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Erivan Khanate

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Khanate of Erevan
Persian: خانات ایروان
1604–1828
"Yerevan Khanate c. 1800."
"Yerevan Khanate c. 1800."
StatusKhanate
CapitalErevan
History 
• Established
1604
• Disestablished
1828

The Khanate of Erevan (Persian: خانات ایروان, Khānāt-e Īravān, also known as Čoḵūr Saʿd[1]) was an administrative territory that was established Safavid Persia in the early seventeenth century. It covered an area of roughly 7,500 square miles,[1] and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, most of the Iğdır Province of present-day Turkey, and the Sharur and Sadarak rayons of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

As a result of the Persian defeat in the last Russo-Persian War, it was ceded to the Russian Empire in accordance with the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay. Immediately following this, the territories of the former Khanate of Erevan and the Khanate of Nakhichevan were joined to form the Armenian oblast.

Government

During Persian rule, the Shahs appointed the various khans as beglerbegī to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These khans from the Qajar tribe,[2][3] also known as the sirdar (Pers. sardār, “chief”), governed the entire khanate, from the mid-seventeenth century until the Russian occupation in 1828.[1]. The khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called maḥalls. Persian rule was interrupted by Ottoman occupation between 1635-1636 and 1722-1736.

Armenian autonomy

Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of the melik of Erevan, from the House of the Melik-Aghamalyan family, who had the sole right to govern them with the authorization of the shah. The inception of the melikdom of Erevan appears only after the end of the last Ottoman-Safavid war in 1639 and seems to have been a part of an overall administrative reorganization in Persian 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 Erevan" 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 Nāder Shah in the Mughan plain in 1736.[1]

Under the melik of Erevan were a number of other meliks in the khanate, with each maḥall inhabited by Armenians having its own local melik. The meliks of Erevan 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 Erevan were allowed to wear the dress of a Persian of rank. The melik of Erevan 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 Erevan and all the Armenian villages of the khanate were required to pay him an annual tax.[1]

List of Khans

File:Erivan khan.jpg
Palace of Erivan khans, early 19th century painting[citation needed]

[citation needed]

  • 1736-40 Tahmasp-qulu khan
  • 1740-47 Nader Shah
  • 1745-48 Mekhti-khan Qasimli
  • 1748-50 Hasan Ali-khan
  • 1750-80 Huseyn Ali Khan
  • 1752-55 Khalil Khan
  • 1755-62 Hasan Ali Khan Qajar
  • 1762-83 Huseyn Ali Khan
  • 1783-84 Qulam Ali (son of Hasan Ali)
  • 1784-1804 Muhammed Khan
  • 1804-06 Mekhti-Qulu Khan
  • 1806-07 Muhammed Khan Maragai
  • 1807-27 Huseyn Qulu Khan Qajar

List of Meliks[1]

  • Gilan (?-1653),
  • Catur I (1653?-ca. 1693),
  • Aghamal (ca. 1693-1716),
  • Catur II (1716-19),
  • Naz I (1719-21),
  • Hakob-Jan (1721?- 1759),
  • Naz II (1759?-1790),
  • Petros? (1790?-?),
  • Sahak I (?-ca. 1805),
  • Abraham (ca.1805-11),
  • Sahak II (1811-28, d. 1835).

Demographics

During the existence of the khanate, its population consisted primarily of Armenians, Persians (settled largely around the capital), Turkic tribes (both settled and seminomadic), Kurds (largely nomadic).[4]

As a result of Shah Abbas I's deportation of much of the Armenian population from the Ararat valley and the surrounding region in 1605, Eastern Armenia as a whole lost its Armenian majority.[5] The khanate itself maintained its Armenian character until the time of of Nadir Shah, and the city of Erevan retained an Armenian majority until the end of the eighteenth and start of nineteenth century.[6] By the time the final census figures were taken after the Russian conquest, the ratio of Armenians in relation to Muslims had dropped to a total of 20%.[4]

Among the Muslim population, Shia Islam was the predominate faith of the khanate (with some Kurds of the Sunni school).[4] Yazidis were also known to be numerous.[4]

After the incorporation of the khanate into the Russian Empire in 1828, many Muslims (Azerbaijani Tartars, Kurds, Lezgis and various nomadic tribes) migrated to Persia, and were replaced with tens of thousands of repatriated and resettled Armenians from Persia. Such migrations, albeit on a lesser scale, continued until the end of the 19th century.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Hewsen, Robert H. and George Bournoutian. "Erevan." Encyclopedia Iranica. Accessed January 3, 2009.
  2. ^ Abbasgulu Bakikhanov. Golestan-e Eram. Period V
  3. ^ Bournoutian, George A. "Hosaynqolikhan Sardār-e Iravani." Encylopedia Iranica.
  4. ^ a b c d Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-226-33228-4.
  5. ^ Von Haxthausen, Baron (2000). Transcaucasia: Sketches of the Nations and Races between the Black Sea and the Caspian. Adamant Media Corporation. p. 252. ISBN 1402183674.
  6. ^ Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan under Qajar rule, 1795-1828. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers. p. 58. ISBN 0939214180.
  7. ^ Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia: A Legal Appraisal by Tim Potier. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 2001. p.2 ISBN 9041114777

Further reading

  • Bournoutian, George A. (1982). Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807-1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest. Undena Publications.
  • Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule, 1795-1828. Mazda Publishers.
  • Bournoutian, George A. "Husayn Qulī Khān Qazvīnī, Sardār of Erevan: A Portrait of a Qajar Administrator." Iranian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2/3 (Spring - Summer, 1976), pp. 163-179.
  • Bournoutian, George A. [1]
  • Official website of Sardari Iravani family, descendants of HOSAYNQOLIKHAN SARDĀR-E IRAVĀNI, [2].
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