193-659: Shusha ( Azerbaijani : Şuşa , (listen) ) or Shushi ( Armenian : Շուշի ) is a city in Azerbaijan , in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh . Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres (4,600–5,900 ft) in the Karabakh mountains, the city was a mountain resort in the Soviet era . Most sources date Shusha's establishment to the 1750s by Panah Ali Khan , founder of the Karabakh Khanate , coinciding with
386-793: A firman (decree) recognizing Panah Ali as the Khan of Karabakh. Less than a year after Shusha was founded, the Karabakh Khanate was attacked by Mohammad Hassan Khan Qajar , one of the major claimants to the Iranian throne. During the Safavid Empire Karabakh was for almost two centuries ruled by Ziyad-oglu family of the clan of Qajars (of Turkic origin), and therefore, Muhammed Hassan Khan considered Karabakh his hereditary estate. Muhammed Hassan Khan besieged Shusha (Panahabad at that time) but soon had to retreat because of
579-429: A 2011 study, 30 Turkish participants were tested to determine how well they understood written and spoken Azerbaijani. It was found that even though Turkish and Azerbaijani are typologically similar languages, on the part of Turkish speakers the intelligibility is not as high as is estimated. In a 2017 study, Iranian Azerbaijanis scored in average 56% of receptive intelligibility in spoken Turkish. Azerbaijani exhibits
772-525: A Develu named Hossein Khan Develu as its governor. Meanwhile, Agha Mohammad Khan and his brother Hossein Qoli Khan fled to the steppe . One year later, Agha Mohammad Khan made an incursion against Astarabad, but was forced to flee, chased by the city's governor. Agha Mohammad Khan managed to reach Ashraf , but was at last seized and sent as a hostage to Tehran , ruled by Karim Khan. Hossein Qoli Khan
965-467: A Zand army in Ray (or Karaj ), and thereafter seized Qazvin . He then marched to Zanjan , which he also seized. In autumn they returned to Mazandaran. In the spring of 1783, Agha Mohammad Khan besieged Tehran, a town under Zand control which had proved troublesome. During the siege, plague started spreading in the town, and thereafter to Agha Mohammad Khan's army camp outside the city, which forced him to lift
1158-449: A degree mutually intelligible, though it is easier for a speaker of Azerbaijani to understand Turkish than the other way around. Turkish soap operas are very popular with Azeris in both Iran and Azerbaijan. Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran (who spoke South Azerbaijani) met with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (who spoke Turkish) in 1934; the two were filmed speaking their respective languages to each other and communicated effectively. In
1351-437: A few years earlier. Gilan was now completely under Qajar rule. Besides the conquest of Gilan, the second most valuable thing for Agha Mohammad Khan was Hedayat-Allah's treasure. Some time later a local ruler named Amir Mohammad Khan, who with another local ruler named Taqi Khan (the ruler of Yazd ), had recently defeated Jafar Khan and seized many riches, invaded Qajar territory, and marched towards Isfahan. Jafar Qoli Khan, who
1544-567: A fortress called Shikakar or Karaglukh, where the 9th-century Armenian prince Sahl Smbatean is said to have defeated an invading Arab army. According to several sources, a settlement called Shosh served as an ancient fortress in the Armenian principality of Varanda, and had traditionally belonged to the Melik-Shahnazarian princely dynasty. According to some sources, Shushi existed and had a functioning scriptorium in 1428. The fortress
1737-445: A group of tribesmen to Qumishah, a city south of Isfahan. However, Jafar Khan easily defeated them. Ali Qoli thereafter retreated to Kashan. Jafar Khan was then able to occupy Isfahan on October 20. Agha Mohammad Khan, learning of this, marched rapidly towards Isfahan, which led Jafar Khan withdraw to Shiraz once again and reached the city on November 30. Agha Mohammad Khan returned to Tehran rather than attacking Shiraz again. Jafar Khan
1930-657: A literary language in the 14th century through poetry and other works. One ruler of the Qara Qoyunlu state, Jahanshah , wrote poems in Azerbaijani language with the nickname "Haqiqi". Sultan Yaqub , a ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu state, wrote poems in the Azerbaijani language. The ruler and poet Ismail I wrote under the pen name Khatā'ī (which means "sinner" in Persian ) during the fifteenth century. During
2123-573: A month, maintaining his retinue in the Bagh-e Vakil. Before leaving Shiraz, he appointed Hajji Ebrahim as the governor of Fars, and had the body of Karim Khan Zand exhumed and reburied in Tehran, where he went after his stay in Shiraz. Forces were sent to Kerman, Sistan, and Bam (although Qajar rule was not solidified in the last two places). Lotf Ali Khan had fled to Khorasan and received help from
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#17327726266472316-498: A much larger number of Persian and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientific research , its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with
2509-535: A non-syllabic / v / can also be pronounced after the aforementioned diphthongs, to form / ou̯v / and / œy̯v / , the rules of which are as follows: Modern linguists who have examined Azerbaijani's vowel system almost unanimously have recognised that diphthongs are phonetically produced in speech. Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic alphabet , an impure abjad that does not represent all vowels (without diacritical marks ). In Iran,
2702-457: A number of Georgians, although we had no desire at all for our subjects to perish by our own hand...It is now our great will that you, an intelligent man, abandon such things... and break relations with the Russians. If you do not carry out this order, then we shall shortly carry out a campaign against Georgia, we will shed both Georgian and Russian blood and out of it will create rivers as big as
2895-511: A prominent mujtahid named Mirza Mehdi, went to the Qajar encampment. There they were warmly received by Agha Mohammad Shah's nephew Hossein Qoli Khan. Shortly afterwards, Agha Mohammad Shah sent a force of 8,000 soldiers under Soleyman Khan Qajar, followed by Mirza Mehdi, to conquer Mashhad and affirm its citizens of the Shah's generosity. A day later, Agha Mohammad Shah, followed the customary of
3088-550: A rebellion by the chiefs of Jandaq, who marched towards the city. The chiefs were defeated and submitted to Jafar Khan. When Agha Mohammad Khan heard about the Zand invasion of Isfahan and its surroundings, he quickly moved towards the city, which made Jafar Khan retreat to Shiraz once again. Agha Mohammad Khan then appointed Jafar Qoli Khan as the city's governor. However, the governor of Zanjan revolted shortly afterward, which forced Agha Mohammad Khan to go back north, where he suppressed
3281-516: A similar stress pattern to Turkish but simpler in some respects. Azerbaijani is a strongly stressed and partially stress-timed language, unlike Turkish which is weakly stressed and syllable-timed . Below are some cognates with different spelling in Azerbaijani and Turkish: The 1st person personal pronoun is mən in Azerbaijani just as men in Turkmen , whereas it is ben in Turkish. The same
3474-604: A small force of his men, made a bold night raid on Agha Mohammad Khan's encampment near Persepolis . At first, this choice seemed to be in Lotf Ali Khan's favor—he was certain that the Qajars were routed. In his delight at this, he let his men spread out and rest for the night, only to discover at daybreak that Agha Mohammad Khan still held his ground. Lotf Ali Khan then fled to Tabas through Neyriz . Agha Mohammad Khan set foot in Shiraz on 21 July 1792, and stayed there for
3667-447: A toddler upon his capture by Adel Shah Afshar, and hence was childless. He was assassinated on 17 June 1797, and was succeeded by his nephew, Fath-Ali Shah Qajar . Agha Mohammad Khan's reign is noted for the return of a centralized and unified Iran and for relocating the capital to Tehran , where it still stands today. He is noted for his cruel and rapacious behavior, particularly during his Georgia and Kerman campaigns. However, he
3860-707: A town and district school and a girls' seminary. The population of the town primarily dealt with trade, horse-breeding, carpet-weaving and wine and vodka production. Shusha was also the biggest centre of silk production in the Caucasus. Most of the Muslim population of the town and of Karabakh, in general, was engaged in sheep and horse-breeding and therefore, had a semi-nomadic lifestyle, spending wintertime in lowland Karabakh in wintering pastures and spring and summer in summering pastures in Shusha and other mountainous parts. In
4053-561: A trading-post at Ashraf . When Agha Mohammad Khan refused, Voinovich ignored his refusal and went on to establish an interim settlement on Ashurada island . With no ships, Agha Mohammad Khan was unable to retake the island. Instead, he tricked Voinovich and some of his men into meeting him at Astarabad for a banquet on December 26, where they were held as captives until Voinovich agreed to order his men to leave Ashurada on January 13, 1782. A year later Agha Mohammad Khan invaded Gilan, because its ruler Hedayat-Allah had changed his allegiance to
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#17327726266474246-409: A trait he showed in several of his campaigns. A year after Agha Mohammad Khan re-subjugated the Caucasus, he also captured Khorasan . Shah Rukh , ruler of Khorasan and grandson of Nader Shah , was tortured to death because Agha Mohammad Khan thought that he knew of Nadir's legendary treasures. In 1786, Agha Mohammad Khan moved his capital from Sari in his home province of Mazandaran to Tehran. He
4439-880: Is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan , where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, while Iranian Azerbaijanis in the Azerbaijan region of Iran , speak the South Azerbaijani variety . Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan (a federal subject of Russia ), but it does not have official status in Iran, where
4632-617: Is a common one among eunuchs who served at the court. During the following ten years, Afsharid rule in Khorasan suffered heavily from war among rival chieftains and from invasions by the Durrani ruler of Qandahar , Ahmad Shah Durrani . During this period, Mohammad Hasan fought against the Pashtun military leader Azad Khan Afghan and the Zand ruler Karim Khan for suzerainty over
