Category: News

State of Shir­van­shah with its spe­cial place in 3 thou­sand years his­tory of Azer­bai­jani state­hood played an impor­tant role in the socio-economic and polit­i­cal his­tory of the South Cau­ca­sus and the Mid­dle East for more than two thou­sand years.  As one of  first states in north­ern Azer­bai­jan,  State of Shir­van­shah  entered Azer­bai­jani state­hood his­tory as the longest lived authority.

Accord­ing to the his­to­ri­ans of antiq­uity and the Mid­dle Ages,  Shir­van com­bin­ing the cen­tral provines of Cau­casian Alba­nia,  had bor­ders  lying between Der­bent and Samur River in the north, the Kura and Araz rivers in the south, the Caspian Sea in the east and Gan­jabasar in the east. Shir­van­shahs which sub­dued the cities  such as Barda, Bey­la­gan, Ganja, Sheki, Tabriz, Ard­abil, Gabala and Dar­band in dif­fer­ent peri­ods of his­tory, had a power over Mil, Mugan, Sheki, Karabakh, Geor­gia, West Azer­bai­jan, South Azer­bai­jan, Nakhichevan, Talysh and some regions of  Dagestan.

The fol­low­ing  ancient and medieval East­ern, Euro­pean, Russ­ian, Azer­bai­jani sci­en­tists reported  about  dif­fer­ent peri­ods of Shir­van in their works :  Plini, Sekund, Ptole­mey, Movses Kalankatlı, Yegıse, Favs­tos Buzand, Abu Hamid al-al-Qarnati Andalusi, Yagut Hamavi, Zakariya al-Kazvini, hand-Masudi, hand-Balazuri, hand-Yaqubi, hand-Istakhri, Abu Dulaf , Ahmad ibn Lüt­ful­lah (Head Astrologer),  Kemal Ed-Din ibn al Fuvati, Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Havqal, Abdur­rashid ibn Salih ibn al-Nuri Bakuvi, Ed-Din Muham­mad Shi­hab al-Nasavi, Chair­man, Ed-Din Ali al-Husseini, Ham­dul­lah Gazvini, Fazlul­lah Rashid Ed-Din, Abu Bekr Tehrani, Moham­mad ibn Bakr, Iskan­der bey struc­tural Munsi, Abdur­razaq Samar­qandi, Gias-Din-Din al-Husseini Xan­damir Humam unit, Hasan bey Rumlu, Fazlul­lah ibn Ruzbi­han Khunci, S.Bidlisi, AABakikhanov, M.H Valiev (Baharli), V.V.Bartold, I.Y.Krackovski, K.V.Trever, B.A.Dorn, N.V.Xanıkov, V.M.Beylis, V.F.Minorski, Y.A.Paxomov, I.P.Petrusevcki, D.D.Kuymcan, S.B.Asurbsyli, Z.M.Buniyadov, N.M.Valikhanlı, M.S.Neymat, A.V.Rahimov, A.B Clin­ton, C.Ibrahimov, C.A.Khalilov, H.A.Ciddi, M.A.Seyfaddini, S.F.Farzalibayli, A.A.Alizadeh, O.A.Afandiyev, Y.Mahmudov, A.M.Rajabli, M.J.Khalilov, A.A.Guliyev.

V.F. Minovski in his work named  “Histroy of Shir­van and Der­bent” divided Shir­van­shahs into 4 dynas­ties:  1.  Ancient  Shir­van­shahs assigned to pro­tect moun­tain cross­ings of sasa­ni­ans;  2.  Mazyadi Arabs;  3. Kas­ranids;  4. Der­bendies — a trib­u­tary of the third dynasty.  (F.Minorskiy. His­tory Der­bend Shir­van, i. M.,1963, с. 176)

A.A.Bakixanov in his “Gulus­tani – Iram” work  refer­ring  to  “Nizam at –Tavarix”  by  Gazi Beyzavi  notes that the State of Shir­van­shahs was estab­lished by Bahram Chubi, descen­dant of  Ardashir Babakan. (A.A. Bakikhanov. Gulustani-Iram s.88). , Kemal Ed-Din ibn al Fuvati when describ­ing the Shir­van­shah III Fariburz ibn Gur­shas, points out that he is a descen­dant of the ancient dynasty.  His fam­ily starts from Bahram Chu­bin.  More than two thou­sand years have passed since they took the hold of Shir­van and Shamakhi lands. They are from the fam­ily of Bahram Chu­bin, a war­lord (kand al – asakir) of Khos­rovs (Sasa­ni­ans). [15, p. 213; 1, p.50–51; 8, p.70–71].

