1. about the subject

Sayings about history. The question of what history is has been answered in a variety of ways at different times. Let's take a look at some of them:
According to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), “the task of a poet is relieving possible, more accurate, probable, or conceivable events, rather than those from the past. The historian and the poet are not distinguished for the fact that one uses rhythm, while the other does not:

If the works of Herodotus were transferred to rhythmic passages, they would still remain as a historical novel work again, with or without rhythm; what distinguishes them is that one deals with the past and the second with the possible. That is why, poetry is more philosophical and serious than history: poetry is more general, while the history is more specific. General means that, what a person of a certain character will most likely speak of or do? While specific means that, for example, What Alkviad did or what happened to him.

The unrestricted dominance of religion and theology had a profound effect on the understanding of the meaning and significance of history in the Middle Ages. One medieval historian put it this way: the past helps us to understand God's plans and intention.

According to Hegel (1770–1831) the subject-matter of the history is a state which is the way of God in the world.

The Azerbaijani thinker A.A Bakikhanov (1794–1847) also had an interesting assumption on history. He wrote: “The only science that is able to describe the past and future of the nation is the science of history. History is such a speechless orator that conveys the wills of its predecessors to its successors in all its details and definitions, and understands the causes of need and prosperity, and the ways of progress and regression. Besides, it helps to predict about a future event on the back of a lesson in the past

The conclusions of K. Marx (1818–1883), F. Engels (1820–1895) and V.I Lenin (1870–1924) on history deviated from the general concept.
Marx and Engels wrote: “We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two perspectives and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. The two sides are, however, inseparable; the history of nature and the history of men are dependent on each other so long as men exist. (that is, the whole history that has come down to us in the form of written sources - F.E.)

Lenin: "History consists of a series of episodes of class struggle" and so on.

The same is true about the "History of the All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party (Short Course)", which for a long time influenced the direction of History. It says that, “if history targets to become a real science, then it shall not study the public development history based on the conducts or political achievements of kings, warlords, conquerors or invaders. It shall, first of all, deal with the history of those who produce material goods, the history of the working class”. Thus, the first aim of the science of history is to study and reveal the industrial laws, development laws about labor forces and labor relations, and the laws of economic growth of the society”.
After the disappearance of the ideas of the "Short Course" in the Soviet period, the question of what is history again came to the fore. Describing the subject of history, A.V Guliga wrote: The subject of civil history is the development of human society, its laws, and their certain effects in the past. The science of history is characterized with its task to generalize both the empiric material and the direct interpretation of nature of events.

The Soviet encyclopedia of history writes the following about history:

"History is a science that studies human society with all its specificity and diversity in order to understand the current state and prospects of its development."
The history, the study of the past happenings, is also defined in terms of its specific, multifaceted and diverse nature, and its characteristic feature associated with the development of public men and society.
It is possible to add up what is said about history, but obviously, this is not an adequate answer to what history is as a question of what physics or chemistry is, which have an accepted definition all over the world and by everyone.

What is history? One of the multiple answers. This situation is not accidental, on the one hand, due to the fact that the subject of history is broad and wide, while on the other hand, due to the tendentious approach towards history. It is useless to give a comprehensive description of history, but it is still possible to provide a general definition of history that reflects its basic tenets. From this point of view, the opinion of M.A Yerofeyev, the author of the book “What is history” can be considered more appropriate. He states that the history is a science which studies the society and human being in the context of its development, the past life of mankind, its integrity, general legitimacy and specificity.

History of Azerbaijan: definition, historical-geographical and subject area*

* Azerbaijan history is one of the most important components of Azerbaijan studies. Just as the research on Azerbaijan history is important for Azerbaijan studies, research on Azerbaijan studies as a whole is significant for understanding Azerbaijan history more deeply. In this regard, the book "Introduction to Azerbaijan Studies" by N. Jafarov, Ph.D., Professor, Corresponding Member of ANAS (Baku, 2002, p. 600) is noteworthy. Starting from the prolog, the book contains a number of controversial, debatable, and scholarly ideas and provisions. Since it is beyond the scope of this book, we were not able to include N. Jafarov's monograph "Introduction to Azerbaijan Studies", its concept, various provisions, views, critical analysis on the history of Azerbaijan. If possible, we will return to it in the next study.