Georgia and the Khanates of South Caucasus in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century
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Appendix 2 Georgia and the Khanates of South Caucasus in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century The Russian and Ottoman occupation of the South Caucasus, following the fall of the Safavids, albeit short, had transformed the century-long order established by that Iranian dynasty. It had allowed the Georgian rulers, as well as the khans, begs and soltans of the South Caucasus to form local power bases and to cooperate with ei- ther the Russians or Ottomans, depending on their objectives. As noted,1 Nader Shah tried to restore the Safavid administrative structure of the three former beglarbegis (see map 4). He retained the governing families of some regions, but replaced others with his loyal commanders (see below). The local population, however, did not always welcome Nader’s choices which sparked a number of rebellions.2 Following Nader’s assassination in 1747, the kings of eastern Georgia (Kartli and Kakheti), as well as various tribal chiefs in the South Caucasus, took advantage of the disorder in Iran, and formed ten khanates and a number of soltanates (see map 7).3 At the same time, several tribal leaders in Iran, among them Karim Khan Zand, Azad Khan Afghan and Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar fought for supremacy; which, by 1762, ended with the recognition of Karim Khan’s authority. Between 1762 and 1797 King Erekle II of Kartli-Kakheti and the khans and soltans of the South Caucasus, not only had to deal with the incursions on the part of their neigh- bors, but also had to tread a fine line between the demands of Catherine the Great and Aga Mohammad Khan Qajar’s rise in Iran.4 1 See Chapter 1. 2 In 1743, the Nader’s garrison at Qabr was slaughtered, forcing Nader to send troops to regain the town, Mohammad Kazem Marvi, ʿAlamara-ye Naderi, III (Tehran, 1990), 1038; Bakikhanov, 154. 3 See Chapter 1. 4 It is important to note, however, that despite the unfounded claims of some Azeri historians, there was no united anti-Iranian movement, nor any regional, ethnic, or national identity, or plans for an independent state. The short-lived efforts of King Erekle II, Ebrahim Khan of Qarabagh, and Fath ʿAli Khan of Qobbeh to establish total hegemony over the South Caucasus all ended in failure. Such assertions have become more common among Azeri historians after 1989; for example, see, Dzh. M. Mustafaev, Severnye khanstva Azerbaidzhana i Rossiia (Baku, 1989) and E. Babaev, Iz istorii giandzhinskogo khanstva (Baku, 2003). In fact, after Stalin’s failure to annex Iranian Azarbayjan in 1946, Soviet historians not only proclaimed that the khanates were never part of Iran and were independent entities, but began (and have continued to do so after 1991) to refer to Iranian Azarbayjan as south Azerbaijan, which © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004445161_012 George A. Bournoutian - 9789004445161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 04:11:11AM via free access 250 Appendix 2 1 Georgia After regaining Tiflis in 1735, Nader was initially welcomed by a number of Georgian princes, one of whom he named the vali of Georgia. Nader’s demands in cash and grain during his Daghestan campaign and his 1743 campaign against the Ottomans, however, resulted in a rebellion. In 1744, Nader decided to name Teimuraz II, from the Bagra- tid princely family, as King of Kartli, while Teimuraz’s son, Erekle II, was named the ruler of Kakheti. Both father and son had not only demonstrated their loyalty, but had also performed great services to the Iranian monarch. Teimuraz had supported Nader in his march on Tiflis and Erekle had headed a Georgian contingent in the Indian campaign.5 Both father and son were also instrumental in subduing the 1743 rebellion. Although prior to his death, Nader had renewed his demands for cash and grain from Georgia, his successor. ʿAdel Shah, who was married to one of Teimuraz’s daughters and who relied on the support of the Bagratids, rescinded the request. Between 1750 and 1797 Erekle II also controlled the Qazzaq region.6 After the death of Teimuraz II, in 1762, Erekle II became the king of the united Kartli and Kakheti kingdom. Erekle thus assumed control of all of eastern Georgia. Soon after, he became a major force in the South Caucasus and cooperated with Karim Khan Zand. He also allied with Ebrahim Khan of Qarabagh. The two then made the khanate of Ganjeh subordinate to their will and extended their power to Yerevan.7 The political conditions in the South Caucasus changed completely, however, following Erekle’s 1783 treaty with Russia and the arrival of Russian troops in Tiflis.8 2 Ganjeh The Safavids had entrusted the beglarbegi of Qarabagh, which included Ganjeh, to the Ziyadoghlu Qajar tribe.9 Nader, after driving out the Ottomans in 1735, confirmed had been separated from north Azerbaijan, see V. Leviatov, Ocherki iz istorii Azerbaidzhana v XVIII veke (Baku, 1948). Such absurd notions are completely negated by Article III of the Golestan Treaty and Article I of the treaties between Russia and the khans of Qarabagh, Shakki and Shirvan; see Appendix 4. 