| Khanate of Erivan Persian: خانات ایروان |
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| Khanate | ||||
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| "Yerevan Khanate c. 1800." | ||||
| Capital | Erivan | |||
| Political structure | Khanate | |||
| History | ||||
| - Established | 1604 | |||
| - Disestablished | 1828 | |||
| Warning: Value specified for "continent" does not comply | ||||
The Khanate of Erivan (Persian: خانات ایروان — Khānāt-e Īravān, also known as Čoḵūr Saʿd[1]), was an administrative territory that was established Safavid Persia in the early 17th century. It covered an area of roughly 7,500 square miles,[1] and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, most of the Iğdır Province of present-day Turkey, and the Sharur and Sadarak rayons of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of present-day Azerbaijan.
As a result of the Persian defeat in the last Russo-Persian War, it was ceded to the Russian Empire in accordance with the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay. Immediately following this, the territories of the former Khanate of Erivan and the Khanate of Nakhichevan were joined to form the "Armenian oblast" of the Russian Empire.
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During Persian rule, the Shahs appointed the various khans as beglerbegī to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These khans from the Qajar tribe[2][3], which is of Turkic origin[4][5], also known as the sirdar (Pers. sardār, “chief”), governed the entire khanate, from the mid-17th century until the Russian occupation in 1828.[1] The khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called maḥalls. Persian rule was interrupted by Ottoman occupations between 1513–14, 1533–34, 1548–49, 1553–55, 1580–1604, 1635–36 and 1722-36.
At the time of the Russian annexation of the Erevan Khanate in 1828, Armenians formed about less than 20% (about 15,000) of the population, while the remaining 80% was made up of Muslims (Persian, Azeri, Kurdish),[1][6] forming a total population of 102,000.[7]
Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of the melik of Erevan, from the House of the Melik-Aghamalyan family, who had the sole right to govern them with the authorization of the shah. The inception of the melikdom of Erevan 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 Persian Armenia after a long period of wars and invasions. The first known member of the family is a certain Melik Gilan but the first certain holder of the title of "melik of Erevan" 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 Nāder Shah in the Mughan plain in 1736.[1]
Under the melik of Erevan were a number of other meliks in the khanate, with each maḥall inhabited by Armenians having its own local melik. The meliks of Erevan themselves, especially 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 Erevan were allowed to wear the dress of a Persian of rank. The melik of Erevan had full administrative, legislative and judicial authority over Armenians up to 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 Erevan and all the Armenian villages of the khanate were required to pay him an annual tax.[1]
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