H. Zoten­berg states that Bahram is a son of Varxaran Gush­nasb, a big landowner rep­re­sent­ing Mehrani dynasty with Arshaki roots.  [26, p. 643]. Gazi Ahmad Gaf­fari in his work “ His­tory of Jaha­nara”  indi­cates that Shir­van­shahs belong to Khos­rov Anushiravan’s fam­ily. [30, p.192–194].

Fazlul­lah Rashidaddin (1247 – 1318) in his “Makat­i­bat” when talk­ing about Shirvanshah’s daugh­ter who was betrothed to his son – Ali,  tes­ti­fies that Shir­van­shahs are a dynasty belong­ing to the fam­ily of  Der­bent governor.

“It has been almost two thou­sand years that sultan’s throne belongs to their dynasty”.  Accord­ing to  his esti­ma­tions,  Shir­van­shahs have had an author­ity since the times of Ahamanids. [23, p.186; 1, p. 50].

As stated by an arab his­to­rian, Hamza Isfa­hani Bal­azuri, in order to pro­tect the bor­ders of the empire from the attacks of turks, sasa­ni­ans were build­ing  for­ti­fi­ca­tions there and giv­ing the title of “shah” (king) to the bor­der gov­er­nors.  Thus,  there appeared  Vaxran­shah (king of  wild boars), Shir­van­shah (king of lions), Filan­shah (king of ele­phants) and Alan­shah (king of crows) who were depen­dent on Vaxran­shah,  Sasa­ni­ans sha­hen­shah (king of the kings).  On their cloth­ings, there were descrip­tions of a wild boar, lion,  ele­phant and crow.  [25, s. 22].  Another arab his­to­rian, Al — Masudi men­tions  Tabasaran shah, Varaxzan shah, Var­dan shah and Shar­van shah amongst  the rulers who were gifted  a “shah” title.

Medeival sources  pro­vide infor­ma­tion  also on the estab­lish­ment of semi inde­pen­dent  states  such as  Shir­van­shahs, Layzan­shahs and Xur­san­shah after the refom of the king of kings I  Khos­rov Anushi­ra­van (531–579 years).

Bahram Chu­bin, the leg­endary founder of the Shir­van­shahs dynasty was a famous war­lord and  close rel­a­tive ofIV Hor­muz (579 – 590),   Sas­sanid ruler.

He  suc­ceeded in pre­vent­ing the attacks of turks in the east and then by sha­hen­shah he was appointed as a com­man­der in chief of Sas­sanid army  fight­ing against Byzan­tines.  Although he won the first bat­tles of Byzan­tines, he sus­tained a defeat later on.  IV Hor­muz,  pos­sessed by anger released Bahram from his post  and sent him an offen­sive let­ter, spin­nig wheel, and women cloth­ing what resulted in rebel­lion after­wards. Insulted Bahram  turned his troops towards the cap­i­tal. The troop’s switch­ing sides to rebels caused a con­spir­a­tion by courtiers in the cap­i­tal. So that the close rel­a­tives of the shah, Vin­doe and Vis­takhman broth­ers from Ispakh­pat gen­er­a­tion pass­ing ahead the rebels to pre­vent the power ceased by Bahram, cap­ti­vated the IV Hor­muz and made him blind.  After a while, the sha­hen­shah was assas­i­nated. Though the con­spir­a­tors declared Khos­rov, the son of the IV Hor­muz, as shah, they did not cause Bahram Chu­bin to change his mind to occupy Ctesiphon.

Khos­rov hav­ing not entrusted his sur­round­ing left Cte­siphon and run to the palace of the Byzan­tine emperor Mau­riki. Bahram Chu­bin entered Cte­siphon with­out resis­tance and declared him­self sha­hen­shah and there­after he was known as the VI Varakhan (590–591). Pos­sess­ing of author­ity by a per­son not from the Sasani gen­er­a­tion caused turn­ing away of the Per­sian courtiers from him.

