Erivan Khanate خانات ایروان Khānāt-e Iravān | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1747–1828 | |||||||||
 The Erivan Khanate in 1820 | |||||||||
| Status | Khanate UnderIranian suzerainty[1] | ||||||||
| Capital | Yerevan | ||||||||
| Common languages | Persian (official),Armenian,Azerbaijani,Kurdish | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1747 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1828 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheErivan Khanate[a] (Persian:خانات ایروان,romanized: Khānāt-e Iravān), also known asChokhur-e Sa'd,[2][b] was akhanate (i.e., province) that was established inAfsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2,[2] and corresponded to most of present-day centralArmenia, theIğdır Province and theKars Province'sKağızman district in present-dayTurkey and theSharur andSadarak districts of theNakhchivan Autonomous Republic of present-dayAzerbaijan.
Following the death ofNader Shah in 1747, Iranian authority over the territories north of the Aras River was greatly weakened, and the Erivan Khanate became a tributary of KingHeraclius II of Georgia. This arrangement persisted afterKarim Khan Zand nominally restored Iranian authority in the South Caucasus. The Georgian king attacked the khanate multiple times when the khan attempted to avoid paying tribute. Like some of the other khans of the Caucasus,Mohammad Khan of Erivan sought to make contact withRussia after 1783, when Georgia became a Russian protectorate. In 1794–95,Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar campaigned to restore central authority in the region and received the submission of the khan of Erivan.
The provincial capital ofErivan was a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus during theRusso-Iranian Wars of the 19th century.[2] As a result of the Iranian defeat inthe last Russo-Iranian War, it wasoccupied by Russian troops in 1827[4] and then ceded to the Russian Empire in 1828 in accordance with theTreaty of Turkmenchay. Immediately following this, the territories of the former Erivan Khanate and the neighboringNakhchivan Khanate were merged to form theArmenian Oblast of the Russian Empire.
Under Iranian rule, the kings (shahs) appointed various governors to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These governors usually carried the title of "khan" or "beglarbeg",[5] as well as the title ofsardār (“chief”). Prior to the establishment of the khanate (i.e., province),[6] the Iranians had used theErivan Province (also known asChokhur-e Sa'd) to govern roughly the same area. Both the Safavid era province, as well as the administrative entity of theZand andQajar era, were alternatively known by the name ofChokhur-e Sa'd.[3][c]
In the Qajar era, members of the royalQajar dynasty were appointed as governors of the Erivan Khanate, until the Russian occupation in 1828.[9] The heads of the provincial government of the Erivan Khanate were thus directly related to the central ruling dynasty.[10] Administratively, the khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts calledmaḥals with Persian as its official language.[11][12][13] The local bureaucracy was modeled on that of the central government, located inTehran.[14]
Together with theNakchivan Khanate, the area made up part ofIranian Armenia (also known as Persian Armenia).[15][d] The Erivan Khanate made up the bulk of Iranian Armenia.[17] The remaining fringes of historic Armenia under Iranian rule were part of theKarabakh andGanja Khanates as well as theKingdom of Kartli-Kakheti.[15]
Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) organized the region into four khanates: Erivan,Nakhchivan (formerly a part ofChokhur-e Sa'd),[18]Karabakh, andGanja.[19] Nader's assassination in 1747 was followed by fifteen years of disorder in the region, which allowed some of the Turkic tribes in Iranian Armenia to reassert themselves.[20][21] TheQajar tribe was strengthened in Erivan, Ganja, and Nakhichevan, while theJavanshir tribe took control of Karabakh.[21] The Georgian kingHeraclius II and the Javanshir khan of KarabakhPanah Ali allied to divide Iranian Armenia into their own protectorates.[22] In 1749, a vassal ofAzad Khan named Mohammad Khan attacked the Erivan Khanate and besieged Erivan while plundering the surrounding territory. The khan of Erivan appealed to Heraclius of Kakheti and his father KingTeimuraz of Kartli, offering to become their tributary in exchange for their assistance. Heraclius and Teimuraz defeated Mohammad Khan and drove him out of the Erivan Khanate. After this, the khan of Erivan was obligated to pay a yearly tribute to the Georgian kings. The khan often tried to escape this obligation, and Heraclius campaigned against the Erivan Khanate several times to exact tribute.[23]
