181-588: The Erivan Khanate ( Persian : خانات ایروان , romanized : Khānāt-e Iravān ), also known as Chokhur-e Sa'd , was a khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km, and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia , the Iğdır Province and the Kars Province 's Kağızman district in present-day Turkey and
362-715: A beglarbegi (governor-general), Karabakh and Erivan . The Iranian-ruled part of Armenia was known as Iranian Armenia or Eastern Armenia , whilst the Ottoman part was known as Ottoman Armenia or Western Armenia . The lowlands of Karabakh were dominated by nomadic Turkic tribes, who moved to the hillsides in search of suitable pastures throughout the summer. The highlands of Karabakh were dominated by Armenian meliks (princes), who had established five melikdoms ( Dizak , Gulistan, Jraberd, Khachen and Varanda ) that ruled in Karabakh. These Armenian-ruled principalities, which upheld
543-427: A toponym , as the word is missing from Turkic texts that date back to the fortress' construction. The panahabadi seemingly only had its own name as a result of these coins' weights being different from earlier Iranian abbasi as well as from the rial and rupia later weight systems. Another coin type, called the sahibqirani , was first minted 1800/01 in the name of Fath-Ali Shah. A unique variant of
724-517: A "superior" Iranian army, under the command of crown prince Abbas Mirza , repelled the attack. In 1807, the central Iranian government of King Fath-Ali Shah Qajar appointed Hossein Khan Sardar as the new governor ( khan ) of Erivan, and made him the commander-in-chief (hence, sardar ) of the Iranian forces to the north of the river Aras . Hossein Khan Sardar was one of the most important individuals in
905-638: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
1086-585: A conflict with Haji Chalabi Khan , the khan of the Shaki Khanate . He occasionally attempted to form an alliance with Georgia in an effort to restrain Haji Chalabi Khan's goals, but his efforts were ineffective. In 1752, Panah Ali Khan relocated everyone from Bayat to the newly constructed Shah-Bulaghi stronghold, which brought him within close proximity of the highlands ruled by the five Armenian melikdoms. Panah Ali Khan made an alliance with Shahnazar II ,
1267-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
1448-547: A group of Russian soldiers under the instigation of Ja'far Qoli Agha and the commander of the Russian garrison. Although Ja'far Qoli Agha had hoped to become the new khan for helping the Russians against his grandfather's "betrayal", they ultimately appointed Ibrahim Khalil Khan's 30-year-old son Mehdi Qoli Khan Javanshir , due to the support he enjoyed amongst the distinguished figures of Karabakh. Mehdi Qoli Khan consented to abide by
1629-454: A heavier one, which almost weighted the same as that of 10 kopecks of the Russian empress Catherine II. According to the numismatists Alexander Akopyan and Pavel Petrov, this was not unusual, as Ibrahim Khalil displayed pro-Russian sentiment and engaged in negotiations with Russian officials, but was also under Iranian influence and tried to have his coins easily spread in Iran. The panahabadi
1810-520: A hostage in his stead, claiming that his age-related ailments prevented him from meeting Agha Mohammad Khan directly. However, he still refused to give entry into Shusha. Agha Mohammad Khan was willing to compromise in order to clear a path to Tiflis due to the campaign's primary goal being the subjugation of Georgia. As a result of Heraclius' refusal to submit, Agha Mohammad Khan marched to Tiflis and had it ravaged in September 1795. Catherine II, viewing
1991-500: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
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#17328480671862172-539: A large force to the Aras River, while the crown prince Abbas Mirza was assigned with the task of handling Ibrahim Khalil Khan. The Russians were temporarily interrupted by the murder of Tsitsianov in February 1806. During this period, Ibrahim Khalil Khan sent a letter to Fath-Ali Shah, in which he apologized for yielding to the Russians, declared his willingness to side with Iran, and requested assistance in regaining control of
2353-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
2534-779: A minority in Eastern Armenia. Shah Abbas I 's deportation of much of the population from the Armenian Highlands in 1605 was one later event, when as many as 250,000 Armenians were removed from the region. To repopulate the frontier region of his realm, Shah Abbas II (1642–1666) permitted the Turkic Kangarlu tribe to return. Under Nader Shah (r. 1736-1747), when the Armenians suffered excessive taxation and other penalties, many emigrated, particularly to India. Even though both Muslims and Armenians practiced various professions, it
2715-761: A part of Chokhur-e Sa'd ), Karabakh , and Ganja . Nader's assassination in 1747 was followed by fifteen years of disorder in the region, which allowed some of the Turkic tribes in Iranian Armenia to reassert themselves. The Qajar tribe was strengthened in Erivan, Ganja, and Nakhichevan, while the Javanshir tribe took control of Karabakh. The Georgian king Heraclius II and the Javanshir khan of Karabakh Panah Ali allied to divide Iranian Armenia into their own protectorates. In 1749,
2896-529: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
3077-491: A possibility following the death of Shahnazar II in 1792. The panahabadi was modeled after a silver coin variant minted by the Ganja Khanate . The khans of Karabakh never issued coins under their own name, due to lacking the legitimacy of an sovereign monarch and any claims to independence. Two types of panahabadi have been discovered, one of light weight, which corresponded to one eighth of Iranian rupia , and
3258-942: A severed body part". Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
3439-511: A solid majority in Eastern Armenia. Nevertheless, the city of Erivan remained having a Muslim majority up to the twentieth century. According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary , published in the final few decades of the Russian Empire, Russians made up 2%, Armenians 48% and Aderbeijani Tatars 49% of the population of Erivan in the 1890s. According to the traveler H. F. B. Lynch ,
3620-476: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
3801-500: A thorough statistical account of the population of the Erivan Khanate, now renamed to the " Armenian Oblast ". Ivan Chopin headed the survey team which gathered the administrative census ( Kameral'noe Opisanie' ) for the newly established Russian administration in Erivan. Based on the Persian administrative records of the Erivan Khanate as well as interviews, the Kameral'noe Opisanie'
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#17328480671863982-416: A vassal of Azad Khan named Mohammad Khan attacked the Erivan Khanate and besieged Erivan while plundering the surrounding territory. The khan of Erivan appealed to Heraclius of Kakheti and his father King Teimuraz of Kartli , offering to become their tributary in exchange for their assistance. Heraclius and Teimuraz defeated Mohammad Khan and drove him out of the Erivan Khanate. After this, the khan of Erivan