In his turn, Khos­rov hav­ing taken a shel­ter in the Byzan­tine palace, nego­ti­ated with the emperor Mau­riki and promised him in case he sup­ported him, he would com­pro­mised the areas where Geor­gians and Arme­ni­ans lived to the Byzan­tine. Hav­ing received mil­i­tary aid from Mau­riki, Khos­rov passed the bor­ders and began match­ing towards Cte­siphon. The Iran­ian feu­dal turn­ing away from Bahram  changed their side to Khos­rov. Khosrov’s army won in the final bat­tle hap­pened near Gan­zaka city, Atropatena.(М,А, Seyfed­dini. Numis­mat­ics Azer­bai­jan. т.1. с.110–111).

The defeated Bahram Chu­bin run to the East, where Turks lived and a while later, he was killed. Accord­ing to the Ara­bian his­to­rian of the X cen­tury, al-Tabary, the Rashidi khal­ifa Omar ibn al-Khattab (634–644) ordered Suraga ibn Amraya to occupy Der­bent. Suraga hav­ing sent his com­man­ders Bukayr ibn Abdul­lah and Adur­rah­man ibn Rabia al-Bahili ahead moved towards Shir­van. Hav­ing met the Arabs near Der­bent, Shir­van­shah Shahri­yar stated his obe­di­ence. Shahri­yar was rec­og­nized as Shir­van ruler by the order of the Khal­ifa Omar. Accord­ing to the agree­ment con­cluded with the Amir Suraga, Shahri­yar was released to pay jizya tax, and assigned him to pro­tect Der­bent pas­sage from attacks by the Khazar fam­i­lies  (at-Tabari. I s.2663–2668, Bunyadov.Z. Azer­bai­janVII-IX cen­turies Bakı 1989).

The rise of Shir­van­shahs state is related with the reign of Mazyadis dynasty. The Mazyadis were descen­dants of  Shey­ban­i­lar fam­ily, whose roots belong to the Rabia kin with ara­bic ori­gin. Osman Khal­ifa ibn Affan  (644–656-years) power ibn Salman, who occu­pied the Arranib Rabia was a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dynasty. The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dynasty Yazeed ibn Abbasi  was appointed by the order of Harun of Ar-Rasid (789–809-years) the gov­er­nor of  Azer­bai­jani and Armaniyya areas.

Mazyadis took advan­tage of the weak­en­ing of the cen­tral gov­ern­ment and  tried to pur­sue an inde­pen­dent pol­icy in the area.  The res­i­dence of the gov­er­nor was located in Barda. Coins were minted on  behalf of caliph and gov­er­nor  in  the city.

In 801, Yazeed ibn Mazyad was buried in  Barda. After his death, his brother Ahmad ibn Yazeed and sons Asad and Muham­mad Khalid  by turn had been appointed to the South Cau­ca­sus as a gov­er­nor. Muham­mad ibn Yazeed relo­cated res­i­dence of gov­er­nor  to Ganja in 859

As stated by the head astrologer, Khalid ibn Yazeed had four sons– Muham­mad, Ali, Yazeed and  Haitham.  In 861 Haitham  ibn Khalid (861–881 years) declared him­self shah  and  appointed his brother Yazeed ibn Khalid   Lazyan­shah.  At this time, Muham­mad ibn Khalid was the gov­erner of Ganja.  Shir­van was the cap­i­tal of Shir­van­shahs  and  Lahij was the cap­i­tal of Laziyan­shah. [15, p. 48–49].

While states replaced each other in the south of Azer­bai­jan (the Sajis, Salarids, Rav­vadis), the bor­ders of the State of Shir­van in the north reached just south of Der­bent in Dagh­es­tan.  The new phase of Shir­van­shahs dynasty rise coin­cides with the reign  of the Shirvanshahs-Darbands dynasty.

At the end of the four­teenth cen­tury,  peas­ants and small feudal’s  revolt against  nobles took place.  In  1382  Shir­van­shah Hushang  was killed by  his cit­i­zens (B.F Minorski. His­tory of Shir­van and Der­berda M-1963, p.170; S.Len-Pul. Mus­lim dynasty. St. Peters­burg. 1899. S.295–296.; S.Ashurbayli. State of Shir­van­shas. Baku 1997.s .206)

Sheikh Ibrahim is the first rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Der­bendi Sir­van­shahs, the rel­a­tive fam­ily to Mazyadis dynasty. The father of Sheikh  Ibrahim I of  Sul­tan Muham­mad ibn Key Gubad  was a ruler of  Der­bent for­merly. Sul­tan Muham­mad and his son of Ibrahim being sub­jected to pres­sure in one of Sheki vil­lages were forced to hide dur­ing the reign of  Shir­van­shah  Kavus (1357–1369 ) and Hushang (1369–1382). After Hushang’s death, the del­e­ga­tion arrived in Sheki from Shamakhi , and as sources say  they found  Ibrahim I asleep  after work  in his field.