In 1753–54, the Erivan Khanate suffered greatly from raiding byLezgi tribesman from the North Caucasus.[24] By 1762,Karim Khan Zand had succeeded in reuniting Iran and reestablishing Iranian suzerainty over the khans of theCaucasus.[22] Karim Khan took hostages from the khans' families to ensure their loyalty, but he did not meddle in Caucasian affairs.[25] In 1765 and 1769, Heraclius II invaded the Erivan Khanate in response toHoseyn Ali Khan's attempts to terminate payment of tribute. Both times, bloodshed was avoided through the mediation of theArmenian CatholicosSimeon of Yerevan, and Heraclius accepted the restoration of the khanate's tributary status.[26] Karim Khan's death in 1779 precipitated another power struggle in Iran, again leading to conflict between the rulers in the Caucasus.[20][27] That year, Heraclius again invaded the Erivan Khanate, devastating the land and taking a large amount of booty and prisoners, although he was unable to captureErivan Fortress.[28]
Hoseyn Ali Khan died in 1783 and was succeeded by his sonGholam Ali, who was assassinated soon after; he was succeeded by his younger brotherMohammad Khan.[29] Like some of the other khans of the Caucasus, Mohammad Khan sought to make contact withRussia in the aftermath of theTreaty of Georgievsk.[30] In 1794–95,Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar campaigned to restore central authority in the region. He received the submission of the khanates and forcibly subjugated Georgia.[31] He had Mohammad Khan arrested and appointed his own brotherAli Qoli Khan to the position, although Agha Mohammad Khan's successorFath-Ali (r. 1797–1834) reinstated Mohammad Khan after taking the throne.[30] During the Qajar period, the city of Erivan was considered to be quite prosperous.[2] After theRussians annexedKartli-Kakheti and initiated theRusso-Persian War of 1804–1813, Erivan became, "once more", a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus.[2]
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In 1804, Russian generalPavel Tsitsianovattacked Erivan, but a "superior" Iranian army, under the command of crown princeAbbas Mirza, repelled the attack.[2] In 1807, the central Iranian government of King Fath-Ali Shah Qajar appointedHossein Khan Sardar as the new governor (khan) of Erivan, and made him the commander-in-chief (hence,sardar) of the Iranian forces to the north of the riverAras.[9][32] Hossein Khan Sardar was one of the most important individuals in the government of then incumbent king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.[33] A capable administrator, his long tenure as governor is considered to be an era of prosperity, during which he made the khanate a model province.[2] His local bureaucracy, modeled on that of the central government inTehran, was efficient, and restored the confidence of the local Armenians in the Iranian rule.[2][14]
In 1808, the Russians, now led by generalIvan Gudovich,attacked the city once again; this attempt was repelled as well.[2] By theTreaty of Gulistan (1813), which ended the 1804–1813 war, Iran lost most of its Caucasian territories; Erivan andTabriz were now the main headquarters of the Iranian efforts to regain the territories lost to Russia.[2]
About a decade later, in violation of the Treaty of Gulistan, the Russians invaded the Erivan Khanate.[34][35] This sparked the final bout of hostilities between the two: theRusso-Persian War of 1826–1828. In the early stages of this war, the Iranians were successful in recovering many of the territories that were lost in 1813; however, the Russian offensive of 1827, in which the superior Russian artillery played a decisive role, resulted in the Iranians being defeated atAbbasabad,Sardarabad as well Erivan.[2] Erivan was taken by the Russians on 2 October 1827.[2] In February 1828, Iran was forced to sign theTreaty of Turkmenchay, which resulted in the cession of the khanate (as well as the other remaining territories to the north of theAras River) to the Russians.[2] After thefall of the Soviet Union, the Aras River became and remained the border between Iran andArmenia.[2]
Erivan city was reportedly "quite prosperous" in the Qajar era.[2] It covered roughly one square mile, whereas its direct environs (including gardens) further extended some eighteen miles.[2] The city itself had threemahals, more than 1,700 houses, 850 stores, almost ten mosques, seven churches, ten baths, sevencaravanserais, five squares, as well as twobazars and two schools.[2] During the governorship of Hossein Khan Sardar, Erivan's fortifications were reportedly the strongest in the entire country.[36] Its enormous fortress, which was located on "high ground" and was surrounded by thick walls, as well asmoats and cannons, helped to prevent the Russian advance for some time.[2] Of the city's two most prominent mosques, one was built in 1687 in theSafavid period, whereas the largest mosque of the city, theBlue Mosque, was built in the 18th century after the establishment of the khanate, and is considered to be a prominent architectural remnant of the era.[37] The palace of the khan was situated nearby one of the mosques.[2]
During Hossein Khan Sardar's governorship, Erivan's population steadily rose.[38] Just before the Russian conquest, its population was approaching 20,000 inhabitants.[39] In contrast, in 1897, some seventy years after the establishment of Russian rule, and with the Armenian resettlements, Erivan only had approximately 14,000 inhabitants.[39][e]
