Azeri History

Summative Task
Azerbaijani Khanates

1. What were the Khanets of Northern Azerbaijan?

What are the khanates first of all? Khanate is basically a state with
governance and a leadership of Khan. Khanate is an empire and a dynasty of
royalty with it’s own policy, economy and environment. There were many
different Khanates formed on the territories of Northern Azerbaijan,
especially after Afshar dynasty got declined. The Khanates of Northern
Azerbaijan that have ever existed are Sheki Khanate established by Haji
Chelebi who was brave enough to emerge a khanate while Nader Shah was in
power, Karabakh Khanate by Panahali Khan from Javanshir tribe, Quba
Khanate by Hossein Ali Khan, Irevan Khanate in 18th century by Irevan Khan,
Shamakha Khanate established after the death of Nader Shah in 1747 by
Mahamaadsaid Khan.

Lenkoran Khanate, Nakhichevan Khanate, Ganja Khanate and Baku Khanate

were the other khanates formed throughout the rich history of Azerbaijan.
Why did those khanates emerge?
 Usually, new governments and states are forming when there’s a crisis, failure or
a decline of other powerful state that was a threat and a danger for particular
dynasty or community. As soon as other mighty state collapsed, smart and brave
leaders were taking an opportunity of it and were establishing their own state.
Many empires and foreign states were afraid of Nader Shah since he was a very
wise and strong warrior with his special leadership, so everyone feared him.
When Nader Shah passed away, humanity that has been waiting for it for so long
showed themselves and emerged their state if they had enough power and
opportunities to do that. At the same time, there were some leaders who werent
scared of emerging their own state while him being alive, for example, Haji
Chelebi, established of Sheki Khanate, has emerged his state while Nader Shah’s
life period in 1747. It’s pretty dangerous to emerge a state when other strong
leader exists who may easily fight and overcome you and even occupy your
country, but Haji Chelebi still did it and Sheki Khanate actually became really
powerful those days and became a threat to Irevan, Karabakh and Nakhichevan
khanates. Karabakh Khanate was established instantly after Nader Shah’s death,
so he Panahali Khan took an opportunity of Shah’s death. Quba Khanate became
independent in 18th century, even though had smaller areas where they existed
even in 1726 and 1735. Husseingulu khan who established Quba Khanate, was
the one who also used a chance of Nader Shah dying, so he immediately
proclaimed his governance in that particular area. Shamakha Khanate was
emerged when Nader Shah obviously died and became much stronger than ever
before. Meanwhile, Irevan city was founded even in 782 BC and later on, became
a khanate which was powerful enough to build amazing architecture and make
good living conditions for their habitants. Mostly, khanates were emerged on
Northern territories of Azerbaijan because of death of Nader Shah and decline of
Afshar dynasty which could actually eradicate them if would stay in power for
longer period of time.

2. Who were the rulers of Khanates originally?

Rulers of all Khanates were mainly coming from Turkic tribes and Persia
according to famous historians. Sheki Khanate’s establisher Haji Chelebi was born
in Safavid dynasty and was actually Persian who decided to establish his own
khanate when he gained power and people supporting him.
Panahali khan of Karabakh Khanate was originally coming from Javanshir dynasty
who’ve some connection to Afshar dynasty specifically in blood since Javanshirs
were part of Afshars. Shamakhi Khanate ‘s khan Mahammadsaid was very close
with India since he was working for East India Company and he was even buried
there. İrevan Khanate was established on lands of Afharid Iran which had Persian
roots, but they were originally Turks. Nakhichevan Khanate’s khan Heydergulu
was originally coming from Kengerli tribe. Lenkoran or Talish Khanate in other
words had a ruler Musa Kizilaghacly who was dependent of Nader Shah for many
years had Persian and Turkic roots at the same time. Ganja Khanate’s establisher
was actually part of Qajar dynasty. Baku Khanate’s first khan, Mirza Muhammed
was Persian and he became the founder and the leader of this khanate. Based on
what we’ve discovered, we may claim that most of rulers and establishers were
 ordinary people from Turkic or Persian tribes, but who desired to be more than
they are expected to be by their rulers.

3. Which of these Khanates were more powerful and why?

Even though there were a lot of khanates formed after declines of powerful
empires, some of them didnt exist for a long time period such as Ganja Khanate
existing between 1747 and 1805, Baku Khanate existing between 1747 and 1806
and Quba Khanate between 1747 and 1806. Surprisingly, most of the khanates
existed for longer time period than it’s expected to exist for little khanates. Shaki,
Karabakh, Nakchivan, Irevan and Shamakhi Khanates existed for similar year
amount, specifically from 1747 (Nader Shah’s death) to 1819, 1820, 1822 and
1828. İrevan Khanate and Nakhichevan Khanates both existed between 1747 and
1828 which were the longest dates compared to those listed above. They existed
for 81 years which isnt much, but was the most compared to others. İrevan
Khanate was actually the longest dynasty existing since they were founded in 742
BC which was even before Safavids, Afsharids and other famous and powerful
empires. Irevan khanate was the most powerful out of them since they had
powerful leaders during their history, big territorial amount, good and clever
tactics in wars, some wealth because of trading, collaborative people, strong
warriors, majestic architecture, religious diversity and they were much more
experienced than other states. Since Irevan Khanate had richness and beauty that
would benefit other leaders, they were occupied and valued by Afshars, Safavids,
Shaddadis, Garagoyunlar, Aghgoyunlar and other dynasties who recovered
entities they’ve ruined. Basically, Irevan was developed and flourished because it
was occupied by different empires every single year who were adding and
building various things from their own perspective which made a huge diversity
of religions, architecture, trading and people there. İrevan had a good location in
Caucasus, so nobody wanted it to collapse, instead kings desired to rule it, but
one day in 1747, Irevan became independent completely, but couldnt really exist
for long because didnt have sufficient power since it was ruled by other Shahs
with their own governance that they couldn’t handle while other smaller
khanates were absolutely powerless, miserable and without any experience and
any powerful leader who would rule wisely and make his state flourish
appropriately.