Velāyat-e Iravān Chokhur-e Sa'd
1502–1736
The administrative divisions ofSafavid Iran in theSouth Caucasus
Status	Province ofSafavid Iran
Capital	Erivan (Yerevan)
Common languages	Persian,Azerbaijani,Kurdish,Armenian
Government	Province
beglarbeg,hakem
Succeeded by Afsharid Iran
Today part of	Armenia Azerbaijan Iran Turkey

TheErivan province^[a] (Persian:ولایت ایروان,romanized: Velāyat-e Iravān), also known asChokhur-e Sa'd^[b] (چخور سعد), was a province ofSafavid Iran, centered on the territory of the present-dayArmenia. Erivan (Yerevan) was the provincial capital and the seat of the Safavid governors.^[1]

At the end of the Safavid period, it had the following administrative jurisdictions;Bayazid, Maghazberd (now near Üçbölük village ofArpaçay district),Maku,Nakhchivan,Sadarak, Shadidlu, Zaruzbil, and the tribal district of theDonbolis.^[1]

The provinces of Erivan andKarabakh were the two administrative territories that made upIranian Armenia.^[2][3]

The alternate name of the province,Chokhur-e Sa'd, had been in use since the fourteenth century.^[4] The name is derived from a certain Amir Sa'd, the leader of the Turkic Sa'dlu tribe, who had accompaniedTimur from Central Asia.^[4][5] The Sa'dlu's had become prominent under their leader, Amir Sa'd, and settled in the Erivan area, where Amir Sa'd became the governor of the area.^[4][5]Chokhur-e Sa'd literally means "Vale of Sa'd".^[5]

HistoricArmenia, which included the territory of the Erivan province, made part ofSafavid Iran from its earliest days.^[6] In 1502, the first governor of the Erivan province was appointed by then incumbent King (Shah)Ismail I (r. 1501–1524), and royal Safavid edicts make mention of the province as early as 1505 and 1506.[1] As a result of thePeace of Amasya of 1555, the Safavids, then under KingTahmasp I (r. 1524–1576) were forced to cede thewestern part of historic Armenia to the expandingOttoman Empire.^[7]

In 1578, the Ottomansinvaded Iran, and by 1583 they were in possession of the Erivan province.^[1] In 1604, Safavid KingAbbas I (r. 1588–1629) expelled them and re-established the Safavid sway.[8]

Around the same time, realizing the vulnerability of the province, King Abbas I ordered for themass deportation and relocation of theArmenians from hisArmenian territories (which thus included the Erivan province), deeper into mainland Iran.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, some 19,000 converted Catholic Armenians were living in three towns and twelve villages in theNakhchivan,Ernjak andJahuk regions, and had ten Catholic churches to serve them.^[9] When the Safavid government started to decline, in the second half of the 17th century, during the reign of KingSuleiman I (1666–1694), the situation of the Catholic Armenians of Nakhchivan deteriorated.^[9] As a result of the increasing religious intolerance and misrule by governmental officials, the majority of the Armenian Catholics of Nakchivan had to convert to Islam.^[9] The remaining minority either returned to theArmenian Apostolic Church, or migrated toSmyrna,Constantinople,Bursa and other towns in the Ottoman Empire.^[9]

In 1639, the Safavids and the Ottomans concluded theTreaty of Zuhab. Eastern Armenia was reconfirmed as being an Iranian domain, whereas Western Armenia was irrevocably lost to the Ottomans. The ensuing period following 1639 was marked by peace and prosperity in the province. At the end of the seventeenth century, the Erivan province had become a centre of Catholic missionary activities in the empire.^[9]

In 1679, the province was the epicenter ofan earthquake, which resulted in the destruction and damaging of numerous notable structures.

In 1714, the mayor (kalantar) of the provincial capital,Mohammad Reza Beg, was appointed as the new ambassador to France, and led theembassy to Louis XIV of 1715.^[10]

In 1724, the Ottomans and theRussians invaded the crumbling empire. By theTreaty of Constantinople (1724), they agreed to divide the conquered territories between them. Per the treaty, the Ottomans gained the territory of the Erivan province.^[11]

By 1735,Nader-Qoli Beg (later known asNader Shah) had restored the Safavid sway over theCaucasus, including the Erivan province. In 1736, he deposed the Safavids and became king himself, establishingAfsharid Iran.

The provincial capital, Erivan, housed an important Safavid mint. As much of Iran's gold and silver was imported from the Ottoman Empire, the mints near the border such as Erivan,Tabriz andTiflis (Tbilisi) played an important role in converting foreign specie into Iranian coins.^[12] In the 1660s and 1670s, the office of mint master (zarrab-bashi) of Erivan was held by a series of local Armenians.^[13] The mint master of Nakhchivan in 1691 was also an Armenian.^[13]

The Erivan province was of high importance to the Safavids, partly due to the fact that it bordered the Ottoman Empire.^[1] The French missionary and traveller Père Sanson, who was in Iran during the latter part of KingSuleiman I's reign (1666–1694), wrote that some 12,000 Safavid troops were stationed in the Erivan province.^[14]

Muslims constituted majorities in the province, whereas ethnic Armenians were a minority.^[15] Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority inEastern Armenia.^[15] At the close of the fourteenth century, afterTimur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.^[15]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toErivan Province (Safavid Iran).

• Bournoutian, George A. (1980). "The Population of Persian Armenia Prior to and Immediately Following its Annexation to the Russian Empire: 1826–1832". The Wilson Center, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
• Bournoutian, George A. (1992). "The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule: 1795–1828". Persian Studies Series. Mazda Publishers.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
• Bournoutian, George A. (2006).A Concise History of the Armenian People (5 ed.). Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers.ISBN 1-56859-141-1.
• Floor, Willem (2001).Safavid Government Institutions. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers.ISBN 978-1568591353.
• Floor, Willem M. (2008).Titles and Emoluments in Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration, by Mirza Naqi Nasiri. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers. pp. 1–337.ISBN 978-1933823232.
• Floor, Willem;Herzig, Edmund, eds. (2012).Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B. Tauris.ISBN 978-1780769905.
• Kostikyan, Kristine (2012). "European Catholic Missionary Propaganda among the Armenian Population of Safavid Iran". In Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund (eds.).Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B.Tauris.ISBN 978-1780769905.
• Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmaijan, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan, eds. (2005). "The Heritage of Armenian Literature".The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the eighteenth century to modern times. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 133.ISBN 978-0814332214.
• Imber, Colin (2012). "The Battle of Sufiyan, 1605: A Symptom of Ottoman Military Decline?". In Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund (eds.).Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B.Tauris.ISBN 978-1780769905.
• Matthee, Rudi; Floor, Willem; Clawson, Patrick (2013).The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars. I.B. Tauris. pp. 1–320.ISBN 978-0857721723.
• Mikaberidze, Alexander, ed. (2011).Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia (Vol. 1). ABC-CLIO.ISBN 978-1598843378.
• Payaslian, Simon (2007).The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-0230608580.
• Rayfield, Donald (2013).Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books.ISBN 978-1780230702.

• Provinces of the Safavid dynasty
• 16th century in Armenia
• 17th century in Armenia
• 18th century in Armenia
• History of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic
• History of West Azerbaijan province

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