They con­grat­u­lated Ibrahim when he woke  up and they swore loy­alty to him. They took Ibrahim to  the city (Shamakhi) and he started to  con­quer the coun­tries, had treated with jus­tice their cit­i­zens ..” (Sh.A. Sirv. S 281; Date Djan­navi Myunedjim-per, 170–171). It is worth to men­tion that start­ing from Ibrahim I , the dynasty of Shir­van­shah Mazyadi-kasranis was named  Derbendy.

In 1385, Shir­van exposed to the attack by ninety thou­sand strong army of Tokhtamysh from north and from south by Tamer­lane.  Though his Grand Vizier advised him to hide in the moun­tains,  Ibrahim I  decided to greet Timur the Great.  Shir­van­shah com­manded to read a ser­mon and mint coins on behalf of Timur and went to his encamp­ment  with the most expen­sive gifts to express his obe­di­ence to him.

In con­for­mity of turk’s prac­tice mak­ing  presents of nine pieces of each kind, Sheikh Ibrahim did every­thing accord­ing to the estab­lished tra­di­tion.  Nev­er­the­less he pre­sented only eight out of nine slaves, hav­ing declared: “I am the ninth”. Timur was so pleased that he offi­cially announced Ibrahim the King of Shir­van and Shemakha.

In  1385 – 1386 , under Tokhtamysh’s war­lord Bek Fulat lead­er­ship a mon­go­lian army of 90 thou­sand cross­ing Der­bent attacked Shir­van.  Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I  made his way to greet Tokhtamysh with expen­sive presents and  saved from destruc­tion the lands of Azer­bai­jan as a  result of diplo­matic process.  He com­manded to read a ser­mon in Shir­van mosques  and mint coins  on behalf of Tokhtamysh.

. In 1387 Tokhtamysh again invaded Shir­van.  The com­bined forces of Timur the Great and Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I as well as armed forces of Miran shah who joined to sup­port them, defeated Golden Horde and as a result Toktamysh’s army was forced to flee.

As a result of the wise pol­icy of Ibrahim  I, Azer­bai­jani lands were released  as a one-time attack on the Golden Horde khans. .Shri­van­shah Sheikh Ibrahim I par­tic­i­pated in all marches of Tamer­lane as his clos­est ally.  On many later occa­sions, Timu­rused Shir­van as a base to move his armies to attack Geor­gia and Dages­tan.  In 1399–1402, Ibrahim par­tic­i­pated in Timur’s dev­as­tat­ing expe­di­tion against Geor­gia.  Georgi has accepted Islam on the insti­ga­tion  by  Timur the Great.

After the occu­pa­tion of Azer­bai­jan there were  minted coins on behalf of Timur the Great in the country.

Dur­ing the rule of Sheikh Ibrahim I  Baku, Shamakhi, Shabran, Der­bent, Mah­mud­abad, Gush­tasbi, Gabala mints were minted coins on behalf of Timur the Great, Tokhtamysh Khan, Sul­tan Ahmad, Amir Sul­tan Pir­budag and Kara Yusuf .

In 1405, after Teymur’s death Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I intended to get out of Timurides’ depen­dence, expand bor­ders of his state and cre­ate united Azerbaijan.

In doing so, his army crossed theriver Kura and occu­pied a greater part of Ganja and Karabakh. Scores of influ­en­tial feu­dal lord­sand the Geor­gian king joined his­army. In the mean­time, he ruined his friendly rela­tions between Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I and Teymur’s grand­son and son of Miran­shah — Mirza Omar changed into hos­tile ones. (ed Katrmera with a 70–71, 108, 59–60; Mirx­ond, t. VI, s. 242, 257–260; Petru­shevsky state of Azer­bai­jan in the XV cen­tury, with 154–157] The two armies were oppos­ing each other in theen­vi­rons of Barda.

In spring 1406, in Tabriz there rose a  revolt against Timurids. Head­ing it, Sheikh Akhi Gassab, which was urban tam­gachi Emir Bestam Jagir, hav­ing learned about the revolt, moved army to Tabriz. Bestam entered Tabriz in April 1406, not wait­ing till Ibrahims arrival. Their rela­tions went worse. Approach­ing Sheikh Ibrahim in Tabriz, Bestam leaved the city and went to Arde­bil. Shir­van­shah, how­ever, did not stay long in Tabriz.  After­wards He came back to Shirvan

In 1406, he entered Tabriz but stayed there not long. The army of Jalairid Sul­tan Ahmed approached the town and the Shir­van troops had to retreat.