4163-470: A yearly payment. Soon finding himself in a difficult position, Ibrahim Khalil Khan rejoined the Iranians. However, he was shortly afterwards murdered by a group of Russian soldiers under the instigation of his grandson Ja'far Qoli Agha and the Russian garrison leader. The Russians subsequently confirmed Ibrahim Khalil Khan's son Mehdi Qoli Khan as the khan, although real power was held by the Russians. By signing
4344-644: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
4525-610: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
4706-765: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
4887-654: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
5068-416: Is considered to be "the only accurate source for any statistical or ethnographical data" on the territories that comprised Iranian Armenia, on the situation before and immediately after the Russian conquest. Muslims (Persian, Turkic groups and Kurds) formed an absolute majority in Iranian Armenia, comprising some 80% of the population, whereas Christian Armenians formed some 20% of the population. According to
5249-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
5430-455: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
5611-468: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
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5792-570: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
5973-486: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
6154-444: The Kameral'noe Opisanie' , the settled and semi-settled Muslim population numbered more than 74,000. However, there are flaws regarding this number, as it does not account for the settled and semi-settled Muslims that left immediately after the Iranian defeat. For example, basically the entire Persian ruling elite and the military officer apparatus, "most of whom resided in the administrative centers", migrated to mainland Iran after
6335-480: The sahibqirani is engraved with a Persian poem; be-nām muhrum ṣāḥib az-zamānī, mukram sikke ṣāḥibqirānī ("in the name of the stamp of Sahib al-Zamani, this sahibqirani minted with honor"). The majority of the known coins minted by the Karabakh Khanate were issued during their association with Russia. According to a survey conducted by the Russian Empire in 1823, the mahals (districts) of Karabakh
6516-436: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
6697-502: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
6878-644: The iqta' (land grants) made to women in the Seljuk and Ilkhanate eras. A portion from Qom's earnings was provided to Ibrahim Khalil Khan's daughter Agha Baji and her 200 personal attendants from Karabakh after she joined the harem of Fath-Ali Shah. A lot of crown land was also given out; Abu'l-Fath Khan Javanshir , one of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's sons, was given much of the land of the Shahsevan tribe in Azerbaijan. The administrative and literary language in Karabakh until
7059-460: The mahals (districts). The utter vast majority of the Armenians, some 80% of their total number, were located in the districts ( mahals ) of Kirk-Bulagh, Karbi-Basar, Surmalu, and Sardarabad. As with other minorities in Western Asia, they lived close to their "religious and administrative centers". There were also Armenians in the provincial capital of Erivan. There were reportedly no Armenians in
7240-651: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
7421-649: The Lezgins , where he concealed himself from Nader Shah. 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. Some Turkic tribes took advantage of his death by restoring their power in Iranian Armenia. The Qajars restored their power in Ganja, Erivan and Nakhchivan, while Panah Ali Khan seized control over all of Karabakh, with
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7602-581: The Nakchivan Khanate , the area made up part of Iranian Armenia (also known as Persian Armenia). The Erivan Khanate made up the bulk of Iranian Armenia. The remaining fringes of historic Armenia under Iranian rule were part of the Karabakh and Ganja Khanates as well as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti . Nader Shah ( r. 1736–1747 ) organized the region into four khanates: Erivan, Nakhchivan (formerly
7783-582: The Panahabad fortress constructed in Shusha , a place in Varanda. Panah Ali Khan relocated the notables, dignitaries, and tribal leaders there. The power of the Javanshir became centered in that stronghold, which would withstand many sieges. The nature of the Javanshir khans' patron-client relationship with Shahnazar II is unclear, but it appears that their control of the fortress was restricted to its southern part, which
7964-525: The Sharur and Sadarak districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of present-day Azerbaijan . Following the death of Nader Shah in 1747, Iranian authority over the territories north of the Aras River was greatly weakened, and the Erivan Khanate became a tributary of King Heraclius II of Georgia . This arrangement persisted after Karim Khan Zand nominally restored Iranian authority in
8145-655: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
8326-575: The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran officially ceded most of their Caucasian holdings (including Karabakh) to Russia. In 1822, Mehdi Qoli Khan fled to Iran as a result of the attempts by the Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov to abolish the khanates, which occurred afterwards. Karabakh is a historic region located in the Armenian highlands in the South Caucasus . The area was originally considered
8507-498: The Treaty of Gulistan , in which Iran agreed to cede the majority of their holdings in the eastern Caucasus to Russia, including Karabakh. The treaty was signed in Gulistan , a village in Karabakh. The Iranians were disillusioned by the treaty, and officials like Mirza Bozorg Qa'em-Maqam vehemently opposed it. In 1822, Mehdi Qoli Khan fled to Iran as a result of the attempts by the Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov to abolish
8688-688: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
8869-483: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
9050-431: The melik of Varanda, while he imposed his authority on the remaining meliks and made their subjects pay him taxes. Both Armenian sources and the Javanshir historian Mirza Jamal Javanshir agree that it was through the efforts of Shahnazar II (who was in conflict with the other meliks ) that Panah Ali Khan gained access to the highlands and started attacking the meliks . Together, Panah Ali Khan and Shahnazar II had
9231-585: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
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#17328480671869412-451: The 1826–1828 war against the Russians. The principal settled Turkic groups in the khanate were the Bayat , Kangarlu , Ayrumlu , Ak Koyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu, Qajars , as well as the "Turkified Qazzaqs" (i.e., Karapapakh ). A large number of the Turkic groups, numbering some 35,000, were some sort of nomads. Alike the Kurds, some of the Turkic groups had specific areas where they moved to for summer and winter. The Turkic nomads were important to