Per article III of theTreaty of Turkmenchay, the Iranians had to give the tax records of the lost territories in the Caucasus to the Russians.[16] However, these records only represented the families that lived in these territories, as well as tax quotas (būniche), and thus were not an "accurate count" of the number of people that lived in these provinces, including Iranian Armenia.[16]
The Russians therefore immediately conducted a thorough statistical account of the population of the Erivan Khanate, now renamed to the "Armenian Oblast".[16]Ivan Chopin headed the survey team which gathered the administrative census (Kameral'noe Opisanie') for the newly established Russian administration in Erivan. Based on the Persian administrative records of the Erivan Khanate as well as interviews, theKameral'noe Opisanie' is considered to be "the only accurate source for any statistical or ethnographical data" on the territories that comprised Iranian Armenia, on the situation before and immediately after the Russian conquest.[16]
Muslims (Persian, Turkic groups and Kurds) formed an absolute majority in Iranian Armenia, comprising some 80% of the population, whereas Christian Armenians formed some 20% of the population.[40][f] According to theKameral'noe Opisanie', the settled and semi-settled Muslim population numbered more than 74,000.[42] However, there are flaws regarding this number, as it does not account for the settled and semi-settled Muslims that left immediately after the Iranian defeat.[42] For example, basically the entire Persian ruling elite and the military officer apparatus, "most of whom resided in the administrative centers", migrated to mainland Iran after the defeat.[42] Furthermore, a number of the Turkic and Persian soldiers had perished in the1826–1828 war, which lead to the Russian conquest of the Erivan and Nakchivan Khanates.[42] According to estimations, some 20,000 Muslims had left Iranian Armenia or were killed during the 1826–1828 war.[42] According to professor of historyGeorge Bournoutian, it can therefore be taken for granted that the combined Persian and Turkic (settled and semi-settled) population of Iranian Armenia amounted some 93,000, instead of 74,000.[42]
The total Muslim population of Iranian Armenia (incl. semi-settled, nomadic, and settled), prior to the Russian invasion and conquest, amounted "roughly over" 117,000.[43] Some 35,000 of these, were thus not present (i.e. emigration, killed during the war) after the Russians decisively arrived.[43]
| Ethnic Group | Count |
|---|---|
| Armenians[g] | 20,073 |
| Kurds | 25,237 |
| Persian elite/army[h] | 10,000 |
| Turkic groups (settled and semi-settled)[i] | 31,588 |
| Turkic groups (nomads)[j] | 23,222 |
| Total | 110,120 |
After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia.[47] Some 35,000 Muslims of over 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran and Turkey (see also;Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829) arrived after 1828.[48] Due to these new significant demographic shifts, in 1832, the number of Armenians had matched that of the Muslims.[40] Anyhow, it would be only after theCrimean War and theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, that ethnic Armenians once again established a solid majority in Eastern Armenia.[49] Nevertheless, the city of Erivan remained having a Muslim majority up to the twentieth century.[49] According to theBrockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, published in the final few decades of the Russian Empire, Russians made up 2%, Armenians 48% and Aderbeijani Tatars[k] 49% of the population of Erivan in the 1890s.[52] According to the travelerH. F. B. Lynch, the city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim in the early 1890s.[2]H. F. B. Lynch thought that some among the Muslims were Persians when he visited the city within the same decade.[53] Whereas according to modern historians George Bournoutian andRobert H. Hewsen, Lynch thought many were Persian.[2]
_of_the_Khanate_of_Erivan%2c_on_horseback_in_a_landscape.jpg)
The Persians were the elite in the region, and were part of the settled population.[42] The term "Persians" in this specific matter refers to the ruling hierarchy of the khanate, and does not necessarily denote the ethnic composition of the group.[41] There were thus ethnic "Persians" and "Turks" among the ruling "Persian" elite of the khanate.[41] This ruling elite were primarily the members of the governors' household, his close associates, the officer corps, the members of the local Persian bureaucracy, and some of the prosperous merchants.[38] The Persian ruling elite was a minority among the Muslims in the khanate.[41] During the 1826–1828 war, which lead to the Russian conquest, a number of the Persian ruling elite was killed; the remaining number, basically migrated "in toto" to Iran proper after the Russians decisively gained control of the province.[42][38][l]