5 M-F. Brosset, Histoire de la Géorgie, II/2 (St. Petersburg, 1857), 206–207. 6 Musəvi, docs. 27–39. Qazzaq became a bone of contention between Georgia and Ganjeh, see Chapters 1 and 2. 7 For details, see Allen, 196–205; Butkov, II, 70–80; Lang, 178. 8 See Chapter 1. 9 For a brief introduction of this tribe and its hereditary rule in Ganjeh and Qarabagh, see, J. Reid, “The Qajar Uymaq in the Safavid Period, 1500–1722,” Iranian Studies, XI (1978), 127–137; Mohammad Maʿsum b. Khwajegi Esfahani, Kholasat al-Seyr (Tehran, 1989), 319–325; AA, II, 657. For a list of the governors, see Nasiri, 258–259. George A. Bournoutian - 9789004445161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 04:11:11AM via free access Georgia and the Khanates of South Caucasus 251 Ughurlu Khan Ziyadoghlu Qajar as the khan. However, after learning that the lat- ter was the sole khan who had not supported his candidacy for shah at the Moghan assembly,10 Nader decided to reduce the power of that tribe by dividing the Beglarbegi of Qarabagh.11 He handed the Zangezur district to the beglarbegi of Tabriz and reaf- firmed the autonomy of the five Armenian districts (see map 5).12 In addition, Nader gave the districts of Borchalu, Qazzaq and Shams al-Din (see map 7) to King Teimuraz II of Kartli.13 Thus, Ughurlu Khan ended up with only the town of Ganjeh and its sur- rounding region. In the summer of 1737, Ebrahim Khan, the brother of Nader Shah, was named the interim beglarbeg of Azarbayjan and the South Caucasus during Nader’s campaigns in Afghanistan and India. In order to subdue the Daghestani tribesmen who continued to raid Ganjeh and Georgia, Ebrahim Khan asked Ughurlu Khan and King Teimuraz II to join him in a punitive expedition against Daghestan. Although the campaign was suc- cessful in Daghestan, Surkhai Khan of the Qazi-Qomuq and his son Morteza-ʿAli would not submit. A year later, in November 1738, Ebrahim Khan and Ughurlu Khan initiated another campaign against Surkhai Khan. The two khans were defeated and Ughurlu Khan died on the field of battle.14 Shahverdi Khan Ziyadoghlu, the son of Ughurlu Khan, succeeded his father in 1740, but his support of Sam Mirza, a pretender to the Iranian throne, forced him, in 1743, to flee to Kartli and seek refuge with King Teimuraz II. Nader then appointed his tupchi- bashi, Hajji Khan,15 as the governor of Ganjeh. Following Nader’s murder in 1747, Shahverdi Khan, with the help of kings Teimuraz and Erekle II, returned to Ganjeh and disposed of Hajji Khan. Surkhai Khan then promised to pay an annual tribute equal to 10,000 tomans to the Georgian monarchs. From 1747 until his death at the hand of one of his associates, Shahverdi Khan did his best to keep the khanate from being invaded by his neighbors by paying tribute to the Javanshirs of Qarabagh or to Georgia. In the meantime, in order to establish new alliances, Shahverdi found spouses for some of his four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Mohammad Hasan Khan, married the sister of Surkhai Khan Qazi-Qomuq. One of his daughters wed Ebrahim Khan of Qarabagh, and, after her death, another of his daughters married Ebrahim. His youngest daughter married Hosein Khan of Shakki and after his death became the wife of Mohammad Hasan Aqa, the eldest son 10 Petrushevskii, Ocherki, 124; Nadir Shah, 170–173. 11 Nersesov, 216–217. 12 For details, see Appendix 1. 13 As noted, the suzerainty over these districts continued to be a bone of contention be- tween Georgia and Ganjeh, see Chapter 2. 14 Marvi, II, 675. 15 Bakikhanov, 154. George A. Bournoutian - 9789004445161 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 04:11:11AM via free access 252 Appendix 2 of Ebrahim Khan of Qarabagh. During Karim Khan Zand’s interregnum as the vakil in Iran, Shahverdi’s brother, Reza Qoli, was taken as a hostage to Shiraz.16 In 1768, Mohammad Hasan Khan, the eldest son of Shahverdi, became the new khan of Ganjeh and continued to pay the tribute to Georgia and Qarabagh. In 1778, internal problems in Ganjeh, as well as the squabbles among Shahverdi’s sons, brought his son, Mohammad Khan to power. Shahverdi’s younger sons, Javad and Rahim fled; the first sought refuge in Qarabagh and the second in Tiflis. Mohammad Khan blinded Shahverdi’s brother, Reza Qoli, who, following the death of Karim Khan Zand in 1779, had returned to Ganjeh.