9593-405: The 1826–1828 war, which led to the Russian conquest, a number of the Persian ruling elite was killed; all of the rest migrated to Iran proper after the Russians decisively gained control of the province. The Turkics were the largest group in the khanate, but they were composed of three branches; settled, semi-settled, and nomadic. Similar to the Persian ruling elite, a number of them had perished in
9774-513: The Armenian resettlements, Erivan only had approximately 14,000 inhabitants. Per article III of the Treaty of Turkmenchay , the Iranians had to give the tax records of the lost territories in the Caucasus to the Russians. However, these records only represented the families that lived in these territories, as well as tax quotas ( būniche ), and thus were not an "accurate count" of the number of people that lived in these provinces, including Iranian Armenia. The Russians therefore immediately conducted
9955-477: The Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict" over Nagorno-Karabakh . According to Broers, catalogues of "lost Azerbaijani heritage" portray an array of "Turkic palimpsest beneath almost every monument and religious site in Armenia – whether Christian or Muslim". Additionally, from around 2007, standard maps of Azerbaijan started to show Turkic toponyms printed in red underneath the Armenian ones on the major part of Armenia which it shows. In terms of rhetoric, as Broers narrates,
10136-412: The Armenians and Tatars. There were a few more people living in Armenian villages than in Tatar ones. The number of nomad pastures was about 375. Accordingly, there were 30 families per settlement and approximately 25 families every nomad pasture. Karabakh's overall population is estimated to have been between 113,000 and 115,000 people, taking into account the estimated 5.5–6.5 person average family size in
10317-435: The Armenians in the lowlands was further dwindled by Timur 's conquests and invasions of Turkmen tribes in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the early 16th century, Armenia had become a focal point of the constant wars between the Ottoman Empire ( c. 1299 –1922) and Safavid Iran (1501–1736), which further reduced the Armenian population. The Safavids divided their Armenian territories into two provinces ruled by
10498-407: The Azerbaijani palimpsest beneath Armenia "reaches into the future as a prospective territorial claim". The Armenian capital of Yerevan is particularly focused by this narrative; the Erivan Fortress and Sardar Palace , which had been demolished by the Soviets during their building of the city, have become "widely disseminated symbols of lost Azerbaijani heritage recalling the fetishised contours of
10679-572: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
10860-451: The Erivan Khanate as an "Azerbaijani state" which was populated by autochthonous Azerbaijani Turks, and its soil is sacralised, as Broers adds, "as the burial ground of semi-mythological figures from the Turkic pantheon". In the process of employing historical negationism, it has undergone the same type of transformation within Azerbaijani historiography like the historic entity of Caucasian Albania before it. Within Azerbaijani historiography,
11041-419: The Erivan Khanate, until the Russian occupation in 1828. The heads of the provincial government of the Erivan Khanate were thus directly related to the central ruling dynasty. Administratively, the khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called maḥals with Persian as its official language. The local bureaucracy was modeled on that of the central government, located in Tehran . Together with
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#173284806718611222-415: The Iranian forces could assault its garrison. One of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's grandchildren, Ja'far Qoli Agha, the son of Mohammad Hasan Agha, whose succession was meant to be assured by the Treaty of Kurekchay and who had his own plans for ruling Karabakh, was frightened and angered by this action. On 2 June 1806, Ibrahim Khalil Khan along with some of his relatives and 30 members of his retinue were killed by
11403-474: The Iranian forces succeeded in getting to the other side of the river by using boats, and also rebuilt the bridge. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's forces were defeated and withdrew to Shusha, which was then besieged by Agha Mohammad Khan for 43 days. Due to the capture of his two nephews and the worsening conditions of the siege, Ibrahim Khalil Khan petitioned for peace and promised that he would acknowledge Agha Mohammad Khan's suzerainty. He sent one of his sons to act as
11584-403: The Iranian shahs had declared rulership over parts of the Caucasus. This included Nader Shah, Karim Khan and now Agha Mohammad Khan. The neighboring khanates were still seen as Iranian dependencies even when the shahs in mainland Iran lacked the power to enforce their rule in the area. Likewise, Agha Mohammad Khan also considered Georgia to be an Iranian province. He issued threatening letters to
11765-426: The Javanshir chieftain Panah Ali Khan capitalized on the turmoil that erupted after the death of the Iranian shah (king) Nader Shah ( r. 1736–1747 ) by seizing most of Karabakh. The following year he declared his allegiance to Nader Shah's son and successor Adel Shah ( r. 1747–1748 ), who officially appointed him khan of Karabakh. Panah Ali Khan's tenure was marked by building activities (such as
11946-435: The Karabakh Khanate was a miniature version of Iranian kingship. In the same pattern as Afsharid and Zand rulers, Panah Ali Khan's family were all distinguished figures and served as officials. He used minbashis , yuzbashis , monshis , eshiq-aghasis , keshikchis , yasavols , nazers , and other personnel in the administration of his court and province. In exchange for tax exemption, every Karabakhi tribesman who appeared on
12127-418: The Karabakh Khanate was a miniature version of Iranian kingship. The administrative and literary language in Karabakh 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. It was governed by members of the Javanshir , a Turkic tribe which lived in the lowlands of the region. In 1747,
12308-500: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
12489-429: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
12670-459: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
12851-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
13032-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
13213-848: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
13394-423: The Qajar era. It covered roughly one square mile, whereas its direct environs (including gardens) further extended some eighteen miles. The city itself had three mahals , more than 1,700 houses, 850 stores, almost ten mosques, seven churches, ten baths, seven caravanserais , five squares, as well as two bazars and two schools. During the governorship of Hossein Khan Sardar, Erivan's fortifications were reportedly
13575-416: The Russian siege of Ganja in 1804. Thus, Ibrahim Khalil Khan's son Abu'l-Fath Khan Javanshir was appointed as the new khan. Despite this, Ibrahim Khalil Khan continued to rule as the khan of Karabakh. Multiple clashes took place in 1804 between the Iranian and Russian armies, but they had no significant impact on the situation. The Georgian nobleman Pavel Tsitsianov , who led the Russian campaign and led
