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Erivan Khanateخانات ایروان – Xānāt e Iravān
1747–1828
Erivan Khanate c. 1800.
Status	Khanate Under Iranian Suzerainty
Capital	Erivan (Yerevan)
Common languages	Persian (official), Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Armenian
History
• Established	1747
• Disestablished	1828
Preceded by Succeeded by Afsharid dynasty Armenian Oblast

The Erivan Khanate (Template:Lang-fa – Xānāt-e Iravān; Template:Lang-hy – Yerevani khanut’yun; Template:Lang-az – ایروان خانلیغی), also known as Chokhur-e Sa'd, was a khanate (i.e. province) that was established in Afsharid Iran in the eighteenth century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km, and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, most of the Iğdır Province and of Kağızman district of the Kars Province of present-day Turkey, and the Sharur and Sadarak districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of the present-day Azerbaijan Republic.

The provincial capital of Erivan was a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus during the Russo-Iranian Wars of the 19th century. As a result of the Iranian defeat in the last Russo-Iranian war, it was occupied by Russian troops in 1827 and then ceded to the Russian Empire in 1828 in accordance with the Treaty of Turkmenchay. Immediately following this, the territories of the former Erivan Khanate and the Nakhchivan Khanate were joined to form the Armenian Oblast of the Russian Empire.

History

Administration

During the Iranian rule, the kings (shahs) appointed the various governors to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These governors usually carried the title of "khan" or "beglarbeg", as well as the title of sardār (“chief”). Prior to the establishment of the khanate (i.e. province), the Iranians had used the Erivan Province (also known as Chokhur-e Sa'd) to govern roughly the same area. Both the Safavid era province, as well as the administrative entity of the Zand and Qajar era, were alternatively known by the name of Chokhur-e Sa'd.

In the Qajar era, members of the royal Qajar dynasty were appointed as governors of the Erivan khanate, until the Russian occupation in 1828. The heads of the provincial government of the Erivan Khanate were thus directly related to the central ruling dynasty. Administratively, the khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called maḥals with Persian as its official language. The local bureaucracy was modeled on that of the central government, located in Tehran.

Together with the Nakchivan Khanate, the area made up part of Iranian Armenia (also known as Persian Armenia). The Erivan Khanate made up the bulk of Iranian Armenia. The remaining fringes of historic Armenia under Iranian rule were part of the Karabakh Khanate, Ganja Khanate, and Kartli-Kakheti.

Events and ceding to Russia

Nader Shah (r. 1736-1747) organized the region into four khanates; Erivan, Nakhchivan, Karabakh, and Ganja. Following his death in 1747, the territory became part of the Zands. After the Zand period, it passed to the Iranian Qajars. During the Qajar period, the khanate was considered to be quite prosperous. After the Russians annexed Kartli-Kakheti and initated the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813, Erivan became, "once more", a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus.

In 1804, Russian general Pavel Tsitsianov attacked Erivan, but a "superior" Iranian army, under the command of crown prince Abbas Mirza, repelled the attack. In 1807, the central Iranian government of king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834) appointed Hossein 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 river Aras.

Hossein Khan Sardar was one of the most important individuals in the government of then incumbent king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. 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. His local bureaucracy, modeled on that of the central government in Tehran, was efficient, and restored the confidence of the local Armenians in the Iranian rule.

In 1808 the Russians, now led by general Ivan Gudovich, attacked the city once again; this attempt was repelled as well. By the Treaty of Gulistan (1813), which ended the 1804-1813 war, Iran lost most of its Caucasus territories; Erivan and Tabriz were now the main headquarters of the Iranian efforts to regain the territories lost to Russia. During the next and final bout of hostilities between the Iranians and Russians, the Iranians were initially 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 at Abbasabad, Sardarabad as well Erivan. Erivan was taken by the Russians on 2 October 1827. In February 1828, Iran was forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which resulted in the cession of the khanate (as well as the other remaining territories to the north of the Aras River) to the Russians. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Aras River became and remained the border between Iran and the Republic of Armenia.