4825-695: Is also viewed as a pragmatic, calculating, and shrewd military and political leader. Agha Mohammad Khan was born in Astarabad around 1742. He belonged to the Quwanlu (also spelled Qawanlu) branch of the Qajar tribe . The Qajars were one of the original Turkoman Qizilbash tribes that emerged and spread in Asia Minor around the tenth and eleventh centuries. They later supplied power to the Safavids since
5018-477: Is as follows: The modern Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contains the digraphs ov and öv to represent diphthongs present in the language, and the pronunciation of diphthongs is today accepted as the norm in the orthophony of Azerbaijani. Despite this, the number and even the existence of diphthongs in Azerbaijani has been disputed, with some linguists, such as Abdulazal Damirchizade [ az ] , arguing that they are non-phonemic. Damirchizade's view
5211-689: Is because there is a strong tu-vous distinction in Turkic languages like Azerbaijani and Turkish (as well as in many other languages). The informal "you" is used when talking to close friends, relatives, animals or children. The formal "you" is used when talking to someone who is older than the speaker or to show respect (to a professor, for example). Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar ( Persian : آغامحمدخان قاجار , romanized : Âqâ Mohammad Xân-e Qâjâr ; 14 March 1742 – 17 June 1797), also known by his regnal name of Agha Mohammad Shah ( آغا محمد شاه , Âghâ Mohammad Šâh ),
5404-641: Is certain that Russian and Iranian words (sic), respectively, have entered the vocabulary on either side of the Araxes river, but this has not occurred to an extent that it could pose difficulties for communication". There are numerous dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects identified by Ethnologue. Three varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 language codes: North Azerbaijani, South Azerbaijani and Qashqai . The Glottolog 4.1 database classifies North Azerbaijani, with 20 dialects, and South Azerbaijani, with 13 dialects, under
5597-557: Is close to present-day Azeri- Türki . ), Afshari (often considered a separate language ), Shahsavani (sometimes considered its own dialect, distinct from other Turkic languages of northwestern Iran ), Baharlu (Kamesh), Moqaddam, Nafar, Qaragozlu, Pishagchi, Bayat, Qajar, Tabriz ". Russian comparatist Oleg Mudrak [ ru ] calls the Turkmen language the closest relative of Azerbaijani. Speakers of Turkish and Azerbaijani can, to an extent, communicate with each other as both languages have substantial variation and are to
5790-651: Is common throughout former USSR countries). The Shirvan dialect as spoken in Baku is the basis of standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992, it has been officially written with a Latin script in the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s. Ethnologue lists 21 North Azerbaijani dialects: "Quba, Derbend, Baku, Shamakhi, Salyan, Lenkaran, Qazakh, Airym, Borcala, Terekeme , Qyzylbash , Nukha, Zaqatala (Mugaly), Qabala, Nakhchivan, Ordubad, Ganja, Shusha (Karabakh), Karapapak , Kutkashen, Kuba". South Azerbaijani, or Iranian Azerbaijani,
5983-796: Is encountered in many dialects of the Turkmen language and may be observed in such words as: boyun > moyın in Yomut – Gunbatar dialect, büdüremek > müdüremek in Ersari and Stavropol Turkmens' dialects, bol > mol in Karakalpak Turkmens' dialects, buzav > mizov in Kirac dialects. Here are some words from the Swadesh list to compare Azerbaijani with Turkmen: Azerbaijani dialects share paradigms of verbs in some tenses with
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6176-497: Is frequently attributed to Joseph Stalin , who was Commissar of Nationalities at the time, purportedly with the purpose of ensuring Moscow's position as power broker between the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs. Stalin participated in the Kavbiuro's meetings on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh but did not vote. The town remained half-ruined until the 1960s when the town began to gradually revive due to its recreational potential. In 1977
6369-666: Is from Turkish Azeri which is used for the people ( azerice being used for the language in Turkish), itself from Persian آذری, Āzarī. The term is also used for Old Azeri , the ancient Iranian language spoken in the region until the 17th century. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic ("Western Turkic") which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe , and northern Iran, in Western Asia , during
6562-501: Is spelled Buş and Schröder becomes Şröder . Hyphenation across lines directly corresponds to spoken syllables, except for geminated consonants which are hyphenated as two separate consonants as morphonology considers them two separate consonants back to back but enunciated in the onset of the latter syllable as a single long consonant, as in other Turkic languages . Some samples include: Secular: Invoking deity: Azerbaijani has informal and formal ways of saying things. This
6755-634: Is still written in Cyrillic script. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is based on the Turkish Latin alphabet. In turn, the Turkish Latin alphabet was based on former Azerbaijani Latin alphabet because of their linguistic connections and mutual intelligibility. The letters Әə , Xx , and Qq are available only in Azerbaijani for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. Northern Azerbaijani, unlike Turkish, respells foreign names to conform with Latin Azerbaijani spelling, e.g. Bush
6948-679: Is supported by the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam , and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary . According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, the author of the Persian-language text History of Karabakh , one of the most significant chronicles on the history of Karabakh in 18th-19th centuries, the Karabakh nobility assembled to discuss the danger of invasion from Iran and told Panah Ali Khan, "We must build among
7141-527: Is the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan . It is closely related to modern-day Istanbul Turkish, the official language of Turkey. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan , along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains and in scattered regions throughout Central Asia . As of 2011 , there are some 9.23 million speakers of North Azerbaijani including 4 million monolingual speakers (many North Azerbaijani speakers also speak Russian, as
7334-901: Is to remain within AzSSR, receiving wide regional autonomy with the administrative centre in Shusha, which is to be included in the autonomous region." As a result, the Mountainous Karabakh Autonomous Region was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. A few years later, Stepanakert , named after the Armenian communist leader Stepan Shaumyan , became the new regional capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and soon became its largest town. The decision make Nagorno-Karabakh an autonomous region within Azerbaijan
7527-402: Is true for demonstrative pronouns bu , where sound b is replaced with sound m . For example: bunun > munun / mının , muna / mına , munu / munı , munda / mında , mundan / mından . This is observed in the Turkmen literary language as well, where the demonstrative pronoun bu undergoes some changes just as in: munuñ , munı , muña , munda , mundan , munça . b > m replacement
7720-717: Is widely spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring regions of Turkey and Iraq , with smaller communities in Syria . In Iran , the Persian word for Azerbaijani is borrowed as Torki "Turkic". In Iran, it is spoken mainly in East Azerbaijan , West Azerbaijan , Ardabil and Zanjan . It is also spoken in Tehran and across the Tehran Province , as Azerbaijanis form by far
7913-465: The Azerbaijani culture . Shusha also contains a number of Armenian Apostolic churches, including Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and Kanach Zham , and serves as a land link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia , via the Lachin corridor to the west. Throughout modern history, the city fostered a mixed Armenian–Azerbaijani population. The first available demographic information about the city in 1823 suggests
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8106-563: The Bakhtiari chieftains under his suzerainty. He then left for Tehran on September 2, appointing a former Zand commander to govern. When he arrived at Tehran, the town finally submitted to him. At the same time, his men captured Hamadan and forced many Kurdish and Turkic chieftains to submit to Qajar rule. On 12 March 1786, Agha Mohammad Khan made Tehran his capital. By then the city had a population of 15,000–30,000 people. It appears that during this period, Agha Mohammad Khan saw himself as
8299-717: The Caucasus , and on August 5, 1905, first conflict between the Armenian and Azerbaijani inhabitants of Shusha took place. As a result of the mutual pogroms and killings, hundreds of people died and more than 200 houses were burned. After World War I and subsequent collapse of the Russian Empire , Karabakh was claimed by Azerbaijan to be part of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic , a decision hotly disputed by neighbouring Armenia and by Karabakh's Armenian population, which claimed Karabakh as part of
8492-679: The Chuvash language , on which linguists also rely in the study and reconstruction of the Khazar language . Azerbaijani phonotactics is similar to that of other Oghuz Turkic languages, except: Works on Azerbaijani dialectology use the following notations for dialectal consonants: Examples: The vowels of the Azerbaijani are, in alphabetical order, a /ɑ/ , e /e/ , ə /æ/ , ı /ɯ/ , i /i/ , o /o/ , ö /œ/ , u /u/ , ü /y/ . The typical phonetic quality of South Azerbaijani vowels
8685-489: The Eastern Anatolia Region and all over Iran from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, alongside cultural, administrative, court literature, and most importantly official language (along with Azerbaijani) of all these regions, namely Persian . From the early 16th century up to the course of the 19th century, these regions and territories were all ruled by the Safavids , Afsharids , and Qajars until
8878-587: The First Republic of Armenia . With the capture of Baku, a small force of Turkish troops entered Shusha on 7 October 1918, also occupying the road to Aghdam . Whilst the Armenians of Shusha did not resist the Turks to avoid violence, the Turks with their limited troops were unable to seize the countryside of Karabakh which was held by an armed milita of local Armenians. After the defeat of Ottoman Empire in