13756-480: The Russian invasion and conquest, amounted "roughly over" 117,000. Some 35,000 of these, were thus not present (i.e. emigration, killed during the war) after the Russians decisively arrived. After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia. Some 35,000 Muslims of over 100,000 emigrated from
13937-437: The Russians, as he feared them more than the Iranians. Although neither a treaty nor a Russian garrison was established in Karabakh, this event established a model for eventual Russian assertions of sovereignty over Karabakh and other khanates. However, Catherine II's death on 17 November 1796 led to the withdrawal of the Russian forces under the orders of her son and successor Paul I ( r. 1796–1801 ), and thus an end to
14118-570: The Russians, asking them for assistance against the impending invasion. 10,000 of Agha Mohammad Khan's forces first marched towards Talesh, which quickly submitted. Meanwhile, Ibrahim Khalil Khan had the Khudafarin bridge demolished to stop the Iranian army from crossing the Aras River . The bridge served as the main route from the Azerbaijan region into Karabakh and the rest of Caucasus. Despite this,
14299-479: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
14480-575: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
14661-457: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of
14842-586: The Sharur and Sa'dlu districts and only "very few" in Garni-Basar, Gökcha, Aparan, Talin, Sayyidli-Akhsakhli, and Vedi-Basar. Many events had led to the demise of the Armenian population from the region. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia . At the close of the fourteenth century, after Timur 's campaigns, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became
15023-462: The South Caucasus. The Georgian king attacked the khanate multiple times when the khan attempted to avoid paying tribute. Like some of the other khans of the Caucasus, Mohammad Khan of Erivan sought to make contact with Russia after 1783, when Georgia became a Russian protectorate. In 1794–95, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar campaigned to restore central authority in the region and received the submission of
15204-508: The Tabrizi quarter was totally made up of people with Muslim names. In the Tabrizi sector of Shusha, there were 162 Muslim families, whereas the other two-quarters of Shusha were home to 209 Armenian families. The survey also includes a list of Muslim (numbering 765) and Armenian (numbering 326) families who were listed as inhabiting Shusha and its surroundings, originating from several settlements and nomadic fields in Karabakh. They either belonged to
15385-515: The Treaty of Kurekchay on September 22, 1806, when tsar Alexander I ( r. 1801–1825 ) officially confirmed him as khan. Kotliarevskii, the new commander of the Russian garrison in Shusha, was forbidden by the Russian commander Ivan Gudovich to meddle in the internal affairs of the khanate because of his high regard for Mehdi Qoli Khan. Although Mehdi Qoli Khan held the title of khan of Karabakh, he
15566-553: The Turkic groups, they were located in many of the districts. They were abundantly presented in the central and northern parts of the khanate, where they "controlled the marginal grazing lands". There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Turkic nomads and the Kurds. The Karapapakh and the Ayrumlu were the largest Turkic nomad groups; most of them were resettled in Azerbaijan (historic Azerbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan ) with
15747-493: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
15928-401: The area throughout the 19th century. In the five mahals (Gulistan, Khachen, Jraberd, Varanda and Dizak) that later came to be known as Nagorno-Karabakh , the Armenians made up the vast majority of the population. In all the villages in the mahals of Gulistan, Khachen, and Jraberd, they were the only people there. One Tatar village existed in each of the mahals of Varanda and Dizak, while
16109-423: The attack on Tiflis as an offense to Russia, used it as a reason to invade the South Caucasus. In March 1796, she sent a public declaration, written in Persian and Armenian , to all the khans and important figures of the region. The letter explained her reason behind the invasion as a way to protect Georgia and the rest of the South Caucasus from the "usurper" Agha Mohammad Khan. Ibrahim Khalil Khan submitted to
16290-520: The campaign. By January 1797, all the Russian troops had withdrawn to Kizlyar . In order to exact revenge on the khans who had acknowledged the authority of Russia, Agha Mohammad Khan went back to the Caucasus. Ibrahim Khalil Khan escaped this time to his relative Umma Khan V in Daghestan , but his family was reinstated following Agha Mohammad Khan's assassination in Shusha on 17 June 1797. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's nephew Mohammad Beg briefly assumed charge of
16471-421: The castle at Shusha. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's change of heart had been caused by the recent death of his eldest son and heir Mohammad Hasan Agha, who was a prominent major-general in the Russian army, and the Russians not seeming to be in a position to defend effectively against the larger Iranian army that was drawing near. Fath-Ali Shah pardoned Ibrahim Khalil Khan, who moved to an adjacent hill outside Shusha so that
16652-507: The castles of Bayat , Shah-Bulaghi , and Panahabad ) and the subjugation of four of the melikdoms through the assistance of his new ally, Shahnazar II , the melik (prince) of Varanda . In 1762, Panah Ali Khan acknowledged the authority of the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand ( r. 1751–1779 ), who had established his authority in most of Iran. The latter took Panah Ali Khan hostage to Shiraz and appointed his son Ibrahim Khalil Khan as
16833-402: The city once again; this attempt was repelled as well. By the Treaty of Gulistan (1813), which ended the 1804–1813 war, Iran lost most of its Caucasian territories; Erivan and Tabriz were now the main headquarters of the Iranian efforts to regain the territories lost to Russia. About a decade later, in violation of the Treaty of Gulistan, the Russians invaded the Erivan Khanate. This sparked
17014-507: The city of Tabriz . He also asked for a deadline of the summer to prepare to make the trip himself. Soleyman Khan took Abd al-Samad as his captive, and by the end of November 1793 went to the Mazandaran region before making his way to the city of Tehran . Abd al-Samad was later part of the retinue that accompanied Agha Mohammad Khan during his siege of the city of Kerman . During the siege, Abd al-Samad made an attempt to escape to Karabakh, but
17195-451: The city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim in the early 1890s. H. F. B. Lynch thought that some among the Muslims were Persians when he visited the city within the same decade. The Persians were the elite in the region, and were part of the settled population. The term "Persians" in this specific matter refers to the ruling hierarchy of the khanate, and does not necessarily denote
17376-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
17557-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
