state religion, paganism and shamanism quickly dissolved.
Enormous idols found in archeological sites of Khinisly (near village of Böyük Xınıslı), Chiraghly, Daghkolany. The idols were made using local stones. Most of them are missing their head and hands. Most of the idols are roughly human height. They were made in the final centuries BC. The idol-making technique used here is not as advanced as Greco-Roman idols.[10]
Paganism greatly influenced Azeri folklore. Supernatural beings (giants, div, fairies, dwarves) from fairy tales, religious rituals, and sacred shrines (pir) play important roles in modern Azerbaijan. Azeri metal bands like Vozmezdie and Üör usually refer to paganism in their works.