9071-958: The Kipchak-Turkic language of the same name), the dialect of the Ayrïm (Āyrom) tribe (which, however, resembles Turkish ), and the dialect spoken in the region of the Borchala river ; (3) northern group: Zakataly , Nukha , and Kutkashen ; (4) southern group: Yerevan (Īravān), Nakhichevan (Naḵjavān), and Ordubad (Ordūbād); (5) central group: Ganja (Kirovabad) and Shusha ; (6) North Iraqi dialects ; (7) Northwest Iranian dialects: Tabrīz , Reżāʾīya ( Urmia ), etc., extended east to about Qazvīn ; (8) Southeast Caspian dialect ( Galūgāh ). Optionally, we may adjoin as Azeri (or "Azeroid") dialects: (9) East Anatolian , (10) Qašqāʾī , (11) Aynallū, (12) Sonqorī , (13) dialects south of Qom , (14) Kabul Afšārī . North Azerbaijani, or Northern Azerbaijani,
9264-606: The Kura .... According to the author of the Fārsnāma-ye Nāṣeri , Ḥasan-e Fasāʼi, a contemporary Qajar era historian, Agha Mohammad Khan had declared in the letter: Shah Ismail I Safavi ruled over the province of Georgia. When in the days of the deceased king we were engaged in conquering the provinces of Iran, we did not proceed to this region. As most of the provinces of Iran have come into our possession now, you must, according to ancient law, consider Georgia (Gurjistan) part of
9457-490: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . After the capture of Shusha in 1992 by Armenian forces during First Nagorno-Karabakh War , the city's Azerbaijani population fled, and most of the city was destroyed. Between May 1992 and November 2020, Shusha was under the de facto control of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh and administered as the centre of its Shushi Province . On 8 November 2020, Azerbaijani forces retook
9650-546: The New Persian Shīsha ("glass, vessel, bottle, flask"). According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names , when Iranian ruler Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar approached the town with his army, he reportedly told the ruler of Karabakh Ibrahim Khalil Khan : God is pouring stones on thy head. Sit ye not then in thy fortress of glass. Panahabad ("City of Panah"), Shusha's previous name,
9843-556: The Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 . Amidst the war, in 1805, an agreement was made between the Karabakh Khanate and the Russian Empire on the transfer of the Karabakh Khanate to Russia during the war, but was not fully realized, as both parties were still at war and the Russians were unable to consolidate any effective control over Karabakh. The Russian Empire consolidated its power in the Karabakh Khanate following
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#173277262664710036-457: The Sarab Khanate into submission. He then went to Ardabil , where he subdued the Ardabil Khanate and visited the city's shrine . He finally went to Qaradagh, where he brought an end to all resistance against him. He appointed the Donboli noble Hosayn Qoli Donboli as the governor of Khoy and Tabriz . While Agha Mohammad Khan was conquering Azerbaijan, Lotf Ali Khan used the opportunity to attack Isfahan. However Hajji Ebrahim Shirazi ,
10229-439: The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, when Iran was forced to recognize the Karabakh Khanate, along most of the other khanates they possessed in the Caucasus , as belonging to Russia , comprising present-day Dagestan and most of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan , while officially ceding Georgia as well, thus irrevocably losing the greater part of its Caucasian territories. Absolute consolidation of Russian power over Karabakh and
10422-421: The World War I , Armenian forces under Andranik Ozanian defeated Azerbaijani forces under Khosrov bey Sultanov in Abdallyar ( Lachin ), and began heading down the Lachin corridor towards Shusha. Shortly before Andranik could arrive, British troops under General W. M. Thomson encouraged him to retreat, out of concerns that Armenian military activity could have an adverse effect on the region's status, which
10615-445: The Yamut tribe with whom he had clashed. On 1 March 1779, while Agha Mohammad Khan was hunting, he was informed by Khadija Begum that Karim Khan had died after six months of illness. Agha Mohammad Khan took with him a group of loyal followers and left for Tehran . Meanwhile, in Shiraz, people were fighting among themselves. In Tehran, Agha Mohammad Khan met the main chieftains of the Develu clan, with whom he made peace. He visited
10808-417: The course of the 19th century . He was formally crowned in 1796 and founded the Qajar dynasty. Although the Russians briefly took and occupied Derbent and Baku during the expedition of 1796 under the command of count Valerian Zubov , Agha Mohammad Khan successfully expanded Iranian influence into the Caucasus, reasserting Iranian sovereignty over its former dependencies in the region. He was, however,
11001-431: The meliks of Karabakh and the Russian authorities, in a 1725 report describes Shusha as a town and a fort: … The nearest Armenian stronghold … was Shushi. Shushi is four days' distance from Shemakhi. Armed Armenians under the command of Avan Yuzbashi guard it. After meeting with the Armenian leaders, including the Patriarch, they returned to Derbent via Shemakhi. Rocky mountains surround the town of Shushi. The number of
11194-403: The meliks of Jraberd and Talish (Gulistan), however, Melik Shahnazar of Varanda continued to support Panah Ali Khan. The Siege of Shusha lasted for six months and Fath-Ali Khan eventually had to retreat. When Karim Khan Zand took control of much of Iran, he forced Panah Ali Khan to come to Shiraz (capital of Zand-ruled Iran), where he died as a hostage. Panah Ali Khan's son Ibrahim Khalil Khan
11387-431: The shrine of Shah Abd al-Azim , where his father's skull was kept. He then travelled to the Mazandaran Province , where his first task was to set up his suzerainty among his Quwanlu brothers. This resulted in a clash with his brothers Reza Qoli and Morteza Qoli, whom he defeated on 2 April, conquering Mazandaran. Meanwhile, Morteza Qoli fled to Astarabad, where he fortified himself. Agha Mohammad Khan could not simply storm
11580-425: The 16th century, the poet, writer and thinker Fuzûlî wrote mainly in Azerbaijani but also translated his poems into Arabic and Persian . Starting in the 1830s, several newspapers were published in Iran during the reign of the Azerbaijani speaking Qajar dynasty , but it is unknown whether any of these newspapers were written in Azerbaijani. In 1875, Akinchi ( Əkinçi / اکينچی ) ("The Ploughman") became
11773-434: The 19th century, Shusha was one of the great cities of the Caucasus, larger and more prosperous than either Baku or Yerevan . Standing in the middle of a net of caravan routes, it had ten caravanserais . It was well known for its silk trade, its paved roads, brightly coloured carpets, big stone houses, and fine-bred horses. In 1824, George Keppel, the Earl of Albemarle, passed through the city. He found two thousand houses in
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#173277262664711966-433: The 20th century marked the first Armenian-Tartar clashes throughout Azerbaijan . This new phenomenon had two causes. Firstly, it was the result of increased tensions between the local Muslim population and Armenians, whose numbers increased throughout the 19th century as a result of Russian resettlement policies. Secondly, by the beginning of the 20th-century, the peoples of the Caucasus, similar to other non-Russian peoples in
12159-457: The Armenian half of the city, 1,675 of 1,700 homes, were destroyed. A report from Dashnak archives states that 8,000 Armenians escaped from the city, whilst 5,000–6,000 remained behind. According to the description of an Azerbaijani communist Ojahkuli Musaev: … the ruthless destruction of defenceless women, children, old women, old men, etc has begun. Armenians were exposed to mass slaughter. … beautiful Armenian girls were raped, then shot. … By
12352-429: The Armenian part of the town was built up with plain buildings typical of the Khrushchev era. With the start of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1988 Shusha became the most important Azerbaijani stronghold in Karabakh, from where Azerbaijani forces constantly shelled the capital Stepanakert for half a year, leading to hundreds of Armenian civilian casualties and causing mass destruction in Stepanakert. On May 9, 1992,
12545-414: The Armenians of the city of Shusha, not sparing women, children, etc. Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote about Shusha in the 1930s, "in this town, which formerly of course was healthy and with every amenity, the picture of catastrophe and massacres was terribly visual. ... They say after the massacres all the wells were full of dead bodies. ... We didn't see anyone in the streets on the mountain. Only in downtown—in
12738-497: The Azerbaijani macrolanguage with "significant differences in phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, and loanwords" between the two. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) considers Northern and Southern Azerbaijani to be distinct languages. Linguists Mohammad Salehi and Aydin Neysani write that "there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility" between North and South Azerbaijani. Svante Cornell wrote in his 2001 book Small Nations and Great Powers that "it
12931-426: The Georgians. Amid an artillery duel and a fierce cavalry charge, the Iranians managed to cross the Kura River and outflanked the decimated Georgian army. Heraclius II attempted to mount a counterattack, but he had to retreat to the last available positions in the outskirts of Tbilisi. By nightfall, the Georgian forces had been exhausted and almost completely destroyed. The last surviving Georgian artillery briefly held
13124-447: The Iranian domains, he proclaimed himself Shahanshah ( King of Kings ) on the Mughan plain , just as Nader Shah had done some sixty years earlier. The country of Georgia had been under Iranian vassalage for the first time in the early modern era in 1502, and under intermittent Iranian rule and suzerainty since 1555 , but had been de facto independent after the disintegration of the Iranian Afsharid dynasty . For Agha Mohammad Khan,
13317-600: The Iranian languages in what is now northwestern Iran, and a variety of languages of the Caucasus and Iranian languages spoken in the Caucasus , particularly Udi and Old Azeri . By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region. It was one of the spoken languages in the court of the Safavids , Afsharids and Qajars . The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early ( c. 14th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained
13510-444: The Iranians. At the same time, Agha Mohammad Khan marched directly on Tbilisi , with half of the army he crossed the Aras river. Some estimate his army had 40,000 men instead of 35,000. They attacked the heavily fortified Georgian positions of Heraclius II and Solomon on the southwestern limits of the city. Abandoned by several of his nobles, Heraclius II managed to mobilize around 5,000 troops, including some 2,000 auxiliaries from
13703-482: The Karabakh Khanate and its fortified capital Shusha were the first and major obstacle to achieve these ends. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar besieged Shusha with the centre part of a 70,000-strong army, after having crossed the Aras River . The right and left wings were sent to resubjugate Shirvan - Dagestan and Erivan respectively. Agha Mohammad Khan himself led the centre part of the main army, besieging Shusha between 8 July and 9 August 1795. Ibrahim Khalil khan mobilized
13896-579: The Karabakh province (1822–1840), and then of the Shusha Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate (1840–1923). Shusha grew and developed, with successive waves of migrants moving to the city, particularly Armenians, who formed a demographic majority in the surrounding highlands. Beginning from the 1830s the town was divided into two parts: Turkic-speaking Muslims lived in the eastern lower quarters, while Armenian Christians settled in
14089-699: The Latin script and not South Azerbaijani written in the Perso-Arabic script. Modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is primarily based on the Shirvani dialect, while in the Iranian Azerbaijan region (historic Azerbaijan) it is based on the Tabrizi one. An Azerbaijani koine served as a lingua franca throughout most parts of Transcaucasia except the Black Sea coast, in southern Dagestan ,
14282-621: The Middle East, visited "Shushee, in the province of Carabagh, in Armenia Major". Some sources, including Mirza Jamal Javanshir , Mirza Adigozal bey , Abbasgulu Bakikhanov and Mirza Yusuf Nersesov , attest to the foundation of the town in 1750–1752 (according to other sources, 1756–1757) by Panah Ali Khan ( r. 1748–1763 ), the founder and the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate (1748–1822), which comprised both Lowland and Highland Karabakh . The mid-18th century foundation
14475-509: The Modern Azeric family, a branch of Central Oghuz. In the northern dialects of the Azerbaijani language, linguists find traces of the influence of the Khazar language . According to Encyclopedia Iranica : We may distinguish the following Azeri dialects: (1) eastern group: Derbent (Darband), Kuba , Shemakha (Šamāḵī), Baku , Salyani (Salyānī), and Lenkoran (Lankarān), (2) western group: Kazakh (not to be confounded with
14668-481: The Paris Peace Conference. Despite signing the agreement, the Azerbaijani government continuously violated the terms of the treaty, and Sultanov employed severe measures against them, such as terror, blockade and famine. Sultanov gathered troops in the region and on 19 February 1920 issued an ultimatum to the Armenians, demanding they accept unconditional unification with Azerbaijan, and then massacred
14861-467: The Qajars, although the reason for doing so is disputed. Sheikh Naser II managed to establish control over Dashtestan, Kharg and Bandar Rig . He also attempted to take Khesht from January to June 1792, but his attempt to capture it failed and he returned to Bushehr on June 27. In the meantime, Lotf Ali Khan had defeated the men sent by Hajji Ebrahim and had advanced towards the stronghold of Kazerun in late October and captured it. He then marched to
15054-600: The Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) is based on the Shirvani dialect, while South Azerbaijani uses variety of regional dialects. Since the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Northern Azerbaijani has used the Latin script. On the other hand, South Azerbaijani has always used and continues to use the Perso-Arabic script . Azerbaijani is closely related to Turkmen , Turkish , Gagauz , and Qashqai , being mutually intelligible with each of these languages to varying degrees. Historically,
15247-516: The Shusha State Historical and Architectural Reserve was established and the town became one of the major resort-towns in the former USSR. The Armenian quarter continued to lie in ruins until the beginning of the 1960s. In 1961, Baku's communist leadership finally passed a decision to clear away much of the ruins, even though many old buildings still could have been renovated. Three Armenian and one Russian church were demolished and
15440-419: The Zand dynasty. Hedayat-Allah then sent two diplomats, Mirza Sadeq and Agha Sadeq Lahiji, to Agha Mohammad to make peace. As a precaution he went to Shirvan . The diplomats were unable to come to favorable terms with Agha Mohammad Khan, who raided Gilan's capital Rasht and seized its riches. Rejoicing in his victory, he sent his brother Jafar Qoli Khan to conquer the northern part of Persian Iraq . He defeated
15633-559: The Zand family how quickly a dynasty could decline due to disputes over the throne. While Lotf Ali Khan was having problems with Kerman , Agha Mohammad Khan could thus freely focus on Azerbaijan . He appointed Baba Khan as the governor of Persian Iraq and marched into Azerbaijan in the spring of 1791. He stopped at Tarum , and sent his relative Soleyman Khan Qajar to make the Talysh Khanate acknowledge Qajar authority. Agha Mohammad Khan thereafter went to Sarab , where he forced
15826-528: The advancing Iranians to allow Heraclius II and his retinue of some 150 men to escape through the city to the mountains. The fighting continued in the streets of Tbilisi and at the fortress of Narikala . In a few hours, Agha Mohammad Khan was in full control of the Georgian capital, which was then completely sacked and its population massacred. The Iranian army marched back laden with spoil and carrying off some 15,000 captives. The Georgians had lost 4,000 men in
16019-593: The ancient fortress is confirmed by the Russian field marshal Alexander Suvorov in a letter to Prince Grigory Potemkin . Suvorov writes that the Armenian prince Melik Shahnazar of Varanda surrendered his fortress Shushikala to "certain Panah ", whom he called a chief of nomadic Muslims living near the Karabakh borders. When discussing Karabakh and Shusha in the 18th century, the Russian diplomat and historian S. M. Bronevsky writes in his Historical Notes that Shusha fortress
16212-590: The armed Armenians has not been determined. There are rumors that the Armenians have defeated the Turks in a number of skirmishes in Karabagh … A 1769 letter by Georgian king Heraclius II to Russian diplomat Count P. Panin states that there was "an ancient fortress in the realm of the Khamsa [melikdoms]" which was "conquered, through deceit" by "one Muslim man from the Jevanshir tribe." The same information about
16405-465: The army near Kashan . Jafar Khan then fled to Shiraz. Agha Mohammad arrived at Isfahan on May 2, where he discovered what was left of the Zand treasure and Jafar Khan's harem. The Qajar troops then looted the city. During the summer of 1785, Agha Mohammad Khan made the city his headquarters for his expeditions in Persian Iraq. He left Isfahan on July 7 on a campaign in which he managed to bring
16598-552: The attack on his territory by his major opponent, Karim Khan Zand . His retreat was so hasty that he even left his cannons under the walls of Shusha fortress. Panah Ali Khan counterattacked the retreating troops of Mohammad Hassan khan and even briefly took Ardabil across the Aras River . In 1756 (or 1759), Shusha and the Karabakh Khanate underwent a new attack from Fath-Ali Khan Afshar , ruler of Urmia . With his 30,000 strong army, Fath-Ali Khan also managed to gain support from
16791-455: The battle, the Iranians 13,000; a third of their total force. An eyewitness, having entered the city several days the bulk of the Iranian troops had withdrawn, described what he saw: I therefore pursued my way, paved as it were, with carcases, and entered Tiflis by the gate of Tapitag: but what was my consternation on finding here the bodies of women and children slaughtered by the sword of
16984-419: The cession of Transcaucasia proper and Dagestan by Qajar Iran to the Russian Empire per the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay . Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all district schools of Ganja , Shusha , Nukha (present-day Shaki ), Shamakhi , Quba , Baku , Derbent , Yerevan , Nakhchivan , Akhaltsikhe , and Lankaran . Beginning in 1834, it
17177-554: The chief of Bam gave Lotf Ali Khan to the Qajars and ordered Lotf Ali Khan to be killed. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar took revenge on the people of Kerman by ordering the eyes of 20,000 of the inhabitants. The city was brutally sacked and many beautiful buildings destroyed. A year later, after the Battle of Krtsanisi brought eastern Georgia and the other principal territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus back within
17370-506: The chief of Tabas. With this help, he returned in September and marched towards Yazd. The governor of Yazd sent an army to defeat him, but near Ardakan they fled back to Yazd before an engagement even took place. Lotf Ali then captured Abarkuh and marched towards Bavanat in early October. The Qajar force sent against him wasted time besieging Abarkuh and Lotf Ali captured Stahbanat, Qir , and Neyriz . He marched on Darab and besieged
17563-483: The city during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War following a three-day long battle . The Armenian population of the city fled, and multiple reports emerged that the Armenian cultural heritage of the city was being destroyed. The Azerbaijani government opened the city to tourists from Azerbaijan in 2022 and plans to start resettling the city in 2023. Several historians believe Shusha derives from
17756-529: The city had an Azerbaijani majority. The Armenian inhabitants of the city steadily grew over time to constitute a majority of the city's population until the Shusha massacre in 1920, in which the Armenian half of the city was destroyed by Azerbaijani forces, resulting in the death or expulsion of the Armenian population, up to 20,000 people. The city has suffered significant destruction and depopulation during