Provincial capital

Erivan city was reportedly "quite prosperous" in the Qajar era. It covered roughly one square mile, whereas its direct environs (incl. gardens) further extended some eighteen miles. The city itself had, according to Kettenhofen et al. / Encyclopædia Iranica, three mahals, more than 1,700 houses, 850 stores, almost ten mosques, seven churches, ten baths, seven caravanserais, five squares, as well as two bazars and two schools. Its enormous fortress, which was located on "high ground" and was surrounded by thick walls, as well as moats and cannons, helped to prevent the Russian advance for some time. Of the city's two most prominent mosques, one was built in 1687 in the Safavid period, whereas the largest mosque of the city, the Blue 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. The palace of the khan was situated nearby one of the mosques.

Demographics

Per article III of the Turkmenchay Treaty, the Iranians had to give the tax records of the lost Caucasus territories to the Russians. 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.

The Russians therefore immediately conducted a thorough statistical account of the population of the Erivan Khanate, now renamed to the "Armenian Oblast". 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, the Kameral'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. In his 1840 review of the statistical data in the "Overview of Russian Domain in the Transcaucasus" published in 1837, in response to the listing of Persians as an ethnic group residing in the Armenian Oblast, Chopin notes that there were no Persians in the province and that the Muslim population there was of either Turkic or Kurdish stock.

According to professor of history George Bournoutian, Muslims (Persian, Turkic groups and Kurds) formed an absolute majority in Iranian Armenia, comprising some 80% of the population. The Persians were the elite in the region, and were part of the settled population. The Turkic groups were composed of settled, semi-settled, and nomadic branches. The Kurds were nomadic by tradition. Christians Armenians formed a minority, comprising some 20%, and formed no majority in any of the mahals (districts). Even though both Muslims and Armenians practised the various professions, it were the Armenians who dominated the trade and professions in the khanate. They were thus of major economic significance to the Iranian administration.

According to the Kameral'noe Opisanie, the settled and semi-settled Muslim population numbered more than 74,000. However, there are flaws regarding this number, as it doesn't account for the settled and semi-settled Muslims that left immediately after the Iranian defeat. For example, the Persian ruling elite and the military officer apparatus, "most of whom resided in the administrative centers", migrated to mainland Iran after the defeat. Furthermore, a number of the Turkic and Persian soldiers had perished in the 1826-1828 war, which lead to the Russian conquest of the Erivan and Nakchivan Khanates. According to estimations, some 20,000 Muslims had left Iranian Armenia or were killed during the 1826-1828 war. According to 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.

Regarding the Kurds, the Kameral'noe Opisanie lists more than 10,000 inhabitants (of various tribes), and notes that some 15,000 had migrated after the Russian annexation. The total Kurdish population (pre-war) would therefore amount over 25,000 individuals.

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. Some 35,000 of these, were thus not present (i.e. emigration, killed during the war) after the Russians decisively arrived.

Many events led to the demise of the Armenian population from the region. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia. At the close of the fourteenth century, after Timur's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.

Shah Abbas I's deportation 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. To repopulate the frontier region of his realm, Shah Abbas II (1642–1666) permitted the Turkic Kangarlu tribe to return. Under Nader Shah (r. 1736-1747), when the Armenians suffered excessive taxation and other penalties, many emigrated, particularly to India. Later on, large number of Armenians were kept captive in Iran since 1804 or as far back as 1795, others were scattered around the world (Russia failed to resettle them) due to the Iranian-Russian wars of 1804 and 1813, including 20,000 who moved to Georgia.

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. Some 35,000 Muslims (Azeris, Kurds, Lezgis) of over 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran proper and Turkey (see also; Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829) arrived after 1828. Due to these new significant demographic shifts, in 1832, the number of Armenians had matched that of the Muslims. Anyhow, it would be only after the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, that ethnic Armenians once again established a solid majority in Eastern Armenia. Nevertheless, the city of Erivan remained having a Muslim majority up to the twentieth century. According to the traveller H. F. B. Lynch, the city was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Azerbaijanis and Persians) in the early 1890s.

