The Aras River, formed by the merger of a number of spring waters in the mountains of Bingöl's Erzurum side, that starts in Turkey and goes through Erzurum, Kars and Igdir in Turkey and then flows along the borders of Turkey-Iran and Azerbaijan and the border of Iran-Ajerbaijan. It then reaches the Caspian Sea through joining the Kura River in the region named Sukavuşan which is located in the provinces of Saatlı ve Sabirabad of Azerbaijan. The Aras river basin is one of the largest basins as it rises from Turkey flowing through Iran and Azerbaijan. The regions in which the rivers goes through can be listed as: Erzurum, Kars, Agri, Igdir in Turkey; Urmia, Tabriz, Ardabil, Gilan, Mazenderan, Gulistan, Gurgan, Parsabad, Lahijan and Sari in Iran; and Nakhchivan, Horadiz, Imishli, Saatli and Sabirabad in Azerbaijan.

The Aras River and its basin are important to the history of religions due to its location in which a number of ancient religions have risen. That is why the Aras River is believed to be a sacred place. Long before the birth of Islam, the river was called a Jewish region since the Jews had lived in the lower basin of the river. Therefore this region is home to many legends of the Israelites. The Aras river basin is not only a home to Jews, but it is believed that Gregorian Armenians, Orthodox and Malakan Russians and Christian Albanians also lived in the region in different time periods.

The earliest Islamic conquests in the region had begun in the Omar period and continued during the Umayyads and Abbasids. And then the basin was controlled by local principalities like Samanids, Sacoğulları and Mervanids. The Pasiner War, the first great victory against the Byzantines, also took place in this region. The Seljuk Empire begun to control the Aras basin with the conquest of Ani in 1064 by Alparslan. Since then, the region was ruled by a number of beylics like Şeddadiler, Saltukoğulları, Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu and Harezmşahlar. The region, however, was ruled by the Mongols for a short time by the 13^th century. The Akkoyunlu ve Karakoyunlu beylics fought for the region when the Mongols lost power and the Ottoman state began to gain strength. It is likely to say that the fate of this geography has changed with the establishment of the Safavid state. To the Ottoman Empire, the Aras Basin had always continued to maintain its strategic importance. The Aras basin as it is the gateway of Anatolia to the Caucasus and Northern Iran had become a place where the Ottoman-Iranian and Ottoman-Russian struggles happened. The region also witnessed the 1914 Sarıkamış operation as it is one of the most dramatic wars in Turkish-Islamic history.

The Aras Basin is an important region to a plenty of societies, religions and cultures. The region had become commercially important due to its location on the Silk Road route. Because of its strategic location, the region had become of great political, social, religious and cultural importance. As a matter of fact, during the period of Turkish-Islamic rule, ulama (religious scholars) and Sufis in dervish lodges performed important duties in the Turkification and Islamization of the region. With the efforts of those scholars and mystics, the scientific welfare of the region increased. The Aras region is of great importance for many scholars of Islam to be trained as Shams-i Tabrizi, Saib Tabrizi, Şehriyar, Abdul Qadir Gilani, Parwin l‘tisami and Iraj Mirza.

Although recently a number of symposiums on the Aras Basin have been organized, there does not seem to have been a scientific conference on the scholars and mystics lived in the region. With the symposium to be organized by Igdir University on 21-22 October 2021 titled, “International Symposium On Scholars And Historical Figures Of Aras Basin”, we aim to explore scholars, mystics and historical figures who were born and raised in the region.