17949-425: The city in order to capture him. Although he failed to capture Hasan, Adel Shah managed to capture Agha Mohammad Khan, whom he planned to kill. He later chose to spare Agha Mohammad Khan's life and instead had him castrated and thereafter freed. While the common spelling of "Agha" ( آقا ) is usually used as a title roughly translated to "Sir" or "Mister", Agha Mohammad Khan's title is differently spelled ( آغا ), which
18142-444: The city, and as he neared it, was attacked by Lotf Ali Khan. A battle was fought on 25 June 1789, which ended in Lotf Ali Khan withdrawing to Shiraz while Agha Mohammad Khan followed him and besieged the city. The siege lasted until 7 September. He set up an encampment and returned to Tehran, where he stayed until the end of the ensuing Nowruz . On 17 May 1790, Agha Mohammad Khan once again marched towards Shiraz. When he reached Fars ,
18335-522: The city, since starting a war with Morteza Qoli would mean that his frail alliance with the Develu could fall apart—Morteza Qoli's mother was a Develu. At the same time, the Zand prince Ali-Morad Khan Zand sent an army of Zand and Afghan troops under Azad Khan Afghan 's son Mahmud Khan to Mazandaran, which Agha Mohammad Khan's brother Jafar Qoli Khan managed to repel. Agha Mohammad Khan, together with Hossein Qoli Khan's sons Fath-Ali Qoli and Hosayn Qoli,
18528-542: The city, the inhabitants quickly closed the gates, and told him that they would open the gate only for the king of Iran, who according to them was Jafar Khan Zand , who had succeeded Ali-Morad Khan. Thus Agha Mohammad Khan had to defeat Jafar Khan to be recognized as the king of Iran. He thereafter quickly marched towards Isfahan. Jafar Khan sent men to stop his advance towards the city, but they withdrew at Qom without putting up any resistance. Jafar Khan then sent an even larger Zand army towards Agha Mohammad Khan, who defeated
18721-535: The city, which was strongly fortified, making it very hard to besiege. Unfortunately for him, Jafar Khan remained in the city. Agha Mohammad Khan returned to Isfahan, where he appointed his brother Ali Qoli as its governor, succeeding Jafar Qoli Khan. He then left for Tehran. With Agha Mohammad Khan once again in the north, in autumn Jafar Khan began raising an army to prepare another attack against Isfahan and its surroundings. Jafar left Shiraz on September 20 and marched towards Isfahan. When Ali Qoli learned of it he sent
18914-483: The city. Agha Mohammad Khan had already stocked provisions in case of a siege. Every day his troops would try to lay waste to the countryside to limit the besiegers' provisions. This in the end made the besiegers' situation unsustainable, and allowed Agha Mohammad Khan to leave the city to attack them. Mohammad Zahir Khan fled towards the Karakum Desert , but was captured by Agha Mohammad Khan's Yomut allies and
19107-415: The countryside outside Shiraz and prepared to starve the city. Some time later, the Qajar army from the nearby garrison attacked Lotf Ali Khan's men and were winning—until Lotf Ali Khan himself decided to participate in the battle, and the Qajar army was defeated. When Agha Mohammad Khan learned of this, he sent 7,000 horsemen to reinforce Hajji Ebrahim's forces, and also ordered the surviving Qajar forces from
19300-415: The course of the 19th century, the town grew in size to become a city, and was home to many Armenian and Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and musicians (including Azerbaijani ashiks , mugham singers and kobuz players). The town has religious, cultural and strategic importance to both groups. Shusha is often considered the cradle of Azerbaijan's music and poetry, and one of the leading centres of
19493-463: The dynasty's earliest days. The tribe had several other branches, one of the most prominent ones being the Develu, which often fought against the Quwanlu. Agha Mohammad Khan was the eldest son of the chieftain of the Quwanlu clan, Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar , and the grandson of Fath-Ali Khan Qajar , a prominent aristocrat executed by the orders of Shah Tahmasp II (possibly compelled by Nader Qoli Beg, who came to be known as Nader Shah after usurping
19686-651: The eastern parts of the Alborz , Kurdish chieftains ruled over several fortresses, such as Bojnord and Quchan . Agha Mohammad Shah first marched to Astarabad, and penalized the Turkmens who had been pillaging the city and its surroundings. He then continued to Mashhad, where the local chieftains, who knew it was hopeless to resist, swiftly acknowledged his rule. Agha Mohammad Shah also demanded these local chieftains to dispatch him hostages, who were sent to Tehran. When Agha Mohammad Shah reached Mashhad, Shahrokh, along with
19879-580: The empire, and appear before our majesty. You have to conform your obedience; then you may remain in the possession of your governorship ( wali ) of Georgia. If you do not do this, you will be treated as the others. His advisors divided, Heraclius II ignored the ultimatum but sent couriers to St.Petersburg. Gudovich, who sat in Georgievsk at the time, instructed Heraclius II to avoid "expense and fuss", while Heraclius II, together with Solomon II and some Imeretians headed southwards of Tbilisi to fend off
20072-432: The enemy from returning. A British journalist witnessed Armenian soldiers using minarets of a mosque in Shusha as shooting targets. As of 2002, ten years later after the city's capture by the Armenian forces, some 80% of the town was in ruins. Armenians also dismantled and sold off historic dark bronze busts of three Azerbaijani musicians and poets from Shusha. Another British journalist who visited Shusha in 1997 reported that
20265-405: The enemy; to say nothing about the men, of whom I saw more than a thousand, as I should suppose, lying dead in one little tower! [...] The city was almost entirely consumed, and still continued to smoke in different places; and the stench from the putrefying, together with the heat which prevailed, was intolerable, and certainly infectious. Agha Mohammad Shah now focused on Khorasan, which was under
20458-517: The famous Iranian shah Abbas I the Great , and entered Mashhad on May 14 by foot as a pilgrim to the Imam Reza shrine , whilst being teary eyed and kissing the ground. His pilgrimage continued for 23 days, where he seemed to be unaware of the politics of the country. However, things quickly changed. Agha Mohammad Shah ordered the exhumation of Nader Shah's corpse, and had it sent to Tehran, where it
20651-520: The first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire . It was started by Hasan bey Zardabi , a journalist and education advocate. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry. His most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It
20844-471: The first time in four centuries. Heraclius II appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia , pleading for at least 3,000 Russian troops, but he was not listened to, leaving Georgia to fend off the Iranian threat alone. Nevertheless, Heraclius II still rejected the Khan's ultimatum . In August 1795, Agha Mohammad Khan crossed the Aras river with a 70,000-strong army. This force
21037-501: The fortress but was soon informed of the Qajar army sent against him and fled back to Khorasan. The Afghan chiefs of Bam invited Lotf Ali Khan to return and expel the Qajar yoke. With their help, Lotf Ali Khan returned to Kerman and captured the city on 30 March. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar quickly heard of this and marched towards Kerman on May 14. The siege lasted four months and took a toll on Kerman's population. The city fell on 24 October, and Lotf Ali Khan quickly fled to Bam. However,
21230-421: The fortress there were no buildings there and it was used as cropland and pasture by the people of the nearby village of Shoshi. Panah khan resettled to Shusha the population of Shahbulag and some nearby villages and built strong fortifications . Another account is presented by Raffi (1835–1888), an Armenian novelist and historian, in his work The Princedoms of Khamsa , which asserts that the place where Shushi
21423-416: The foundation of the fortress of Shusha . Some attribute this to an alliance between Panah Ali Khan and Melik Shahnazar , the local Armenian prince ( melik ) of Varanda . In these accounts, the name of the town originated from a nearby Armenian village called Shosh or Shushikent (see § Etymology for alternative explanations). Conversely, some sources describe Shusha as an important center within
21616-400: The founder of Varlıq , Javad Heyat , in 2001 where a document outlining the standard orthography and writing conventions were published for the public. This standard of writing is today canonized by a Persian–Azeri Turkic dictionary in Iran titled Loghatnāme-ye Torki-ye Āzarbāyjāni . Between 1929 and 1938, a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani, although it was different from
21809-407: The genitive form of shosh / shush , as -a or -ay is a common declensional ending for placenames in pre-modern and dialectal Armenian. Besides the common Armenian name Shushi, the town has historically been referred to in Armenian by various names, including Shoshi/Shushva Berd , Shoshi Sghnakh , Shoshvaghala , which all mean "Shosh/Shushi Fortress". Some Armenian sources identify Shusha with
22002-425: The governor of Bihbahan acknowledged his authority. Lotf Ali Khan once again left Shiraz in order to stop Agha Mohammad Khan's advance, but the Qajar ruler withdrew to Qazvin and its surroundings, where he had to resolve some problems. Agha Mohammad Khan later quarreled with Jafar Qoli Khan, who saw himself as the best heir of the Qajar dynasty. Agha Mohammad had him executed, which he believed necessary having seen in
22195-496: The gravestones in the Azerbaijani cemetery on the edge of town were "methodically smashed and vandalised". After the end of the war, the town was repopulated by Armenians, mostly refugees from Azerbaijan and other parts of Karabakh, as well as members of the Armenian diaspora. The population of the town was significantly less than the pre-war number, and the demographic of the town had changed from mostly Azerbaijani to completely Armenian. The Goris - Stepanakert Highway passes through
22388-731: The hatch. The tank was restored and its number, 442, repainted in white on the side. After the Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023 the tank was removed by the Azerbaijani authorities and transferred to the Military Trophy Park in Baku. Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani ( / ˌ æ z ər b aɪ ˈ dʒ æ n i , - ɑː n i / AZ -ər-by- JAN -ee ) or Azeri ( / æ ˈ z ɛər i , ɑː -, ə -/ az- AIR -ee, ah-, ə- ), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish ,