Partial Armenian autonomy

Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of the melik of Erivan, 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 Erivan 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 Iranian 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 the Mughan plain in 1736.

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.

List of Khans

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• 1736–40 Tahmasp II
• 1740–47 Nader Shah
• 1745–48 Mehdi-Khan Qasemlu
• 1748–50 Hasan Ali-khan
• 1750–80 Hoseyn Ali Khan
• 1752–55 Khalil Khan
• 1755–62 Hasan Ali Khan Qajar
• 1762–83 Hoseyn Ali Khan
• 1783–84 Gholam Ali (son of Hasan Ali)
• 1784–1804 Mohammad Khan
• 1804–06 Mehdi-Qoli Khan
• 1806–07 Mohammad Khan Maragai
• 1807–28 Hossein Qoli Khan Qajar

See also

• Mirza Kadym Irevani
• Sardar Iravani
• Treaty of Turkmenchay
• Iranian Armenia (1502–1828)
• Islam in Armenia
• Islam in Azerbaijan

Notes

1. Also spelled as "Iravan Khanate" or "Erevan Khanate".
2. The comparable administrative entity of the Safavid era, the Erivan Province, was also known as "Chokhur-e Sa'd".
3. Ordubad was added by the central government to the Nakhchivan Khanate in the early 19th century.
4. There is a chance that the Karbi-basar mahal, with the ecclesiastical center of Uch-Kilisa ("Etchmiadzin") could have had an Armenian majority.
5. Mentioned as "Turko-tatars".
6. Mentioned as "Turko-tatars".