17738-621: The defeat. Furthermore, a number of the Turkic and Persian soldiers had perished in the 1826–1828 war , which lead to the Russian conquest of the Erivan and Nakchivan Khanates. According to estimations, some 20,000 Muslims had left Iranian Armenia or were killed during the 1826–1828 war. According to professor of history George Bournoutian , it can therefore be taken for granted that the combined Persian and Turkic (settled and semi-settled) population of Iranian Armenia amounted some 93,000, instead of 74,000. The total Muslim population of Iranian Armenia (incl. semi-settled, nomadic, and settled), prior to
17919-487: 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. Persian was also spoken in the judiciary. The political history of Iran under the Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, or Qajar dynasties is the main subject of the majority of Iranian primary sources. Events taking place in remote areas like Karabakh are typically given
18100-468: The establishment of the khanate (i.e., province), the Iranians had used the Erivan Province (also known as Chokhur-e Sa'd ) to govern roughly the same area. Both the Safavid era province, as well as the administrative entity of the Zand and Qajar era, were alternatively known by the name of Chokhur-e Sa'd . In the Qajar era, members of the royal Qajar dynasty were appointed as governors of
18281-411: The ethnic composition of the group. There were thus ethnic "Persians" and "Turks" among the ruling "Persian" elite of the khanate. This ruling elite were primarily the members of the governors' household, his close associates, the officer corps, the members of the local Persian bureaucracy, and some of the prosperous merchants. The Persian ruling elite was a minority among the Muslims in the khanate. During
18462-545: The exception of the five melikdoms. Ibrahim Khalil Khan and the rest of the Javanshir tribe had also returned to Karabakh. In 1748, Panah Ali Khan declared his allegiance to Nader Shah's son and successor Adel Shah ( r. 1747–1748 ), who officially appointed him khan of Karabakh. Shortly afterwards, Panah Ali Khan had the Bayat Castle constructed, in which he housed his entire family, his retinue, dignitaries, and numerous tribal leaders. Panah Ali Khan soon fell into
18643-632: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
18824-463: The final bout of hostilities between the two: the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 . In the early stages of this war, the Iranians were successful in recovering many of the territories that were lost in 1813; however, the Russian offensive of 1827, in which the superior Russian artillery played a decisive role, resulted in the Iranians being defeated at Abbasabad , Sardarabad as well Erivan. Erivan
19005-481: The first certain holder of the title of "melik of Erivan" was Melik Aghamal, and it may be from him that the house had taken its surname. One of his successors, Melik-Hakob-Jan, attended the coronation of Nader Shah in the Mughan plain in 1736. Under the melik of Erivan were a number of other meliks in the khanate, with each maḥall inhabited by Armenians having its own local melik. The meliks of Erivan themselves, especially
19186-488: The following phylogenetic classification: Karabakh Khanate The Karabakh Khanate (also spelled Qarabagh ; Persian : خانات قرهباغ , romanized : Khānāt-e Qarabāgh ; Russian : Карабахское ханство , romanized : Karabakhskoye khanstvo ) was a khanate under Iranian and later Russian suzerainty, which controlled the historical region of Karabakh , now divided between modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan . In terms of structure,
19367-562: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
19548-421: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
19729-456: The former Erivan Khanate and the neighboring Nakhchivan Khanate were merged to form the Armenian Oblast of the Russian Empire. Under Iranian rule, the kings ( shahs ) appointed various governors to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These governors usually carried the title of " khan " or " beglarbeg ", as well as the title of sardār (“chief”). Prior to
19910-469: The foundation of the Afsharid dynasty . Nader Shah rewarded the meliks by acknowledging Karabakh and Zangezur as semi-autonomous regions. He had Iranian Armenia organized into four khanates ; Erivan, Nakhchivan, Ganja, and Karabakh. A khanate was a type of administrative unit governed by a hereditary or appointed ruler subject to Iranian rule. The title of the ruler was either beglarbegi or khan , which
20091-440: The government of then incumbent king Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. A capable administrator, his long tenure as governor is considered to be an era of prosperity, during which he made the khanate a model province. His local bureaucracy, modeled on that of the central government in Tehran , was efficient, and restored the confidence of the local Armenians in the Iranian rule. In 1808, the Russians, now led by general Ivan Gudovich , attacked
20272-455: The help of Abbas Mirza , after 1828. Regarding the Kurds , the Kameral'noe Opisanie' lists more than 10,000 inhabitants (of various tribes), and notes that some 15,000 had migrated after the Russian annexation. The total Kurdish population (pre-war) would therefore amount over 25,000 individuals. The Kurds were nomadic by tradition, similar to a large number of the Turkic groups. Together with
20453-405: The hubs of the khanate. The strongholds of Bayat, Shah-Bulaghi, and Shusha required a large number of craftsmen and laborers to construct and maintain them. A common method in a large fortress-town was to have it centered around a maidan (square), which was next to the bazaar , the principal mosque, and hammams (baths). Following the establishment of the Iranian rial currency in 1790,
20634-428: The inhabitants of Shusha. The Armenian quarters were required to pay the most, providing 590 gold rubles and 200 kharvars ("donkey's load") of firewood every year. The Muslim quarter were required to pay 200 gold rubles and 60 kharvars of firewood. Karabakh was a province of an imperial structure that was entirely Iranian, in the same fashion as other provinces such as Lorestan and Khorasan. In terms of structure,
20815-473: The khan of Erivan. The provincial capital of Erivan was a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus during the Russo-Iranian Wars of the 19th century. As a result of the Iranian defeat in the last Russo-Iranian War , it was occupied by Russian troops in 1827 and then ceded to the Russian Empire in 1828 in accordance with the Treaty of Turkmenchay . Immediately following this, the territories of
20996-442: The khan's family, the clergy, the government, or the subjects of different officials. Instead of paying taxes, they provided a range of services to the monarch, the mulkdars , or the tiyuldars . This means that in 1823, there were a total of 1,462 families living in Shusha and its surroundings, with 921 families (63.41%) of them being Muslims and 535 (36.59%) of them being Armenian. Taxes were paid yearly in one single payment by
