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In the 13th century, what had been Caucasus Albania and Arzakh were conquered by the Mongols, whose rule was superseded by the Garagoyunlu, Aghgoyunlu and Safavid Turks.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

Parthian Empire of Iran and Iraq

In 330 BC Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire. Later in 247 BC the Parthians push the Greeks from Iran and they established the Parthian Empire.

‘Parthians’ is the generic name given by the Romans (and the Greeks before them) to a land owning military aristocracy, who rule at one time or another from the Euphrates to the Indus. Originally nomads, the Parthians came from Central Asia.

‘Parthia’ consisted basically of modern Iran and Iraq. Parthians rules extended their empire into Armenia and India. Although they rules for 500 years, their power was constantly attacked by the Romans and by wandering Afghan tribes.

The Parthian form of warfare suited the desert, oasis, stepped and highland topography of Middle East, Persia and Central Asia very well. In contrast the Roman Empire relied mainly upon heavy infantry legions, supported by the navy as circumstances necessitated.

The Roman Empire found it difficult to defeat the Parthian Empire, whose main battlefield fighting force was cavalry. In 224 AD the Persians wrested control over the former Achaemenid Empire, marking the beginning of the Sassanid Empire.
Parthian Empire of Iran and Iraq

Persian Sasanian Empire

The founder of the Sassanid Dynasty of Persia was Ardashir I (reign 224-241) who took the title Sahanshah or king of kings in 225. Ardashir was the son of a priest of the fire temple of the goddess Anahita.

He overthrew the Parthian Empire in224 and crowned himself. At that time Parthian king Artabanus V was occupied with campaigns against Romans.

The Sassanid Empire was predominantly ethically Persian, and its social structure was designed to concentrate power based on ethnicity with a class system determined by birthright with a few rare exceptions.

Ardashir’s son Sharpur I expanded Persian territory but was stopped in 260 when he ventured too far into Anatolia.

In 244, King Sharpur attacks Rome. Many cities were founded by Sharpur settled in part of Christian emigrants from Roman territory. He resumed the military struggle with Rome with considerable success.

The next shahs lost territory to the Romans in the east and the Arabs in the south.

In 633, the Rashidun Caliphate attacked both the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Empire, and the following year Islamic forces invade Persia, Syria, Egypt and Byzantine territories. The advance of the Muslim Arabs was a fatal to the Sassanids as it was to the Byzantines. In 636, the Arabs capture Ctesiphon and the Sassanid Empire ends.
Persian Sasanian Empire