References

1. ^ Kettenhofen, Bournoutian & Hewsen 1998, pp. 542–551.
2. ^ Floor 2008, pp. 86, 170.
3. Muriel Atkin. Russia and Iran, 1780-1828 (U of Minnesota Press, 1980), p. 89; "The new khan of Yerevan, Hosein Qoli, was one of the most able men in Fath' Ali's government and ruled Yerevan from 1807 until its conquest by the Russians in 1827."
4. George Bournoutian. The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule: 1795-1828. (Mazda Publishers, 1992), p. xxiii; "The term khanate refers to an area that was governed by hereditary or appointed governors with the title of khan or beglerbegi who performed a military and/or administrative function for the central government. By the nineteenth century, there were nine such khanates in Transcaucasia (...)"
5. 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: 1–2. During the eighteenth century, Persian Armenia was composed of the provincial boundaries or Khanates (subdivided into Mahals) of Erevan and Nakhchivan (...) {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
6. "Iranians, in order to save the rest of eastern Armenia, heavily subsidized the region and appointed a capable governor, Hosein Qoli Khan, to administer it." -- A Concise History of the Armenian People: (from Ancient Times to the Present), George Bournoutian, Mazda Publishers (2002), p. 215
7. Bournoutian 2004, pp. 519–520.
8. Swietochowski, Tadeusz (2004). Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0521522458. (...) and Persian continued to be the official language of the judiciary and the local administration .
9. Pavlovich, Petrushevsky Ilya (1949). Essays on the history of feudal relations in Armenia and Azerbaijan in XVI - the beginning of XIX centuries. LSU them. Zhdanov. p. 7. (...) 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. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
10. Homa Katouzian, "Iranian history and politics", Published by Routledge, 2003. pg 128: "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"
11. George Bournoutian. 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, 1982), p. 86; "The Khan Hosein Qoli Khan's efficient administration soon transformed the region. He modeled his bureaucracy on that of the central government, dividing power between tribal and settled groups" (...) "In essence the Erevan administration, like its counterpart in Tehran, was organized into three branches (...)"
12. ^ Bournoutian 1980, pp. 1–2. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
13. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 2. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
14. Bournoutian 1980, pp. 1–2, 10, 13. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
15. Bournoutian 2006, pp. 214–215.
16. Bournoutian 2006, p. 215.
17. • George Bournoutian. A Concise History of the Armenian People: (from Ancient Times to the Present). (Mazda Publishers, 2002), p. 215; "Iranians, in order to save the rest of eastern Armenia, heavily subsidized the region and appointed a capable governor, Hosein Qoli Khan, to administer it."
    • George Bournoutian. ḤOSAYNQOLI KHAN SARDĀR-E IRAVĀNI. (Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XII, Fasc. 5), pp. 519-520; "ḤOSAYNQOLI KHAN SARDĀR-E IRAVĀNI; important governor in the early Qajar period (b. ca. 1742, d. 1831). (...) Requiring a strong and loyal governor to command the fortress of Erevan against the Russian advances during the first Russo-Persian War (1804-13), the shah appointed Ḥosaynqoli as the commander-in-chief (sardār) of the Persian forces north of the Araxes (Aras) River."
18. Muriel Atkin. Russia and Iran, 1780-1828 (U of Minnesota Press, 1980), p. 89; "The khans of Yerevan and Nakhjavan were both removed in 1805 by the shah on the grounds of disloyalty. (...) The new khan of Yerevan, Hosein Qoli, was one of the most able men in Fath' Ali's government and ruled Yerevan from 1807 until its conquest by the Russians in 1827."
19. George Bournoutian. 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, 1982), p. 86; "The Khan Hosein Qoli Khan's efficient administration soon transformed the region. He modeled his bureaucracy on that of the central government, dividing power between tribal and settled groups" (...) "In essence the Erevan administration, like its counterpart in Tehran, was organized into three branches (...)"
20. Kettenhofen, Erich; Bournoutian, George A.; Hewsen, Robert H. (2009). "EREVAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 542–551. (...) built in 1776 near the end of Persian rule. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
21. Ivan Chopin (1840). Нѣкоторыя замѣчания на книгу Обозрѣние российских владѣний за Кавказом; p. 6: "В Армянской области персиян вовсе нет. Тамошнее мусульманское народонаселение имеет происхождение татарское или курдинское", p. 111: "Ни одного персиянина нет в области".
22. ^ Bournoutian 1980, pp. 12–13. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
23. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 3. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
24. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 13. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
25. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 14. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
26. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 4. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
27. ^ Bournoutian 1980, p. 12. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
28. ^ Bournoutian 1980, pp. 11, 13–14. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)
29. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires, James S. Olson, Greenwood(1994), p. 44
30. An Historical Atlas of Islam by William Charles Brice, Brill Academic Publishers, 1981 p. 276
31. The Cambridge History of Iran, William Bayne Fisher, Peter Avery, Ilya Gershevitch, Gavin Hambly, Charles Melville, published by the Cambridge University Press, 1991 p. 339
32. The Turks: Turkey (2 v.), Murat Ocak, Yeni Türkiye, 2002
33. Akty sobrannye, docs. 559, 564, 568, 570, 573, 582, 586, 614; and S. Glinka, Sobranie aktov otnosiashchikhsia k obozrenii istorii Armianskogo naroda, II (Moscow, 1838), pp. 163-166.
34. Tim Potier (2001). in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia: A Legal Appraisal. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 2
35. Bournoutian 1980, pp. 11–13. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFBournoutian1980 (help)

Sources

• 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); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• 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. pp. 1–290. ISBN 978-0890031223. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule: 1795-1828. Mazda Publishers. pp. 1–355. ISBN 978-0939214181. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bournoutian, George A. (2004). "ḤOSAYNQOLI KHAN SARDĀR-E IRAVĀNI". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XII, Fasc. 5. pp. 519–520. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bournoutian, George A. (2006). A Concise History of the Armenian People (5 ed.). Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers,. ISBN 1-56859-141-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Floor, Willem M. (2008). Titles and Emoluments in Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration, by Mirza Naqi Nasiri. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers. ISBN 978-1933823232. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kettenhofen, Erich; Bournoutian, George A.; Hewsen, Robert H. (1998). "EREVAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 542–551. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Erivan Khanate
• History of Iğdır Province
• History of Kars Province