In June 1406, he received news that Sul­tan Ahmed Jelairid was return­ing to South­ern Azer­bai­jan. At an obvi­ous dis­ad­van­tage, Ibrahim I decided to retreat from Tabriz, which was imme­di­ately occu­pied by the much stronger forces of Sul­tan Ahmed.

On 21 April, 1408, in the vil­lage of Sardrud not far from Tabriz, the ene­mies met for another and, as it turned out, very impor­tant bat­tle. Kara Yusuf reigned vic­to­ri­ous despite the 20 thousand-strong army Sul­tan Shah Rukh dis­patched to his brother Miran Shah. The Timurids were utterly defeated, Miran Shah was killed. This was the end of the Timurids’ dom­i­nance in Azerbaijan.

After learn­ing about the Tabriz devel­op­ments, Kara Yusuf has entered to South­ern Azer­bai­jan and reached Tabriz ear­lier than Prince Kayu­mars. On 30 August, 1410, the for­mer allies met on the bat­tle field at Shanbi Hazan not far from Tabriz. Com­pletely routed, Sul­tan Ahmed fled only to be later caught and brought to Kara Yusuf’s camp where he had to abdi­cate in favour of the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. This sealed his fate, on 31 August, 1410, Sul­tan Ahmed was stran­gled and his dead body was tied to a cross. This spelled the end of the Jelairid dynasty in Azerbaijan.

State of Jelary col­lapsed. Garagoyunlu state was founded in 1410. The Shir­van units under Prince Kayu­mars reached Tabriz when Sul­tan Ahmed and his troops had already been defeated. Unaware of the recent devel­op­ments, the prince set­tled down for the night only to be sud­denly attacked by Kara Yusuf. The Shir­van units were sur­rounded and routed, the prince was taken as a prisoner.

Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I offered a lot of money to get his son back, but Kara Yusuf let the prince go with­out a ran­som  instead the prince car­ried a let­ter with him in which Kara Yusuf demanded that Shir­van­shah rec­og­nized him as the supreme ruler.

He had no choice but to start ready­ing for a final bat­tle with his very dan­ger­ous oppo­nent. He had Seyyid Ahmed of Sheki and King of Kakhetia Kon­stan­tin I (1407–1412) on his side. The for­mi­da­ble alliance forced Kara Yusuf to wage war late in 1412.

The bat­tle took place in the month of sha­ban, that is  between 6 Novem­ber and 4 December,in 1412,  on the shores of the Kura. Kara Yusuf’s army out num­bered that of the Shir­van­shah and his allies,they were all sur­rounded and taken pris­oner. Kara Yusuf cap­tured the Shir­van­shah, his seven sons, the ret­inue, the Geor­gian king, and his many princes and aznaurs. They were all brought in front of the mejlis (assem­bly) of mil­i­tary nobles of Kara Yusuf. The Geor­gian king and his 300 aznaurs were exe­cuted with­out much ado, rank-and-file Shir­van sol­diers were set free with­out ran­som, while the Shir­van nobles, the Shir­van­shah among them, were clamped in irons and sent to prison. After rout­ing and plun­der­ing the Shir­van cities and vil­lages, Kara Yusuf stole about one mil­lion head of cat­tle. Con­stan­tine II was exe­cuted by Pir Budag, son of Kara Yusuf.

Shir­van­shahs I Ibrahim, Sidi Ahmed, Con­stan­tine II, brother of the Geor­gian tsar, Shir­van­shahs sons Qezen­fer, Esedulla, Manu­cohr, Abdur­rah­man, Nas­rat­ul­lah and Hashim, his brother Sheikh Behlül, Shir­van was cap­tured by his renowned sci­en­tists. Things took a dif­fer­ent turn — the heads of the mer­chant and hand­i­craft com­mu­ni­ties in Tabriz came to the divan of Kara Yusuf to ask him to accept the ran­som in goods. At that time, even wealthy mer­chants did not always have ready money at hand, while whole­sale trade was based on barter. Kara Koyunlu accepted goods total­ing 1,200 tumans, later Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I repaid the debt.

Kara Yusuf greeted the ran­somed Shir­van­shah with great hon­ours, he seated him next to him­self at the feast and poured his wine for him himself.

