Karabakh Khanate

Karabakh is a geographic region extending from highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the Kura and Aras rivers. At the beginning of the eighth century Caucasus Albania, including Arzakh, was conquered by the Arabs, whereby Christianity was supplanted by Islam over time.

During that in the written sources, Arzakh was described under the name of Akhvan as being a part of Arran (today's lowland areas between Kur and Araz rivers, Azerbaijan), including also itself a western neighbouring province -Girdiman.

In the 13th century, what had been Caucasus Albania and Arzakh were conquered by the Mongols, whose rule was superseded by the Garagoyunlu, Aghgoyunlu and Safavid Turks.

Upon the death of the great emperor Mongke Khan in 1259, the Mongol Empire fell apart and Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu, founded the Ilkhanate on the southwestern flank of the former empire. Hulagu’s Ilkhanate encompassed the territory of historical Azerbaijan, including Arran. Throughout the Ilkhanid era, the Eastern Caucasus also experienced an influx of Kipchak Turkic tribes from Central Asia. During this time, the Arzakh region of Arran also became known under its Turkic name Karabakh.

By the end of 14th century, the Timurids reigned over the Karabakh region and Turkic migration continued in a steady stream. During his 1400-1402 campaign against the Ottomans, Timur the Lame (Tamerlane) used Karabakh as a winter camp for his forces.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Azerbaijan became the native power base of the Safavid dynasty which came to rule Persia. During the period of centralized Safavid Empire (1501-1736) the local self-administration structure was abolished and established a new administrative-territorial unit that is called beylerbeylik. With regard to this system, Karabakh was one of the 13 beylerbeyliks, containing 7 sanjaks and 36 nahiyes.

In the middle of the 18th century the Karabakh khanate was established under the Azerbaijani Panah-Ali khan Javanshir. The Karabakh khanate became one of the most important and largest of the Azerbaijani khanates.

At the beginning of the 19th century things again came to a head for the Karabakh khanate. The Russians were threatening to invade from the north and Persians from the south. Further, Russia and Persia went to war in 1804. In these first years of the nineteenth century, Russia tried to assert its influence over the Azerbaijani Khanates, and Karabakh was one of the first to accept Russian overlordship, although insurrections against Russian rule occurred and Russian control was all but stable.

Khan of Karabakh bowed in 1805 to the Russian Empire and relinquished his own claim to power.
Karabakh Khanate