21177-401: The khanate, and is considered to be a prominent architectural remnant of the era. The palace of the khan was situated nearby one of the mosques. During Hossein Khan Sardar's governorship, Erivan's population steadily rose. Just before the Russian conquest, its population was approaching 20,000 inhabitants. In contrast, in 1897, some seventy years after the establishment of Russian rule, and with
21358-424: The khanate, but not long after Ibrahim Khalil Khan came back and re-established his authority. He quickly established friendly relations with Agha Mohammad Khan's successor Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ( r. 1797–1834 ), who married his daughter and confirmed him as the khan of Karabakh. Fath-Ali Shah was later convinced of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's lack of reliability by his unwillingness to help Javad Khan against
21539-848: The khanates, which occurred afterwards. In Iran, Mehdi Qoli Khan was amongst the members of the "war party" or the "hawks", who advocated for war against the Russians. He was later amongst the Iranian soldiers during the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828 . He was finally given permission to go back to Karabakh in 1836, where he retired. He died 1845 and was buried in Aghdam . According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, Bayat received many new settlers (including artisans) from nearby areas, including Ardabil and Tabriz. The Iranian American historian George Bournoutian stated this passage shows that Javanshirs tribal dominion included more than just pastoral or migratory land. Their forts, which resembled small cities, served as
21720-581: The khans of the Caucasus . Karim Khan took hostages from the khans' families to ensure their loyalty, but he did not meddle in Caucasian affairs. In 1765 and 1769, Heraclius II invaded the Erivan Khanate in response to Hoseyn Ali Khan's attempts to terminate payment of tribute. Both times, bloodshed was avoided through the mediation of the Armenian Catholicos Simeon of Yerevan , and Heraclius accepted
21901-421: The khans who had established connections with Russia in an effort to reestablish Iranian dominance over the border districts. In 1792/93, Agha Mohammad Khan assigned his lieutenant Soleyman Khan Qajar with the task of putting an end to any opposition against his authority. Instead of going in person, Ibrahim Khalil Khan dispatched his nephew Abd al-Samad Beg to deliver presents and offerings to Soleyman Khan in
22082-554: The king of Eastern Georgia ( Kartli-Kakheti ). Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , the future shah of Iran, had been a nominal hostage of Karim Khan in Shiraz and was entirely preoccupied with establishing his authority and eliminating rivals in Iran. As they battled to preserve their autonomy at a time when the Iranians and Russians wanted to incorporate the eastern Caucasus under their own empires, Georgia and Karabakh's partnership turned out to be highly beneficial for both of them. Capitalizing on
22263-461: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
22444-440: The last, Melik Sahak II, were among the most important, influential and respected individuals in the khanate and both Christians and Muslims alike sought their advice, protection and intercession. Second in importance only to the khan himself, they alone among the Armenians of Erivan were allowed to wear the dress of an Iranian of rank. The melik of Erivan had full administrative, legislative and judicial authority over Armenians up to
22625-549: The later leaders of the Javanshir belonged to the Sarijalu tribe as they had taken over the leadership of the Javanshir. For decades, the Javanshir had moved its sheep to Karabakh, where they had given the meliks an annual tax in exchange for access to summer pasturage. Karabakh thus held immense significance for the tribe. In 1723, the Ottomans invaded Iran, conquering most of its northeastern part by 1724. Karabakh and Zangezur were
22806-423: The local Persian governors for their animal husbandry, handicrafts and horses which they provided for the cavalry. The settled Turkics made up a large percentage of the workers in the agricultural sector. Together with the Kurds, the nomadic Turkic groups used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life. There was rivalry between the leading Turkic groups. Due to the nomadic nature of many of
22987-560: The majority of Armenians felt no urge to take any actions. An example of this can be seen in 1808; when the Russians launched another siege in that year, in a 2nd attempt to take the city from the Iranians, the Armenians displayed "general neutrality". Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of the melik of Erivan, a position held by members of the Melik-Aghamalyan family. The melik of Erivan had
23168-599: The mid-2000s, the concept of a " Western Azerbaijan ", originally a colloquialism used by some Azerbaijani refugees to refer to the Armenian SSR of the Soviet Union , was merged into renewed interest of the Khanates of the Caucasus , in, what the historian and political scientist Laurence Broers explains as "wide-ranging fetishisation" of the Erivan Khanate as a "historically Azerbaijani entity". Azerbaijani historiography regards
23349-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
23530-525: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
23711-461: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
23892-495: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
24073-465: The new khan. Following Karim Khan's death in 1779, Ibrahim Khalil Khan strived to maintain his autonomy by allying himself with the Georgian king Heraclius II and making contact with the Russian Empire, even briefly submitting to the latter. Because of his defiance, he was in 1797 ousted from Karabakh by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , the new ruler of Iran. Following Agha Mohammad Khan's assassination in Shusha
24254-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
24435-420: The nomadic Turkic groups, the Kurds used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life. The Kurds were primarily of three religious affiliations; Sunni, Shia, and Yezidi . There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Kurds and the Turkic nomads. Christians Armenians formed a minority in the khanate, comprising some 20 percent of the population, and formed no majority in any of
24616-662: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became
24797-613: The notion of Armenian statehood, were used by the Safavids to fight the Ottoman Empire. From 1554 and onwards, the governorship of both Karabakh and its capital Ganja was held by the Ziyadoghlu family of the Turkic Qajar tribe. Following the collapse of the Safavid regime in 1722, the governorship was divided into two distinct areas, each controlled by a local clan. It was during this period that Panah Ali Khan distinguished himself. He
24978-529: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
25159-476: The only parts of Iranian Armenia which managed to fend off the Ottomans, under the leadership of Davit Bek , who led the Armenian meliks . Although Davit Bek died between 1726 and 1728, his successors managed to maintain their control over most of the highlands until the resurgence of Iran, now led by Nader Khan Afshar, who repelled the Ottomans in 1735. The following year, he crowned himself as Nader Shah , marking