Ibrahim I died in 1417. His son Khalilul­lah I (1417–1462) ascended the throne. As a strong and skil­ful ruler, he con­tin­ued the pol­icy of his father and  under his gov­er­nance  the state grad­u­ally regained its strength. Khalilul­lah I refused to remain a vas­sal of the Kara Koyunlu padishahs.

After occu­pa­tion to Tabriz, Shahrukh Sul­tan came to for spend the win­ter in Karabakh. (1420)

Halilul­lah  mar­ried in Karakopak  (Fuzuli). Halilul­lah grand­son of Timur’s son (daugh­ter of Abu Bakr) expanded    the rela­tions between place for dervishes and timuri of dervishes. Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah strength­ened their forces with  Sul­tan Shahrukh  and  estab­lished diplo­matic rela­tions  with neigh­bor­ing states.

He sug­gested to  mes­sen­ger of Muham­mad Bakuyi sent to the Sul­tan of the Ottoman Mehmet to join the coali­tion against Kara Koyunlu. (1413–1431) Sul­tan Mehmet I refused to sup­ply that old union with Kara Koyunlus.

The war con­tin­ued. In May 1421, Kara Isk­ender, son of Kara Yusuf (1420–1429, 1431–1435), resumed mil­i­tary action against Sul­tan Shah Rukh and his ally Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I. On 1 August, 1421, the sides met for a deci­sive bat­tle in the Alashk­ert val­ley at Der­bend. This time, the sul­tan defeated and scat­tered the army of Kara Isk­ender; how­ever in the fall of 1421, the sul­tan pulled his forces out of Azerbaijan.

Thus the Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I estab­lished friendly rela­tions with one of the Timurids, namely, Sul­tan Shah Rukh (1409–1447) who ruled Cen­tral Asia and almost the whole of Iran. Sul­tan Shah Rukh, the most for­mi­da­ble of Kara Yusuf’s oppo­nents, took advan­tage of the oppor­tu­nity to weaken Kara Koyunlu and split it.

Kara Iskan­der attacked Shirvan,in 1425. Keyqubad , Isaac and Hashim broth­ers of Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I went against him. Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I appealed to Shahrukh Sul­tan  and was revolted with the help of his of broth­ers revel. Accord­ing to the sources, (in 1427, 1430, and 1434), he tried to con­quer Shir­van three times and failed each time.

In 1427, he mis­cal­cu­lated and started a war on two fronts, he attacked Shir­van in an effort to sub­ju­gate the Shir­van­shah and started a war against Sul­tan Shah Rukh.

In May 1429, Shah Rukh led his 100 thousand-strong army against Kara Isk­ender; the Shir­van troops of Halilul­lah I sided with the sul­tan. Kara Isk­ender was defeated at Salmas; the vic­tor cap­tured Tabriz, the cap­i­tal of Kara Koyunlu. Sul­tan Shah Rukh pre­served the state under Abu Seyyid (1429–1431), one of Kara Yusuf’s sons, who accepted his vas­salage and received, in return, a deed grant­ing him the right to rule South­ern Azer­bai­jan, Karabakh, and part of Asia Minor. [Mirk­hond, t.VI, c 332–333]

Abu Yusuf, the son of Sul­tan Said Black Shahrukh Karakoyunlu del­e­gated to the throne  and went on to Karabakh to the barracks.

A copy of sil­ver tanga minted in Ard­abil has been found in the Murad­khan trea­sure.  Nev­er­the­less the coins were struck anony­mously, it is doubt­less that  they were minted by Khalilul­lah I. It is also worth to men­tion that, the Shir­van gov­er­nors who were attempt­ing to united Azer­bai­jan attacked many times the south­ern regions Thus,  Ibrahim I  instructed to mint the tan­gas on behalf of Shadibay,  a war­lorde of Golden  Horde dur­ing his march to Tabriz. The anony­mous tanga , a pro­duc­tion of Ard­abil mint house was minted by Shir­van­shah Khalilul­lah I, who sup­ported Sul­tan Shahrukh  through­out  his attack to  the state of Karakoy­on­lus.  It might be the case that the rea­son of the con­flict between  the dynasty of Shir­van­shahs and  Ard­abili sheykhs  was the occu­pa­tion of Ard­abil by  Shir­van rulers  and their claims towards this land.

