Erivan Khanate

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",[5] as well as the title of sardār (“chief”). Prior to the establishment of the khanate (i.e. province),[6] 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.[3]

In the Qajar era, members of the royal Qajar dynasty were appointed as governors of the Erivan khanate, until the Russian occupation in 1828.[7] The heads of the provincial government of the Erivan Khanate were thus directly related to the central ruling dynasty.[8] Administratively, the khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called maḥals with Persian as its official language.[9][10][11] The local bureaucracy was modeled on that of the central government, located in Tehran.[12]

Together with the Nakchivan Khanate, the area made up part of Iranian Armenia (also known as Persian Armenia).[13][lower-alpha 3] The Erivan Khanate made up the bulk of Iranian Armenia.[15] The remaining fringes of historic Armenia under Iranian rule were part of the Karabakh Khanate, Ganja Khanate, and Kartli-Kakheti.[13]

Nader Shah (r. 1736-1747) organized the region into four khanates; Erivan, Nakhchivan, Karabakh, and Ganja.[16] Following his death in 1747, the territory became part of the Zands.[17] After the Zand period, it passed to the Iranian Qajars. During the Qajar period, the khanate was considered to be quite prosperous.[2] After the Russians annexed Kartli-Kakheti and initiated the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813, Erivan became, "once more", a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus.[2]

In 1804, Russian general Pavel Tsitsianov attacked Erivan, but a "superior" Iranian army, under the command of crown prince Abbas Mirza, repelled the attack.[2] 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.[7][18]

Gold coin of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, struck at the Erivan mint, dated 1820/1 (left = obverse; right = reverse)

Hossein Khan Sardar was one of the most important individuals in the government of then incumbent king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.[19] 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 in Tehran, was efficient, and restored the confidence of the local Armenians in the Iranian rule.[2][12]

In 1808 the Russians, now led by general Ivan Gudovich, attacked the city once again; this attempt was repelled as well.[2] 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.[2]

About a decade later, in violation of the Gulistan Treaty, the Russians invaded the Erivan Khanate.[20][21] This sparked the final bout of hostilities between the two; the Russo-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 at Abbasabad, Sardarabad as well Erivan.[2] Erivan was taken by the Russians on 2 October 1827.[2] 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.[2] After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Aras River became and remained the border between Iran and Armenia.[2]

The Persians were the elite in the region, and were part of the settled population.[28] 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.[27] There were thus ethnic "Persians" and "Turks" among the ruling "Persian" elite of the khanate.[27] 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.[24] The Persian ruling elite was a minority among the Muslims in the khanate.[27] 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.[28][24][lower-alpha 10]

The Turkics[lower-alpha 11] were the largest group in the khanate, but they were composed of three branches; settled, semi-settled, and nomadic.[28] Alike the Persian ruling elite, a number of them had perished in the 1826–1828 war against the Russians.[28] The principal settled Turkic groups in the khanate were the Bayat, Kangarlu, Ayrumlu, Ak Koyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu, Qajars, as well as the "Turkified Qazzaqs" (i.e. Karapapakh).[37] A large number of the Turkic groups, numbering some 35,000, were some sort of nomads.[29] Alike the Kurds, some of the Turkic groups had specific areas where they moved to for summer and winter.[29] The Turkic nomads were important to the local Persian governors for their animal husbandry, handicrafts and horses which they provided for the cavalry.[38] The settled Turkics made up a large percentage of the workers in the agricultural sector.[39] Together with the Kurds, the nomadic Turkic groups used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life.[40] There was rivalry between the leading Turkic groups.[41] 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".[41] There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Turkic nomads and the Kurds.[41] The Karapapakh and the Ayrumlu were the largest Turkic nomad groups; most of them were resettled in Azerbaijan (historic Azerbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan) with the help of Abbas Mirza, after 1828.[42]

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.[28] The total Kurdish population (pre-war) would therefore amount over 25,000 individuals.[28] The Kurds were nomadic by tradition, similar to a large number of the Turkic groups.[43] Together with the nomadic Turkic groups, the Kurds used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life.[40] The Kurds were primarily of three religious affiliations; Sunni, Shia, and Yezidi.[44] There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Kurds and the Turkic nomads.[41]

Christians Armenians formed a minority in the khanate, comprising some 20%, and formed no majority in any of the mahals (districts).[26][lower-alpha 12] 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.[45] As with other minorities in Western Asia, they lived close to their "religious and administrative centers".[45] There were also Armenians in the provincial capital of Erivan.[45] 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.[45]

Many events had led to the demise of the Armenian population from the region. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia.[46] 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.[46]

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.[47] 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.[48]

Even though both Muslims and Armenians practiced the various professions, it were the Armenians who dominated the trade and professions in the khanate.[33][2] They were thus of major economic significance to the Iranian administration.[2] Though 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".[49] 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.[49] An example of this can be seen in 1808; when the Russians launched another siege in that year, in a 2nd attempt to take the city from the Iranians, the Armenians displayed "general neutrality".[50]

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 Mugan 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]