25340-518: The position, although Agha Mohammad Khan's successor Fath-Ali ( r. 1797–1834 ) reinstated Mohammad Khan after taking the throne. During the Qajar period, the city of Erivan was considered to be quite prosperous. After the Russians annexed Kartli-Kakheti and initiated the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 , Erivan became, "once more", a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus. In 1804, Russian general Pavel Tsitsianov attacked Erivan, but
25521-628: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
25702-468: The records enrolled the cavalry. Even tax-exempt tribes contributed financially and in kind when mercenaries were needed, but the khan covered the expenses of their equipment and horse fodder when they joined the army. The Iranologist Willem Floor uses the example of Panah Ali Khan as an argument that the character and design of Iran's political system were unaffected by increased tribal activity. Qajar Iran contains instances that are similar to those of
25883-578: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
26064-539: The region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran and Turkey (see also; Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 ) arrived after 1828. Due to these new significant demographic shifts, in 1832, the number of Armenians had matched that of the Muslims. Anyhow, it would be only after the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 , which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, that ethnic Armenians once again established
26245-589: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
26426-459: The rest of the villages were populated by Armenians. Overall, there were 1,536 Armenian families and 53 Tatar families in the five mahals , which means that in 1822, 96.67% of Nagorno-Karabakh inhabitants were Armenians, with the remaining 3.33% being Tatars. According to the 1823 Russian survey, 371 families were registered as living in Shusha's three-quarters. The Kazanchi and Ahlisi quarters were fully made up of people with Armenian names, whilst
26607-441: The restoration of the khanate's tributary status. Karim Khan's death in 1779 precipitated another power struggle in Iran, again leading to conflict between the rulers in the Caucasus. That year, Heraclius again invaded the Erivan Khanate, devastating the land and taking a large amount of booty and prisoners, although he was unable to capture Erivan Fortress . Hoseyn Ali Khan died in 1783 and was succeeded by his son Gholam Ali , who
26788-418: The same year, Ibrahim Khalil Khan restored his authority in Karabakh. He established friendly relations with Agha Mohammad Khan's successor Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ( r. 1797–1834 ), who married his daughter and confirmed him as the khan of Karabakh. In May 1805, he submitted to the Russians, signing the Treaty of Kurekchay , which granted them full authority over Karabakh's external affairs in exchange for
26969-422: The sentence of the death penalty, which only the khan was allowed to impose. The melik exercised a military function as well, because he or his appointee commanded the Armenian infantry contingents in the khan's army. All the other meliks and village headmen ( tanuters ) of the khanate were subordinate to the melik of Erivan and all the Armenian villages of the khanate were required to pay him an annual tax. From
27150-414: The siege of Ganja, soon forced Ibrahim Khalil Khan to yield and accept a Russian garrison in Shusha. In May 1805, Ibrahim Khalil Khan signed the Treaty of Kurekchay , which granted Russia full authority over Karabakh's external affairs in exchange for a yearly payment. Russia also recognized Ibrahim Khalil and his lineage through his eldest son as the rulers of Karabakh. In the same year, Fath-Ali Shah led
27331-607: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced
27512-513: The sole right to govern the Armenians of the khanate with the authorization of the shah. The inception of the melikdom of Erivan appears only after the end of the last Ottoman–Safavid War in 1639 and seems to have been a part of an overall administrative reorganization in Iranian Armenia after a long period of wars and invasions. The first known member of the family is a certain Melik Gilan but
27693-513: The southern part of Arran and was mostly inhabited by Armenians . However, due to Turkic and Mongol invasions, the Armenians there became a minority in the 11th century, and by the 14th century, the Turko-Persian name Karabakh ("Black Garden") started slowly replacing the name of the area. Many of the surviving Armenian nobles and their followers resettled in the highlands of Karabakh, where they continued to have authority. The population of
27874-527: The spring or summer of 1761, the Afshar chieftain Fath-Ali Khan Afshar besieged Shusha. Panah Ali Khan made him lift the siege by giving Ibrahim Khalil Khan as hostage. By 1762, Karim Khan had established his authority across most of Iran, and was eventually acknowledged by Georgia and the various khans of the South Caucasus as their suzerain. This included Panah Ali Khan, who along with some other khans
28055-507: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
28236-687: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
28417-521: The strongest in the entire country. Its enormous fortress, which was located on "high ground" and was surrounded by thick walls, as well as moats and cannons, helped to prevent the Russian advance for some time. Of the city's two most prominent mosques, one was built in 1687 in the Safavid period, whereas the largest mosque of the city, the Blue Mosque , was built in the 18th century after the establishment of
28598-434: The ten- shahi stopped being used. It was later re-established by Ibrahim Khalil Khan, being minted in silver at Shusha under the name of panahabadi in honor of Panah Ali Khan. This was the first time silver coins were minted by the khans of Karabakh, a late development compared to other khanates. This was because Panah Ali Khan and Shahnazar II shared control over Shusha, with the minting of silver coins only being
28779-449: The terms "Azerbaijani Turk" and "Muslim" are used interchangeably when dealing with the Erivan Khanate, even though contemporary demographic surveys differentiate "Muslims" into Persians, Shia and Sunni Kurds and Turkic tribes. Broers regards this phenomenon in Azerbaijan as being part of a "Wide Azerbaijanism", a geopolitical confection emerging "at the meeting point of two previously subdued geographies made relevant by both sovereignty and
28960-593: The treaty, which was to renounce his loyalty to Iran in return for Russian protection. This treaty strained the relationship between Heraclius and Ibrahim Khalil Khan, who also attempted to get in contact with the Russians, but was ignored by Catherine II, as she did not want to get embroiled in the conflict between the khans. Ibrahim Khalil Khan continued his fathers efforts to dominate all of Karabakh, succeeding in retaining Shahnazar II's support and also married his daughter. He also took Melik Bakhtam of Dizak hostage and had him sent to Ardabil in mainland Iran, which Dizak