Shahrukh Sul­tan returned to Herat and left Azer­bai­jan (in 1430). Kara Yusuf’s sons were still in fight for power. In 1430, when Timurid’s troops had been pulled out, Padishah Kara Isk­ender showed up in Azer­bai­jan; in 1431, after mur­der­ing Abu Seyyid in a bloody frat­ri­cide, he recap­tured the throne.  (1436 year )Kara  Isk­ender, son of his father’s side of Yar Ali fled with two thou­sand horse­men came near of  I Halil­lul­lah. The refusal of the request to take Yar Ali Isk­ender attacked Shir­van. Yar Ali sent brought the ship from the port of  Baku put him Halilul­lah Herat by sea. Shir­van armies of  Isk­ender dev­as­tated the put bonds the pros­per­ous cities and vil­lages of the black areas of crops destroyed, has achieved more than 300 exe­cuted the acqui­si­tion of Shirvan.

Accord­ing to Mirx­on­dun judge Gush­tasb con­veyed Alexan­der Car­pet Shir­van Kara Yusuf  from Mah­mud­abad Halilul­lah  the news of attack and asked him for help . [Mirk­hond, t.VI, c 332–333]

In the autumn of 1434 moved to Azer­bai­jan from Heart. Isk­ender heard to come of Shahrukh and  had left . Bat­tle that took place between the par­ties, resulted in the vic­tory of Shahrukh. Isk­ender Alinja hid in fortress. Qubad Shah was assas­i­nated by his son. (1436–1437). Sul­tan Shahrukh  by enter­ing the year 1435–1436 in Tabriz, the youngest son of  Kara Yusuf was appointed ref­eree Karakoyunlu Cahan­shah and he went to Karabakh spend­ing  the winter.

Halilul­lah arrived  (1434–1435) to meet  with Far­ruh. After the death of Isgen­der, I Halilul­lah dom­i­nated struc­tur­ing activ­i­ties by estab­lish­ing peace­ful rela­tions with  Karakoyunlu Jahan­shah. How­ever, later Shir­van lands were met with the threat of a new enemy. This  was related result of Sheikh Junayd with the emer­gence. In 1456, Uzun Hasan mar­ried  his  sis­ter to the orders leader Sheykh Juneyd, a direct descen­dat of its founder Shayk Safi al-Din and  con­ducted an active pol­icy to start prepa­ra­tions to con­quer Shirvan.

He wanted to describe it as a sacred war against the athe­ists attack in Dages­tan. Mil­i­tary of  Juneyd  forces 10000  peo­ple attacked Shir­van  in 1460. Sheikh Juneyd was defeated by Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah  and died in 1460.  His tomb is located in the sacred place of the vil­lage of Hazra of Gusar region. (His­tory of Amini, p [65].  His mother died in 1435 and his son died in 1442, at the age of seven. Ten more tombs were dis­cov­ered later on; these may have belonged to other mem­bers of the Shah’s fam­ily, includ­ing two more sons who died dur­ing his own lifetime.

The vast major­ity of the coins were minted on the occa­sion of birth of  shahzadeh Far­rukh Yasar in  845 (1441).  Khalilul­lah  I.  spilled over in sor­row after the death of his elder son, ordered to mint new coins in con­se­quence of birth of his new suc­ces­sor to the throne.

After Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah died in 1465, his son Far­rukh Yaser (1465–1500) came to the power in Shir­van­shah.  Dur­ing the rule of Far­rukh Yaser, Shir­van­shahs state was attacked by Ard­abil rulers —  Sheikh Hey­dar and his son Ismayil. In 1500, Ard­abil ruler Ismayil’s army attacked Shir­van­shah and defeated Shir­van army in Jabani bat­tle occu­pied Shamakhi. Though Shir­van­shah Far­rukh Yaser died in the bat­tle, his son Gazi bey who came to power refused obey­ing to Safavis. In the fol­low­ing years, I Ismayil attacked to Shir­van two times, and though he occu­pied Shamakhi, Shir­van­shahs achieved to pro­tect and keep their inde­pen­dence. Safavis suc­ceeded to end the exis­tence of Shir­van­shahs state in 1538, dur­ing  the author­ity of Shah I Tahmasib.

The revealed coins include  tan­gas struck  in the mint­ing houses of Shir­van­shahs state at the end of XIV cen­tury – in the mid­dle of XV cen­tury. The tan­gas were mainly mint in Shamakhi and Der­bend mint­ing houses.  The trea­sure con­tains two copies of Baku, two copies of  Gabala and one copy of Ard­abil sil­ver coins.

