Iğdır is one of Türkiye's eastern border provinces, and it has been settled since very early in human history. A long line of peoples ruled here, and the province housed the civilisations and cultures of each of them in turn.
Its name is a personal one. On the Ministry of Culture's account it comes from Iğdır Beğ, eldest son of Cengiz Alp — himself one of the six sons of Oghuz Khan — whose tribe counted as the twenty-first of the twenty-four Oghuz tribes and belonged to the Üç-Ok branch of the Inner Oghuz. Iğdır Beğ was that tribe's first chieftain. As a word, iğdır carries meanings such as good, great, exalted, famous, valiant leader and hero.
The tribe settled the Aras basin and the districts of Azerbaijan, and one traveller's account records the result. After Bayezid I was defeated by Timur at the battle of Ankara in 1402, the Christian world sent a series of envoys to congratulate the victor. One of them, the Spaniard Clavijo, describes a fortress standing on rock and gives its name as Iğdır — the Iğdır Korganı, still standing in ruins on the slopes of Mount Ararat.
