Place:Shamshadil
Shamshadil | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1747–1801 | |||||||||
 Map of countries in the Caucasus including Shamshadil sultanate in 1801 | |||||||||
| Status | Sultanate | ||||||||
| Capital | Oksuzlu | ||||||||
| Common languages | Persian, Azerbaijani | ||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||
| Government | Sultanate | ||||||||
| Sultan | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1747 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1801 | ||||||||
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Shamshadil (also spelled Shams al-Din or Shamshadin) was a sultanate (a semi-autonomous district governed by a military commander) in the South Caucasus established in 1747. It was located in what is now northeastern Armenia and northwestern Azerbaijan.
Background
During the Safavid period, Shamshadil was part of the Qarabagh province, which was governed by the Ziyadoghlu branch of the Qajar tribe.[1] After Nader repelled the Ottomans from the area in 1735, he appointed Ughurlu Khan Ziyadoghlu Qajar as its khan. The latter was the only khan who did not support Nader when he petitioned to became shah (king) of Iran at the Mughan assembly. This led to Nader Shah curtail the power of the tribe by splitting the Qarabagh province.[2] The Zangezur district was given to the beglarbeg (governor-general) of Tabriz; the autonomy of the Armenian Melikdoms was restored, and Borchalu, Qazzaq and Shamshadil were given to the Georgian king Teimuraz II of Kakheti (r. 1732–1762). Ughurlu Khan was thus only left with Ganja and its surroundings.[3]
Following Nader Shah's assassination in 1747, Iran fell into turmoil, especially in the South Caucasus. There the Georgians and local khans fought over land.[4] With no central authority left in Iran, Heraclius II (r. 1762–1798), the king of Eastern Georgia (Kartli-Kakheti), and the khans, district aqalars (grandees) and soltans (military commander of a district) attempted to preserve their recent freedom by collaborating with or against their neighbours.[5] The area soon split into multiple semi-autonomous khanates and districts, such as the Ganja Khanate.[6] Shamshadil was amongst the sultanates that emerged during this period.[7]
History
Although some khans and soltans had showed interest in receiving Russian protection, Javad Khan staunchly opposed it. He remained loyal to the shah and planned to defy any Russian intrusion. When Javad Khan was made aware of the gradual Russian expansion into the neighboring districts, he had his son Hossein Qoli Aqa relocate the Tatar and Armenian families of Shamshadil to Ganja. Javad Khan also plundered the district, seizing livestock and forcing many locals to flee to Georgia.[8] In response, Knorring sent a diplomat named Gorgin Beg to Javad Khan, asking him to stop his hostility, as Shamshadil was Georgian land and that it had only been controlled by Ganja due to being granted by Agha Mohammad Khan. Javad Khan responded by saying that while Shamshadil had occasionally been detached from Ganja, it had still been part of it for centuries. He also added that he desired good relations with his neighbour. Knorring responded back, by repeating that the district belongs to Georgia, which was now part of Russia.[9]
On 4 June, 1802, Knorring sent a Russian force under Lazarev into Shamshadil. Lazarev and his men only had supplies to last until June 13, and thus had hoped to acquire some from the Armenian villages bordering Ganja. However, when he reached the border on June 8, he discovered that 29 out of 33 Armenian and Tatar villages, which amounted to 1,900 families, had been moved to Ganja. Recognizing his dangerous position, Lazarev and his men withdrew into Qazzaq and Borchalu.[9]
Under Russian rule, the Kazakh uezd of the Elizavetpol Governorate was frequently called Kazakh-Shamshadin, since the southern half of the uezd was still known as Shamshadin.[10] The name was preserved in the Soviet period as the Shamshadin District of the Armenian SSR, which was renamed Tavush in 1990 and later abolished and made a part of the modern-day Tavush Province of Armenia.[10]
References
- ↑ Bournoutian 2021, p. 250.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2021, pp. 250–251.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2021, p. 251. For the meaning of "beglarbeg", see p. 4.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2016, p. 107.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2016, p. 107. For the meaning of "soltan", see p. 120, note 2.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2016, pp. 107–108.
- ↑ Bournoutian 2021, p. 11 (see also note 59).
- ↑ Bournoutian 2021, p. 36.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bournoutian 2021, p. 37.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Hakobyan, Melikʻ-Bakhshyan & Barseghyan 1998.
Sources
- Bournoutian, George (2016). "Prelude to War: The Russian Siege and Storming of the Fortress of Ganjeh, 1803–4". Iranian Studies (Taylor & Francis) 50 (1): 107–124.
- Bournoutian, George (2021). From the Kur to the Aras: A Military History of Russia's Move into the South Caucasus and the First Russo-Iranian War, 1801–1813. Brill. ISBN 978-9004445154.
- Hakobyan, Tʻ. Kh.; Melikʻ-Bakhshyan, St. T.; Barseghyan, H. Kh. (1998). "Shamshadin" (in hy). Hayastani ev harakitsʻ shrjanneri teghanunneri baṛaran. 4. Yerevan State University. pp. 72. http://nayiri.com/imagedDictionaryBrowser.jsp?dictionaryId=61&dt=HY_HY&pageNumber=3146.
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