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Husayn Qulī Khān Qazvīnī, Sardār of Erevan: A Portrait of a Qajar Administrator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

George Bournoutian*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles

Extract

Having lost Transcaucasia to the Russians some one-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Persian scholars have ignored the history of this region which once was a part of Iran under the Qajars. Russian and Armenian sources, although numerous, have tended to emphasize Russian rule in the area. They have also failed to utilize primary sources, such as those in archives, have neglected to record the favorable aspects, and instead have concentrated on a blanket condemnation of Persian rule in the Caucasus. Although it is true that Muslim rule, especially in the Qajar era, was particularly oppressive towards the Christian population of Transcaucasia, some bright moments did exist. This study, based on primary and archival sources, focuses on one such period in a specific area: the governorship of Ḥusayn Qulī Khān Qazvinī in the Khanate of Erevan (Eastern Armenia) during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Before discussing the khān's twenty-year tenure in Erevan, a biographical and historical sketch is in order.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1976

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Louisville, Kentucky, November 1975.

References

Notes

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15. Kavkazskaia Arkeograficheskaia Kommissiia, Akty sobrannye Kavkazskoiu Arkheograficheskoiu Kommissieiu, VI, pt. 1 (Tiflis, 1868), 525-526, pt. 2, 394-396.Google Scholar

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17. Hurewitz, op. cit., I, 99.

18. The full text of the treaty can be found in Hurewitz, op. cit., I, 96-102.

19. Ibid.

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29. Shopen, I. (Chopin), Istoricheskii pamiatnik sostoyaniia Armianskoi oblasti v epokhu ee prisoedineniia k Rossiiskoi imperii (St. Petersburg, 1852), pp. 452-453.Google Scholar This work is the major primary source on the Khanate of Erevan. Shopen was commissioned by the Russian government to survey the newly conquered area of Eastern Armenia. He had access to the tax rolls of Mirza Isma'il, the last Persian treasurer of Erevan, and to other surveys collected orally from the population.

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33. Ibid., pp. 449-459.

34. Ibid., pp. 718-722.

35. Ibid., pp. 1155-1182.

36. Ker-Porter, op. cit., I, 200-201.

37. Aghayan, D. P. et al., eds., Hay zhoghovrdi patmutiun, V (Erevan, 1974), 13-18.Google Scholar

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40. Shopen, op. cit., pp. 635-636.

41. Morier, op. cit., II, 321.

42. The Archives of the Catholicosate; now integrated into the Archives of the Matenadaran, Erevan, Armenian SSR, Persian MSS. 580, fol. 1d; MSS. 614, fol. le.

43. Matenadaran Archives, Persian MSS. 613, fol. le.