22581-421: The impassable mountains such an inviolable and inaccessible fort, so that no strong enemy could take it." Melik Shahnazar of Varanda, who was the first of the Armenian meliks (dukes) to accept the suzerainty of Panah Ali Khan and who would remain his loyal supporter, suggested a location for the new fortress. Thus, Panahabad-Shusha was founded. According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, before Panah Ali Khan constructed
22774-546: The issue of the disputed territories, including Karabakh, in favour of Armenia. However, on July 5, 1921, the Kavbiuro of the Communist Party adopted the following decision regarding the future status of Karabakh: "Proceeding from the necessity of national peace among Muslims and Armenians and of the economic ties between upper (mountainous) and lower Karabakh, of its permanent ties with Azerbaijan, mountainous Karabakh
22967-599: The king of Iran, although he avoided using the title " shah ". Some time later, while Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar was campaigning against the Bakhtiaris, Jafar Khan quickly marched towards Isfahan and re-captured it (although the citadel of Tabrak held out for four months). He then sent troops towards Kashan and Qom, while he marched towards Hamadan in early January 1786. He was, however, defeated by local tribal chieftains, among them Khosrow Khan and Mohammad Hosayn Khan Qaragozlu. Jafar Khan then withdrew to Isfahan to deal with
23160-607: The language was referred to by its native speakers as türk dili or türkcə , meaning either "Turkish" or "Turkic". In the early years following the establishment of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , the language was still referred to as "Turkic" in official documents. However, in the 1930s, its name was officially changed to "Azerbaijani". The language is often still referred to as Turki or Torki in Iranian Azerbaijan . The term "Azeri", generally interchangeable with "Azerbaijani",
23353-409: The largest minority in the city and the wider province, comprising about 1 ⁄ 6 of its total population. The CIA World Factbook reports that in 2010, the percentage of Iranian Azerbaijani speakers was at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or approximately 13 million people worldwide, and ethnic Azeris form by far the second largest ethnic group of Iran, thus making the language also
23546-429: The latter's revolt and pardoned him. Agha Mohammad Khan now had to focus on Gilan because Hedayat-Allah Khan had returned to the province (allegedly with Russian help) since the Qajar invasion of the province in 1782. In Agha Mohammad Khan's eyes, the whole Caspian coast was under threat by Hedayat-Allah and the Russians. Agha Mohammad Khan and his men easily managed to enter Gilan. While he was marching towards Rasht, he
23739-524: The loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among the Azerbaijani masses. The Russian annexation of Iran 's territories in the Caucasus through the Russo-Iranian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 split the language community across two states. Afterwards, the Tsarist administration encouraged
23932-543: The majority of Iranian Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America. Although there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani, there are significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani (spoken in
24125-546: The market-square, there were a lot of people, but there wasn't any Armenian among them; all were Muslims". In 1920, the Bolshevik 11th Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and then Armenia and put an end to the national de facto governments that existed in those two countries. Thereafter, the conflict for the control of Karabakh entered the diplomatic sphere. To attract Armenian public support, the Bolsheviks promised to resolve
24318-435: The medieval Turkic migrations . Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. Azerbaijani is, perhaps after Uzbek , the Turkic language upon which Persian and other Iranian languages have exerted the strongest impact—mainly in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary, less in morphology. The Turkic language of Azerbaijan gradually supplanted
24511-530: The mythical Turanian king Afrasiab in the Shahnameh epic. Two of Agha Mohammad Khan's brothers who were at Qazvin were also sent to Shiraz during this period. In February 1769, Karim Khan appointed Hossein Qoli Khan as the governor of Damghan. When Hossein Qoli Khan reached Damghan, he immediately began a fierce conflict with the Develu and other tribes to avenge his father's death. He was, however, killed c. 1777 near Findarisk by some Turks from
24704-522: The nearby garrison to do the same. Lotf Ali Khan let the reinforcements arrive to Shiraz, expecting that as soon as the forces of Hajji Ebrahim were strengthened, they would come out of Shiraz, and could be overwhelmed in open battle. He was correct in his prediction—a battle shortly took place to the west of Shiraz, where Lotf Ali Khan defeated the united forces of Hajji Ebrahim and his Qajar reinforcements. This took place in late 1791, or early 1792. The inhabitants of Shiraz now faced extreme hardship from
24897-658: The neighbouring Imereti under its King Solomon II, a member of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty and thus distantly related to Heraclius II. The Georgians offered a desperate resistance and succeeded in rolling back a series of Iranian attacks on 9 and 10 September. After that, it is said that some traitors informed the Iranians that the Georgians had no more strength to fight and the Qajar army cancelled their plan of returning to Iran. Early on 11 September, Agha Mohammad Khan personally led an all-out offensive against
25090-493: The one used now. From 1938 to 1991, the Cyrillic script was used. Lastly, in 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. For instance, until an Aliyev decree on the matter in 2001, newspapers would routinely write headlines in the Latin script, leaving the stories in Cyrillic. The transition has also resulted in some misrendering of İ as Ì . In Dagestan, Azerbaijani
25283-483: The order of … Khosrov-bek Sultanov; the pogroms proceeded for more than six days. Houses in the Armenian part have been partially demolished, plundered and reduced all to ashes, everyone led away women to submit to the wishes of executioner musavatists. During these historically artful forms of punishment, Khosrov-bek Sultanov, spoke about holy war (jihad) in his speeches to the Moslems, and called on them to finally finish
25476-486: The overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. The Soviet Union promoted the development of the language but set it back considerably with two successive script changes – from the Persian to Latin and then to the Cyrillic script – while Iranian Azerbaijanis continued to use the Persian script as they always had. Despite
25669-414: The part of the wali of Georgia. Finding an interval of peace amid their own quarrels and with northern, western, and central Iran secure, the Iranians demanded the Georgian monarch Heraclius II renounce his treaty with Russia and re-accept Iranian suzerainty, in return for peace and the security of his kingdom. The Ottomans, Iran's neighboring rival, recognized Iran's rights over Kartli and Kakheti for
25862-534: The periphery of the Russian Empire, began to seek cultural and territorial autonomy. Political instability within Russia, particularly the 1905 Revolution and 1917 Revolutions , caused these social movements to acquire the character of national liberation movements. The initial clashes between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis took place in Baku in February 1905. Soon, the conflict spilled over to other parts of
26055-475: The popular governor of Shiraz, used Lotf Ali Khan's absence from the city to stage a coup, while his brother Mohammad-Hosayn Shirazi, who was the Zand ruler's general, mutinied along with many other troops. Lotf Ali Khan rushed to Shiraz, but when he arrived at the city, its inhabitants refused to open the gates. He went into the mountains and raised an army large enough to capture Shiraz. Hajji Ebrahim then sent an emissary to Agha Mohammad Khan, asking him to become
26248-422: The population for a long-term defense. The number of militia in Shusha reached 15,000. Women fought together with men. The Armenian population of Karabakh also actively participated in this struggle against the Iranians and fought side by side with the Muslim population, jointly organizing ambushes in the mountains and forests. The siege lasted for 33 days. Not being able to capture Shusha, Agha Mohammad Khan ceased
26441-407: The population of several Armenian villages, including Khankendi ( Stepanakert ). A minority of Karabagh National Council representatives gathered in Shusha to accept Sultanov's demands, while the rest met in nearby Shushikend to reject the ultimatum. The strife culminated in an Armenian uprising, which was suppressed by the Azerbaijani army. In late March 1920, the Armenian half of the police forces
26634-423: The previous 1795 attack and also suffered from a serious drought which lasted for three years. The artillery of the attackers also inflicted serious losses on the city defenders. Thus, in 1797 Agha Mohammad Shah succeeded in seizing Shusha and Ibrahim Khalil Khan had to flee to Dagestan . However, several days after the seizure of Shusha, Agha Mohammad Khan was killed in mysterious circumstances by his bodyguards in
26827-419: The process of standardization of orthography started with the publication of Azerbaijani magazines and newspapers such as Varlıq ( وارلیق — Existence ) from 1979. Azerbaijani-speaking scholars and literarians showed great interest in involvement in such ventures and in working towards the development of a standard writing system. These effort culminated in language seminars being held in Tehran , chaired by
27020-492: The recently conquered parts of the Caucasus from Iran were confirmed with the outcome of the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 and the ensuing Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828. During the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the citadel at Shusha held out for several months and never fell. After this Shusha ceased to be a capital of a khanate, which was dissolved in 1822, and instead became an administrative capital first of