The Turkics[m] were the largest group in the khanate, but they were composed of three branches; settled, semi-settled, and nomadic.[42] Similar to the Persian ruling elite, a number of them had perished in the 1826–1828 war against the Russians.[42] The principal settled Turkic groups in the khanate were theBayat,Kangarlu,Ayrumlu, Ak Koyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu,Qajars, as well as the "Turkified Qazzaqs" (i.e.,Karapapakh).[55] A large number of the Turkic groups, numbering some 35,000, were some sort of nomads.[43] Alike the Kurds, some of the Turkic groups had specific areas where they moved to for summer and winter.[43] The Turkic nomads were important to the local Persian governors for their animal husbandry, handicrafts and horses which they provided for the cavalry.[56] The settled Turkics made up a large percentage of the workers in the agricultural sector.[57] Together with the Kurds, the nomadic Turkic groups used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life.[58] There was rivalry between the leading Turkic groups.[59] Due to the nomadic nature of many of the Turkic groups, they were located in many of the districts. They were abundantly presented in the central and northern parts of the khanate, where they "controlled the marginal grazing lands".[59] There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Turkic nomads and the Kurds.[59] The Karapapakh and the Ayrumlu were the largest Turkic nomad groups; most of them were resettled inAzerbaijan (historic Azerbaijan, also known asIranian Azerbaijan) with the help ofAbbas Mirza, after 1828.[60]
Regarding theKurds, theKameral'noe Opisanie' lists more than 10,000 inhabitants (of various tribes), and notes that some 15,000 had migrated after the Russian annexation.[42] The total Kurdish population (pre-war) would therefore amount over 25,000 individuals.[42] The Kurds were nomadic by tradition, similar to a large number of the Turkic groups.[61] Together with the nomadic Turkic groups, the Kurds used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life.[58] The Kurds were primarily of three religious affiliations; Sunni, Shia, andYezidi.[62] There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Kurds and the Turkic nomads.[59]
ChristiansArmenians formed a minority in the khanate, comprising some 20 percent of the population, and formed no majority in any of themahals (districts).[40][n] The utter vast majority of the Armenians, some 80% of their total number, were located in the districts (mahals) of Kirk-Bulagh, Karbi-Basar, Surmalu, and Sardarabad.[63] As with other minorities in Western Asia, they lived close to their "religious and administrative centers".[63] There were also Armenians in the provincial capital of Erivan.[63] There were reportedly no Armenians in the Sharur and Sa'dlu districts and only "very few" in Garni-Basar, Gökcha, Aparan, Talin, Sayyidli-Akhsakhli, and Vedi-Basar.[63]
Many events had led to the demise of theArmenian population from the region. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority inEastern Armenia.[64] At the close of the fourteenth century, afterTimur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.[64]
Shah Abbas I'sdeportation of much of the population from the Armenian Highlands in 1605 was one later event, when as many as 250,000 Armenians were removed from the region.[65] To repopulate the frontier region of his realm,Shah Abbas II (1642–1666) permitted the Turkic Kangarlu tribe to return. UnderNader Shah (r. 1736-1747), when the Armenians suffered excessive taxation and other penalties, many emigrated, particularly to India.[66]
Even though both Muslims and Armenians practiced various professions, it was the Armenians who dominated the trade and professions in the khanate.[47][2] Thus, they were of major economic significance to the Iranian administration.[2] Although the Armenians sympathised with the Christian Russians, they were indifferent to them as a whole; immediate concerns, both rural and urban Armenians, was limited to socio-economic "well-being".[67] As long as the living conditions in the khanate were considered to be appropriate, the majority of Armenians felt no urge to take any actions.[67] An example of this can be seen in 1808; when the Russianslaunched another siege in that year, in a 2nd attempt to take the city from the Iranians, the Armenians displayed "general neutrality".[68]
Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of themelik of Erivan, a position held by members of the Melik-Aghamalyan family. Themelik of Erivan had the sole right to govern the Armenians of the khanate with the authorization of the shah. The inception of the melikdom of Erivan appears only after the end ofthe last Ottoman–Safavid War in 1639 and seems to have been a part of an overall administrative reorganization inIranian Armenia after a long period of wars and invasions. The first known member of the family is a certain Melik Gilan but the first certain holder of the title of "melik of Erivan" was Melik Aghamal, and it may be from him that the house had taken its surname. One of his successors, Melik-Hakob-Jan, attended the coronation of Nader Shah in theMughan plain in 1736.[2]
