Khanates of the Caucasus

Khanates of the Caucasus
The khanates of the Caucasus, also known as the Azerbaijani khanates, Persian khanates,{{efn|
Ronald G. Suny. "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide", (Princeton University Press, 2015), 70; "In 1828 the Russian army took the Persian khanate of Erevan (which nearly a century later would become the capital of independent Armenia) and established a new frontier on the Arax River".
Rouben Paul Adalian. "Historical Dictionary of Armenia", (Scarecrow Press, 2010), 471; "(...) in the town of Ashtarak in Eastern Armenia during the period of the Persian khanates."
David Marshall Lang. "The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832", (Columbia University Press, 1957), 153; "(...) and to obtain the Persian regent Kerim Khan's recognition of Georgian suzerainty over the Persian khanates north of (...)"
Alexander Bitis. "Russia and the Eastern Question: Army, Government and Society, 1815-1833", (Oxford University Press, 2006), 223; "(...) Persian khanates north of the Arax."
S. Frederick Starr. "The legacy of history in Russia and the new states of Eurasia", (M.E. Sharpe, 1994), 259; "(...) to welcome the Russian armies and the annexation of the Persian khanates north of the Araxes River between 1806 and 1828."
Britannica online, "Azerbaijan", History section (link); "Persian-ruled khanates in Shirvan (Şamaxı), Baku, Ganja (Gäncä), Karabakh, and Yerevan dominated this frontier of Ṣafavid Iran. (...) After a series of wars between the Russian Empire and Iran, the treaties of Golestān (Gulistan; 1813) and Turkmenchay (Torkmānchāy; 1828) established a new border between the empires. Russia acquired Baku, Shirvan, Ganja, Nakhichevan (Naxçıvan), and Yerevan.
Jo Laycock. Chapter: "Developing a Soviet Armenian Nation: Refugees and Resettlement in the Early Soviet South Caucasus". In: Krista A. Goff, Lewis H. Siegelbaum, eds, "Empire and Belonging in the Eurasian Borderlands" (Cornell University Press, 2019), 108; "The incorporation of the Persian Khanates of Erivan and Nakhichevan into the Russian Empire in 1828 and the addition of the Ottoman provinces of Kars, Ardahan, and Batumi after 1878 were all followed by the movement of tens of thousands of Armenians from Anatolia and Persia into the new Russian imperial territories." Norman E. Saul. "Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Foreign Policy", (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 152; "In the wake of the Napoleonic Invasion of 1812, and with the assistance of Great Britain, the Russian Empire concluded the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), with major gains of disputed territories in the eastern Caucasus, including parts of Armenia and Azerbaijan, ceded by the Persian Empire. The treaty, concluded in the town of Gulistan in the Persian khanate of Qarabag (Karabakh) in October 1813, not only expanded Russian territory beyond the Caucasus Mountains but also relieved Russia of fighting a subsidiary war during (...)."}} or Iranian khanates, were various administrative units in the South Caucasus governed by a hereditary or appointed ruler under the official rule of Iran. The title of the ruler was khan, which was identical to the Ottoman rank of pasha. Following the assassination of Nader Shah in 1747, internal chaos erupted in Iran, particularly in the South Caucasus, where semi-autonomous khanates emerged as a result of the lack of a centralized government. The khans neither had territorial or religious unity, nor an ethnic/national identity. They were mostly interested in preserving their positions and income.
The word "khanate" is an Anglicized form of the Russian word khanstvo and the Armenian word khanut'iun. In Persian, the word "khanate" is nonexistent; instead they were referred to as ulka or tuman, and a hakem (governor), was in charge of them. The shah could promote a hakem's status to that of a khan, but the hakem'' could also adopt the title himself. In terms of structure, the khanates were a miniature version of Iranian kingship. The administrative and literary language in the South Caucasus until the end of the 19th century was Persian, with Arabic being used only for religious studies, despite the fact that most of the Muslims in the region spoke a Turkic dialect.
The Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813 ended with the Treaty of Gulistan, which amongst other things led to the Iranian loss of seven khanates; Ganja, Karabakh, Quba, Derbent, Baku, Shirvan, and Shaki. The northern and central part of the Talysh Khanate, along with a part of northern Erivan (Shuregol), was also ceded to the Russian Empire. Following the conclusion of the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828 and the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Iran also lost the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates to the Russians.
List
The khanates that soon emerged after the death of Nader Shah in 1747 were the following:
Baku Khanate (1806 occupied and annexed to Russia)
Derbent Khanate (1806 occupied and annexed to Russia, same year abolished)
Erivan Khanate (1827 occupied by, 1828 annexed to Russia)
Ganja Khanate (1804 occupied and annexed to Russia)
Javad Khanate (1805, became part of the Shirvan Khanate)
Karabakh Khanate (1805 protectorate of Russia, 1822 abolished)
Nakhchivan Khanate (1827 occupied by, 1828 annexed to Russia)
Quba Khanate (1805 protectorate of Russia, 1816 abolished)
Shaki Khanate (1805 protectorate of Russia, 1819 abolished)
Shirvan Khanate (1805 protectorate of Russia, 1820 abolished)
Talysh Khanate (1802 protectorate of Russia, 1828 abolished)
Coinage
A number of these khanates, including Ganja, Shirvan, Shaki, Derbent, and Karabakh, produced their own coins, first in the name of Nader Shah and then in the name of the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand. A large portion of their coinage was completely nameless by the end of the 18th-century. While a few uncommon issues of Derbent contain a vague reference to one of their khans, none of the khans ever put their names on their coins, due to lacking the legitimacy of an sovereign monarch and any claims to independence. These northern Iranian coins were made entirely of silver and copper.
While the value of the copper coin in the khanates are unknown, the silver coins' value continued to be the same as the abbasi and its divisions. In 1770, the German scholar Johann Friedrich Gmelin made the observation that the full worth of a coin could only be understood in the region in which it was originally struck, and that relocating cost money. As had been the circumstance with copper money prior to the 1730s, this implied that silver coins were used as tokens in the khanates.
See also
Treaty of Gulistan
Treaty of Turkmenchay
North Caucasus
South Caucasus
Russo-Persian Wars
Armenia
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan
Baku Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate
Erivan Governorate
Nagorno-Karabakh
Western Azerbaijan (irredentist concept)
Khoy Khanate
Notes
References
Sources
Early Modern history of Armenia
17th century in Iran
18th century in Iran
19th century in Iran
18th century in Armenia
19th century in Armenia
18th century in Azerbaijan
19th century in Azerbaijan
Former countries in West Asia
Russo-Persian Wars
History of Dagestan
Islam in the Caucasus