27213-416: The relatively new western upper quarters of the town. The Muslim part of the town was divided into seventeen quarters. Each quarter had its own mosque , Turkish bath , water-spring and also a quarter representative, who would be elected from among the elders ( aksakals ) and would function similarly to the head of a modern-day municipality. The Armenian part of the town consisted of 12 quarters, five churches,
27406-598: The resubjugation and reintegration of Georgia into the Iranian Empire was part of the same process that had brought Shiraz , Isfahan , and Tabriz under his rule. Like the Safavids and Nader Shah before him, he viewed the territories no differently than those in mainland Iran. Georgia was a province of Iran the same way Khorasan was. As the Cambridge History of Iran states, its permanent secession
27599-490: The rule of Nader Shah's blind and old grandson Shahrokh Shah . He had earlier been a vassal of the Durrani ruler, Ahmad Shah , but after the latter's death in 1772 had become a pawn of the chieftains who had taken control of the surrounding cities and towns of the Afsharid capital of Mashhad . The most prominent of these chieftains was most likely Eshaq Khan, who preserved Torbat-e Heydarieh as his center of operations. In
27792-488: The ruler of Gilan , his vassal. He thereafter granted land in Semnan to his brother Ali Qoli as a reward for his help in the conquest of the cities. In 1781, the Russian Empire , which was interested in building a trade route with Iran in order to be able to trade with regions deep into Asia, sent an emissary under Marko Ivanovich Voinovich to the coast of Gorgan, where he arrived on August 10 and sought approval to build
27985-502: The ruler of Fars, offering to give him 3,000 mares if he accepted; he immediately did. When Agha Mohammad Khan arrived at Fars, he appointed Hajji Ebrahim as the governor of the whole province, and sent one of his men to take Lotf Ali Khan's family to Tehran, and take the possessions of the Zand family. Furthermore, he also ordered Baba Khan to establish a garrison in nearby Shiraz to be prepared to help Hajji Ebrahim if needed. The Sheikh of Bushehr also took this opportunity to defect to
28178-465: The second most spoken language in the nation. Ethnologue reports 10.9 million Iranian Azerbaijani in Iran in 2016 and 13,823,350 worldwide. Dialects of South Azerbaijani include: "Aynallu (often considered a separate language ), Karapapakh (often considered a separate language. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam mentions that it is close to both "Āzerī and the Turkish of Turkey". The historian George Bournoutian only mentions that it
28371-525: The self-governing Armenian melikdoms of Karabakh in the 1720s, and others say the plateau was already the site of an Armenian fortification. From the mid-18th century to 1822, Shusha was the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. The town became one of the cultural centers of the South Caucasus after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region from Qajar Iran in the first half of the 19th century. Over
28564-412: The siege and advanced to Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi ), which despite desperate resistance was occupied and exposed to unprecedented destruction. Ibrahim Khalil Khan eventually surrendered to Mohammad Khan after negotiations, including the paying of regular tribute and to surrender hostages, although the Qajar forces were still denied entrance to Shusha. Since the main objective was Georgia, Mohammad Khan
28757-539: The siege of Shusha due to stiff resistance, which was further aided by Georgian crown prince Aleksandre , the Khan of Karabakh, Ibrahim Khan , eventually surrendered to Agha Mohammad Khan after discussions. He paid a regular tribute and surrendered hostages, though the Qajar forces were still denied entrance to Shusha. Since the main objective was Georgia, Agha Mohammad Khan was willing to have Karabakh secured by this agreement for now, for he and his army subsequently moved further. While at Ganja, having secured Shirvan, he
28950-472: The siege, and it was questionable if they would endure. Large parts of Fars were ravaged by warfare, and for three to four years a pandemic had spread around the landscape. Albeit Lotf Ali Khan's forces had gone through as much difficulty as the forces of Hajji Ebrahim whose forces had begun to desert to the Zands. Agha Mohammad Khan thus raised a large army and marched into Fars. On 5 June 1792, Lotf Ali Khan, with
29143-463: The siege. He marched back to Ali Bolagh, a summer house near Damghan. Agha Mohammad Khan then returned to Mazandaran and spent the winter there. The next year Ali-Morad Khan, in retaliation for Agha Mohammad Khan's attack on Tehran the previous year sent a huge army reportedly numbering 60,000 to Mazandaran in June 1784, aiming to crush the Qajars once and for all. His 15-year-old son Sheikh Veis Khan
29336-506: The sister of the governor of the city. His remaining brothers were sent to Qazvin , where they were treated honorably. Agha Mohammad Khan was looked upon more as a respected guest in Karim Khan's court than a captive. Furthermore, Karim Khan also acknowledged Agha Mohammad Khan's political knowledge and sought his advice on interests of the state. He called Agha Mohammad Khan his " Piran-e Viseh ", referring to an intelligent counselor of
29529-641: The spread of Azerbaijani in eastern Transcaucasia as a replacement for Persian spoken by the upper classes, and as a measure against Persian influence in the region. Between c. 1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in what is now the Azerbaijan Republic, popularized by scholars such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski . Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature . They all criticized
29722-557: The throne of Iran in 1736, marking the foundation of the Afsharid dynasty ). Agha Mohammad Khan had several half-brothers and full-brothers: Hossein Qoli Khan , Morteza Qoli Khan , Mostafa Qoli Khan, Reza Qoli Khan, Jafar Qoli Khan, Mehdi Qoli Khan, Abbas Qoli Khan and Ali Qoli Khan . When Nader Shah died in 1747, the Afsharid rule of Iran fell apart, which gave Mohammad Hasan an opportunity to seize Astarabad for himself, leading Nader Shah's nephew Adel Shah to march from Mashhad to
29915-428: The town was captured by Armenian forces in an operation to lift the siege of Stepanakert and the Azerbaijani population fled. According to Armenian commander Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan , the city was looted and burnt by Armenian citizens from nearby Stepanakert , who had endured months of bombing and shelling from Azerbaijani forces. He also noted it was part of a Karabakh Armenian superstition of burning houses to prevent
30108-703: The town and is a transit and tourist destination for many. There were some hotels in the city, and cultural monuments such as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque were restored by Armenian authorities. After the war, a T-72 tank commanded by the Karabakhi Armenian Gagik Avsharian was placed as a memorial. The tank had been hit during the town's capture, killing the driver and gun operator, but Avsharian jumped free from
30301-407: The town, with three-quarters of the inhabitants Azerbaijanis and one-quarter Armenian. He furthermore noted regarding the town; (...) The language is a dialect of the Turkish; but its inhabitants, with the exception of the Armenians, generally read and write Persian. The trade is carried on principally by the Armenians, between the towns of Sheki , Nakshevan , Khoi and Tabriz ." The beginning of
30494-409: The town. Ibrahim Khalil Khan returned to Shusha and ordered that the shah's body be honourably buried until further instructions from the nephew and heir of Agha Mohammad Shah, Baba Khan, who soon assumed the title of Fath-Ali Shah . Ibrahim Khan, in order to maintain peaceful relations with Tehran and retain his position as the Khan of Karabakh, gave his daughter Agha Begom, known as Aghabaji, as one of
30687-405: The village Shosh received its name from the fortress, which he considered the older settlement. According to Armenian sources, the name Shusha most likely derives from the dialectal Armenian word shosh / shush (Armenian: շոշ/շուշ), meaning tree sprout or, figuratively, a high place, first applied either to the adjacent village Shosh or to Shusha itself. The form Shusha can also be explained as
30880-487: The villages surrounding Shusha were massacred by Azerbaijani and Kurdish irregulars. Sultanov stated that the irregulars were not under his control. In August 1919, the Karabakh National Council was forced to enter into a provisional treaty agreement with the Azerbaijani government, recognizing the authority of the Azerbaijan government until the issue of the mountainous part of Karabakh was settled at
31073-415: The western part of Nader Shah's former empire. He was, however, defeated in 1759 by a Zand army. He was betrayed by his own followers and thereafter, killed by his old rival, Mohammad Khan of Savadkuh. Due to Agha Mohammad Khan's castration, his brother Hossein Qoli Khan was appointed as the new chieftain of the Quwanlu instead. Shortly thereafter Astarabad fell under the control of Karim Khan, who appointed
31266-571: The wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956. After independence, the Republic of Azerbaijan decided to switch back to a modified Latin script. The development of Azerbaijani literature is closely associated with Anatolian Turkish, written in Perso-Arabic script . Examples of its detachment date to the 14th century or earlier. Kadi Burhan al-Din , Hasanoghlu , and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as
31459-435: The wives of the new shah. From the early 19th century, Russian ambitions in the Caucasus to increase its territories at the expense of neighbouring Qajar Iran and Ottoman Turkey began to rise. Following the annexation of Georgia in 1801, some of the khanates agreed to become Russian protectorates in the immediate years afterwards. In 1804, the Russian general Pavel Tsitsianov directly invaded Qajar Iran , initiating
31652-433: Was a possession of the Melik-Shahnazarian clan, which was given to Panah Ali Khan in return for aid against the other Armenian meliks of Karabakh. Russian historian P. G. Butkov (1775–1857) writes that "Shushi village" was given to Panah Ali Khan by the Melik-Shahnazarian prince after they entered into an alliance, and that Panah Ali Khan fortified the village. The missionary Joseph Wolff (1795–1862), during his mission in
31845-555: Was a tribute to Panah Ali Khan , the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate . According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary , published in the final decades of the Russian Empire , the town's name comes from the nearby village Shushikent (called Shosh in Armenian), which literally means "Shusha village" in the Azerbaijani language . Conversely, the Armenian historian Leo (1860–1932) considered it more likely that