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Akif Guliyev

 

http://arxeoloq.az/?p=1415

The XVIII-XIX centuries were a turning point in the history of the Caucasus. The centuries-old struggle of the leading states of the world for the region ended with the victory of the Russian Empire, which under Peter I turned into a maritime power. Opening a “window” to Europe, the emperor-reformer sought to expand the boundaries of the empire in the southern direction. However, in the beginning of the XVIII century, the matter of access to the Black Sea was closed for Russia and Peter I turned his attention to the Caucasus.

As a result of the Caspian campaign of Peter I (1722), the western shore of the Caspian Sea had been conquered, and the Istanbul Treaty (1724) consolidated these Russian conquests in the international system. However, regime of “bironovshchina”, established in Russia after the death of the Emperor, not interested in the Caucasus issue, signed Rasht (1732) and Ganja (1735) treaties and abandoned Peter’s conquests. But the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna purposefully continued the work of her parent. During her reign, the Black Sea problem and the issue of the Caucasus has become a top priority ofRussian foreign policy. Over time, already under Catherine II, after the Russian-Ottoman war of 1768-1774, the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) has strengthened Russia’s position in Crimea and on the Azov coast, completely incorporating Kabardia into the Russian Empire, thus expanding the scope of its influence in this horonime.

The struggle for the Caucasus continued even after the ratification of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. In 1783, Crimea became part of Russian, and it gained dominance in northern Black Sea Coast.  In the same year it strengthened its position in the South Caucasus, by concluding the Treaty of Georgievsk with the ruler of the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti Heraclius II, who recognized its patronage and abandoned his right to independent foreign policy.  With the accession of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1801, Romanov’s Russia, without hiding its true intentions, set foot on Azerbaijani soil. The Qajars, which tried to oust Russia from the mega-region with the support of Western countries, began military operations, but the two Russian-Iranian wars ended with the victory of the RussianEmpire, and after the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) the autocracy included the South Caucasus to its political and geographical space.

To subdue the Caucasus, the tsarist government has been implementing a colonial policy already in the process of conquests, the essence of which was the assimilation of the local population and the transformation of the mega-region into an integral part of the Russian Empire. The main components of this strategic course were the Christianization and immigration policies.

While launching a campaign to conquer the Caucasus, Russia has clearly realized that the captured Muslim region will be the weak link in the country, because confessionally alien population will not tolerate foreign invasion. The ruling circles of the Empire clearly understood: a recalcitrant region can be controlled not at the point of a bayonet, but with the help of religious rapprochement between mother country and colony, to be exact – the infiltration and enforcement of Christianity. Therefore, at the end of the eighteenth century, they created the Ossetian Theological Commission in Tbilisi, defining its main task as the spread of Orthodox Christianity among the Muslims of the Caucasus for its rapprochement with Russia. At the same time, representatives of Non-Orthodox faiths were also engaged in missionary activity in the Caucasus. Society of Scottish Missionaries, established in Astrakhan, June 22, 1815 by decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs, conducted their activities in a narrow geographical area, in the coastal strip of the Caspian Sea, and its main objectives were spreading and preaching of the Gospel on the mentioned territory.

Along with Scottish Christian missionaries, Basel Christian missionaries also operated in the Caucasus, activities of which covered the territory between the Black and Caspian seas. Basel Evangelical Society has set the goal before missionaries: to spread Christianity in the Caucasus. However, the activities of foreign Christian missionary societies did not produce the expected results. Indigenous peoples of the Caucasus have not shown interest in Christianity (except for some cases) that did not meet the policy of Christianization of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus. As a result, its official representatives concluded: missionaries sent by Edinburgh and Basel societies do not benefit the Power in enforcing and spreading Christianity on the conquered outskirts. The ruling circles ofRussia, not taking into account the mentality of the indigenous population of the Caucasus, whereIslam was the determining factor of the identity of the people of this mega-region, created a “Society for the restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus”, and the Ossetian Theological Commission was abolished due to inefficiency. Russian Empire, deliberately spreading Christianity in the Caucasus and relying on Orthodoxy, entrusted the new society with the task of restoration and maintenance of the ancient Christian churches and monasteries in the Caucasus, construction of new churches, parochial schools, and distribution of the Books of Holy Scripture in there.

Source: The Caucasus and Globalization. Issue №5 / Volume 1/ 2007 pp. 152-160

Hajar Verdiyeva Doctor of Historical Science