Under the melik of Erivan were a number of other meliks in the khanate, with each maḥall inhabited by Armenians having its own local melik. The meliks of Erivan themselves, especially the last, Melik Sahak II, were among the most important, influential and respected individuals in the khanate and both Christians and Muslims alike sought their advice, protection and intercession. Second in importance only to the khan himself, they alone among the Armenians of Erivan were allowed to wear the dress of an Iranian of rank. The melik of Erivan had full administrative, legislative and judicial authority over Armenians up to the sentence of the death penalty, which only the khan was allowed to impose. The melik exercised a military function as well, because he or his appointee commanded the Armenian infantry contingents in the khan's army. All the other meliks and village headmen (tanuters) of the khanate were subordinate to the melik of Erivan and all the Armenian villages of the khanate were required to pay him an annual tax.[2]
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From the mid-2000s, the concept of a "Western Azerbaijan", originally a colloquialism used by some Azerbaijani refugees to refer to theArmenian SSR of theSoviet Union, was merged into renewed interest of theKhanates of the Caucasus, in, what the historian and political scientist Laurence Broers explains as "wide-ranging fetishisation" of the Erivan Khanate as a "historically Azerbaijani entity".[69]
Azerbaijani historiography regards the Erivan Khanate as an "Azerbaijani state" which was populated by autochthonous Azerbaijani Turks, and its soil is sacralised, as Broers adds, "as the burial ground of semi-mythological figures from the Turkic pantheon".[69] In the process of employing historical negationism, it has undergone the same type of transformation within Azerbaijani historiography like the historic entity ofCaucasian Albania before it.[69] Within Azerbaijani historiography, the terms "Azerbaijani Turk" and "Muslim" are used interchangeably when dealing with the Erivan Khanate, even though contemporary demographic surveys differentiate "Muslims" into Persians, Shia and Sunni Kurds and Turkic tribes.[69]
Broers regards this phenomenon in Azerbaijan as being part of a "Wide Azerbaijanism", a geopolitical confection emerging "at the meeting point of two previously subdued geographies made relevant by both sovereignty and the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict" overNagorno-Karabakh.[70]
According to Broers, catalogues of "lost Azerbaijani heritage" portray an array of "Turkic palimpsest beneath almost every monument and religious site in Armenia – whether Christian or Muslim".[69] Additionally, from around 2007, standard maps of Azerbaijan started to show Turkic toponyms printed in red underneath the Armenian ones on the major part of Armenia which it shows.[69] In terms of rhetoric, as Broers narrates, the Azerbaijani palimpsest beneath Armenia "reaches into the future as a prospective territorial claim".[69] The Armenian capital ofYerevan is particularly focused by this narrative; theErivan Fortress andSardar Palace, which had been demolished by the Soviets during their building of the city, have become "widely disseminated symbols of lost Azerbaijani heritage recalling the fetishised contours of a severed body part".[71]
Serious historians and geographers agree that after the fall of the Safavids, and especially from the mid-eighteenth century, the territory of the South Caucasus was composed of the khanates of Ganja, Kuba, Shirvan, Baku, Talesh, Sheki, Karabagh, Nakhichivan and Yerevan, all of which were under Iranian suzerainty.
(...) and Persian continued to be the official language of the judiciary and the local administration [even after the abolishment of the khanates].
(...) The language of official acts not only in Iran proper and its fully dependant Khanates, but also in those Caucasian khanates that were semi-independent until the time of their accession to the Russian Empire, and even for some time after,was New Persian (Farsi). It played the role of the literary language of class feudal lords as well.
Indeed, since the formation of the Ghaznavids state in the tenth century until the fall of Qajars at the beginning of the twentieth century, most parts of the Iranian cultural regions were ruled by Turkic-speaking dynasties most of the time. At the same time, the official language was Persian, the court literature was in Persian, and most of the chancellors, ministers, and mandarins were Persian speakers of the highest learning and ability.
Perhaps the most important legacy of Yermolov was his intention from early on to prepare the ground for the conquest of the remaining khanates under Iranian rule and to make the River Aras the new border. (...) Another provocative action by Yermolov was the Russian occupation of the northern shore of Lake Gokcha (Sivan) in the Khanate of Iravan in 1825. A clear violation of Golestan, this action was the most significant provocation by the Russian side. The Lake Gokcha occupation clearly showed that it was Russia and not Iran which initiated hostilities and breached Golestan, and that Iran was left with no choice but to come up with a proper response.
In May 1826, Russia therefore occupied Mirak, in the Erivan khanate, in violation of the Treaty of Gulistan.
Erivan was renowned for its strong natural defences and the impressive fortifications maintained by its governor between 1807 and 1827, the famoussardār, Husain Qulī Khan, which were said to be the strongest in the country.