29141-402: The tribes of Karabakh who had sought asylum in Azerbaijan. Mehdi Qoli Khan, who changed his alliance between Iran and Russia to his greatest advantage like the majority of the khans in the South Caucasus, made the decision to stick by Russia. In an effort to reassure his continuous allegiance to the Russian Empire, he sent Kotliarevskii the farman . The Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813 ended with
29322-410: The turmoil in Iran, as well as the Ottomans inability to confront Russia, a group of Russians politicians, led by the military leader and statesman Grigory Potemkin , convinced the Russian empress Catherine II ( r. 1762–1796 ) to agree to a bilateral treaty (the Treaty of Georgievsk ) with Heraclius in 1783. Heraclius, who was worried of reinstatement of fidelty to Iran, agreed to the terms of
29503-478: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
29684-578: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
29865-479: Was assassinated soon after; he was succeeded by his younger brother Mohammad Khan . Like some of the other khans of the Caucasus, Mohammad Khan sought to make contact with Russia in the aftermath of the Treaty of Georgievsk . In 1794–95, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar campaigned to restore central authority in the region. He received the submission of the khanates and forcibly subjugated Georgia. He had Mohammad Khan arrested and appointed his own brother Ali Qoli Khan to
30046-464: Was captured and killed near Tehran. This incident upset Ibrahim Khalil, who continued to make excuses to avoid meeting Agha Mohammad Khan. Agha Mohammad Khan was prepared to reinstate Iranian rule in the southeastern Caucasus by the summer of 1795. He was unafraid to engage the Russians, a trait he retained throughout, and neither the Treaty of Georgievsk nor Russian activity in the southeastern Caucasus seemed to discourage him. His 60,000 soldiers, which
30227-569: Was composed of 17,101 families of villagers and nomads. Its inhabitants were either classified as Tatars, Armenians, or nomads. There were 8,445 nomadic families, 4,654 Armenian families, and 4,002 Tatar families, which means that the nomads comprised 49.38% of the population, followed by Armenians (27.22%) and then the Tatars (23.40%). The survey adds that by including Shusha, the entire population of Karabakh consisted of 18,563 families. There were roughly 300 settlements in Karabakh, equally split between
30408-566: Was identical to the Ottoman rank of pasha . Nader Shah also forced several Turkic tribes (including the Javanshir) to mainland Iran in order to guarantee their allegiance. Panah Ali Khan's son Ibrahim Khalil Khan and the rest of the Javanshir tribe were forced to resettle in Khorasan . Panah Ali Khan was an exception, as he was kept hostage. However, following the execution of his brother Behbud Ali Beg in c. 1744 , Panah Ali Khan escaped to
30589-489: Was in reality a figurehead, the real authority being held by the Russians. In 1807, southern Karabakh had a sizable Iranian military presence. In June 1812, Mehdi Qoli Khan received a farman (royal decree) from Fath-Ali Shah, asking him to reaffirm his loyalty and work with him to expel the Russians from Karabakh. In addition to forgiving Mehdi Qoli Khan for his earlier transgressions, Fath-Ali Shah would also install him as Karabakh's governor and work with him to bring back
30770-404: Was incorporated into. Ibrahim Khalil also captured both Melik Abov of Gulistan and Melik Medjlum of Jraberd and granted their domains to others. The Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 caused the Russian troops to abandon the city of Tiflis at the same time as Agha Mohammad Khan's authority in Iran was growing. Since the time of the first Safavid shah (king) Ismail I ( r. 1501–1524 ),
30951-435: Was its Muslim sector. In 1757, the Qajar chieftain Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar made an unsuccessful attempt at capturing Shusha. Panah Ali Khan afterwards captured the city of Ardabil and installed his clansman Dargah-Qoli Beg Javanshir its governor, though it is uncertain how long he held the post. Nazar Ali Khan Shahsevan is later recorded as its governor under the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand ( r. 1751–1779 ). In
31132-403: Was obligated to pay a yearly tribute to the Georgian kings. The khan often tried to escape this obligation, and Heraclius campaigned against the Erivan Khanate several times to exact tribute. In 1753–54, the Erivan Khanate suffered greatly from raiding by Lezgi tribesman from the North Caucasus. By 1762, Karim Khan Zand had succeeded in reuniting Iran and reestablishing Iranian suzerainty over
31313-484: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
31494-424: Was primarily made up of cavalry , advanced into the area in the summer of that year. The first few months were spent by Agha Mohammad Khan winning the Muslim rulers' compliance. Ibrahim Khalil Khan and two other khans ( Mir-Mostafa Khan of Talesh and Mohammad Khan Qajar of Erivan ) entered into correspondence with the Russians, who gave them hope that they could defeat the Iranian forces. Heraclius also contacted
31675-408: Was still in circulation in some regions of South Caucasus and Iran up until the early 19th century. The inscription on the obverse side read "There is one God, His name is Allah, and Mohammad was His Prophet", whilst its reverse side read "minted in Panahabad." "Panahabad" was a laqab (honorific) used to refer to Shusha, albeit it was only employed in official, bureaucratic language and not as
31856-418: Was taken by the Russians on 2 October 1827. In February 1828, Iran was forced to sign the Treaty of Turkmenchay , which resulted in the cession of the khanate (as well as the other remaining territories to the north of the Aras River ) to the Russians. After the fall of the Soviet Union , the Aras River became and remained the border between Iran and Armenia . Erivan city was reportedly "quite prosperous" in
32037-405: Was taken hostage to the city of Shiraz , where he died. Karim Khan subsequently appointed Ibrahim Khalil Khan as the new khan of Karabakh. Following Karim Khan's death on 1 March 1779, however, a power struggle ensured amongst his kinsmen. Ibrahim Khalil Khan took advantage on the chaos that followed by pursuing his own goals. He enhanced his standing by forging an alliance with Heraclius II ,
32218-488: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in
32399-436: Was the Armenians who dominated the trade and professions in the khanate. Thus, they were of major economic significance to the Iranian administration. Although the Armenians sympathised with the Christian Russians, they were indifferent to them as a whole; immediate concerns, both rural and urban Armenians, was limited to socio-economic "well-being". As long as the living conditions in the khanate were considered to be appropriate,
32580-421: Was the leader of the Turkic Javanshir tribe , which now dominated the lowlands of Karabakh, as well as the Otuziki and Kebirlu tribal federation. The Safavid-era historian Iskandar Beg Munshi (died c. 1632 ) reported that the Javanshir did not belong to the seven principal Qizilbash tribes, but instead a lower-ranking group referred to as the " gholam amirs ". According to the Rowzat-al-Safa Naseri ,
32761-425: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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