32038-469: Was allowed as the de facto ruler of Astarabad and several districts in the region of Hezar Jarib . Peace did not last long. Ali-Morad Khan soon invaded Mazandaran, which led Agha Mohammad Khan to march from Babol with an army of Mazandaranis and Qajars and attack Ali-Morad Khan, whom he managed to repel from the province. Agha Mohammad Khan then seized Qumis , Semnan , Damghan , Shahrud and Bastam . Furthermore, he also made Hedayat-Allah Khan ,
32231-409: Was also during this period that Agha Mohammad Khan was enthroned (however still not crowned) and named his nephew Baba Khan (who would later be known as Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ) as his heir. Thus 1789 is marked as the start of his reign. Now that the Zand dynasty was no longer under the rule of Jafar Khan Zand, Agha Mohammad Khan saw an opportunity to capture Shiraz once and for all. He marched towards
32424-686: Was also soon captured and sent to Karim Khan. During his stay, Agha Mohammad Khan was treated kindly and honorably by Karim Khan, who made him convince his kinsmen to lay down their arms, which they did. Karim Khan then settled them in Damghan . In 1763, Agha Mohammad Khan and Hossein Qoli Khan were sent to the Zand capital, Shiraz , where their paternal aunt Khadija Begum, who was part of Karim Khan's harem , lived. Agha Mohammad Khan's half-brothers Morteza Qoli Khan and Mostafa Qoli Khan were granted permission to live in Astarabad, due to their mother being
32617-659: Was brutally killed. Only a few of his men managed to survive. On 14 November Agha Mohammad marched from Astarabad into Mazandaran and defeated a Zand force at Ashraf. The Zands were unable to defend Sari and Sheikh Veis Khan fled to Tehran on November 23. Meanwhile, Ali-Morad Khan had raised another group of Zand troops, which he sent to Mazandaran under the command of his cousin Rustam Khan Zand , only to be defeated by Agha Mohammad Khan. Ali-Morad Khan died on 11 February 1785. When Agha Mohammad Khan heard of his death, he went to Tehran to try to capture it. When he reached
32810-415: Was built was desolate and uninhabited before Panah Ali Khan's arrival. He states, "[Panah-Ali Khan and Melik-Shahnazar of Varanda] soon completed the construction (1762) [of the fortress] and moved the Armenian population of the nearby village of Shosh, called also Shoshi, or Shushi into the fortress.″ Although Panah Ali Khan had been in conflict with Nader Shah , the new ruler of Persia, Adil Shah , issued
33003-458: Was challenged by others, such as Aghamusa Akhundov [ az ] , who argued that Damirchizade was taking orthography as the basis of his judgement, rather than its phonetic value. According to Akhundov, Azerbaijani contains two diphthongs, / ou̯ / and / œy̯ / , represented by ov and öv in the alphabet, both of which are phonemic due to their contrast with / o / and / œ / , represented by o and ö . In some cases,
33196-651: Was described as a strategic stronghold in one of the Eastern Armenian military districts, called sghnakhs , playing a key role in the Armenian commander Avan Yuzbashi 's campaign against Ottoman forces during their incursion into of the South Caucasus in the 1720s and 1730s. Armenian historian and Shusha native Ashot Hovhannisian wrote that the fortress walls must have been built by Avan Yuzbashi in 1724, if not earlier. Kehva Chelebi, an early Armenian national activist who maintained correspondence between
33389-516: Was discontented and fled to Ali-Morad Khan in Isfahan , and then to Sadeq Khan Zand in Shiraz. He died in Khorasan. His former supporters then went to Agha Mohammad Khan and began serving him. At that time, Agha Mohammad Khan had once again become involved in a conflict with his brother Reza Qoli, whom he defeated in several battles, and thereafter established peace with him once more: Morteza Qoli
33582-623: Was divided in three: the left wing was sent in the direction of Erivan, the right one parallel to the Caspian Sea into the Mughan across the lower Aras towards Dagestan and Shirvan , while the Shah headed the centre force himself, advancing towards the fortress of Shusha in the Karabakh Khanate , which he besieged between 8 July and 9 August 1795. His right and left wing forced the Khans of Ganja and Erivan into an alliance. Having abandoned
33775-416: Was inconceivable and had to be resisted in the same way as one would resist an attempt at the separation of Fars or Gilan. It was therefore natural for Agha Mohammad Khan to perform whatever was necessary in the Caucasus in order to subdue and reincorporate the recently lost regions following Nader Shah's death and the demise of the Zands. This included putting down what in Iranian eyes was seen as treason on
33968-656: Was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian. In 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate . Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family . Ethnologue lists North Azerbaijani (spoken mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia) and South Azerbaijani (spoken in Iran, Iraq, and Syria) as two groups within
34161-435: Was joined by Javad Khan Qajar and the rest of his right wing contingent. At Ganja, Mohammad Khan sent Heraclius II his last ultimatum, which he received in September 1795: Your Highness knows that for the past 100 generations you have been subject to Iran; now we deign to say with amazement that you have attached yourself to the Russians, who have no other business than to trade with Iran... Last year you forced me to destroy
34354-457: Was joined by a local ruler named Mehdi Beg Khalatbari and other people. Furthermore, the Russian consul in Gilan betrayed Hedayat-Allah by providing weapons to Agha Mohammad Khan. Hedayat-Allah once again tried to flee to Shirvan, but was captured by men sent by a local ruler named Agha Ali Shafti (or another local ruler according to some sources), who killed him to avenge the slaughter of his family
34547-415: Was murdered on 23 January 1789, which started a four-month civil war between several Zand princes who fought for succession to the throne. In May Jafar Khan's son Lotf Ali Khan emerged the victor in this civil war. Lotf Ali Khan fled to Bushehr and managed to recruit the local chiefs of Dashestan to his side. Lotf Ali was able to march against Sayed Morad Khan on April 22 and enter Shiraz on May 8. It
34740-543: Was now in a firm position in Babol , the capital of Mazandaran. In Autumn 1780 Reza Qoli invaded Babol with an army of men from Larijan , where he encircled Agha Mohammad Khan's house and captured him after a fight lasting several hours. When Morteza Qoli learned of this, he marched to Babol on 1 January 1781 with an army of Turkmens and released Agha Mohammad Khan. The three brothers tried to settle their differences; Agha Mohammad Khan and Reza Qoli succeeded, while Morteza Qoli
34933-416: Was personally involved in the torture and on one occasion he had Shahrokh tied to a chair, his head shaved and a crown of thick paste built on his head. He then poured a jug of molten lead into the crown. A number of Shahrokh's servants, who were struck with misery for their previous monarch, sent an admired mullah of the city to make an emotional appeal to Agha Mohammad Shah in support of Shahrokh and Shahrokh
35126-563: Was put in command of the army, with Ali Morad staying behind in Tehran. When the army arrived in Mazandaran, its people quickly surrendered to the Zands and the nobles defected. Agha Mohammad Khan and a few of his supporters fled to Astarabad, where he tried to fortify the city as much as possible. Meanwhile, Morteza Qoli changed his allegiance and began serving the Zand dynasty. Ali-Morad Khan then sent an army numbering 8,000 under his relative Mohammad Zahir Khan to Astarabad, and laid siege to
35319-497: Was reburied alongside Karim Khan Zand's corpse. He then forced Shahrokh to give him any riches that originally belonged to Nader Shah. Shahrokh swore that he did not possess any more of Nader Shah's riches. Agha Mohammad Shah, ruthless and revengeful, and with a desire for treasure, did not believe him. He had Shahrokh Shah hurt severely to confess the hidden locations of the last gems that had passed down to him from his grandfather. Shahrokh, however, refused to speak. Agha Mohammad Shah
35512-581: Was reported by a British journalist to have murdered the Azerbaijani half during the latter's traditional Novruz Bayram holiday celebrations. The Armenian surprise attack was organised and coordinated by the forces of the Armenian Republic. Azerbaijani outrage for this surprise attack ultimately led to the massacre and expulsion of the Armenian population in March 1920, in which 500–8,000 to 20,000 Armenians were killed, others were forced to flee, and
35705-465: Was sent back to Karabakh as governor. Under him, the Karabakh Khanate became one of the strongest state formations and Shusha grew. According to travellers who visited Shusha at the end of 18th-early 19th centuries the town had about 2,000 houses and approximately 10,000 population. In summer 1795, Shusha was subjected to a major attack by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , son of Mohammad Hassan Khan who had attacked Shusha in 1752. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's goal
35898-436: Was sent to Mazandaran with his family. Shahrokh died at Damghan due to the injuries he had suffered during his torture. Agha Mohammad Khan restored Iran to a unity it had not had since Karim Khan . He reunited the territory of contemporary Iran and the Caucasus region which had been part of the concept of Iran for centuries. He was, however, a man of extreme violence who killed almost all who could threaten his hold on power,
36091-422: Was still the governor of Isfahan, left the city before Taqi Khan could reach it and defeated the latter. Agha Mohammad Khan then went southwards once again. He met Jafar Qoli Khan at Isfahan in 1788, and after some time, made Taqi Khan accept Qajar suzerainty, and thereafter punished some Qashqai tribes, who fled into the mountains. Agha Mohammad Khan then approached Shiraz, where he hoped to bait Jafar Khan out of
36284-565: Was the first Iranian ruler to make Tehran—the successor to the great city of Ray —his capital, although both the Safavids and the Zands had expanded the town and built palaces there. One of the main reasons noted for moving the capital farther south was to remain in close reach of Azarbaijan and Iran's integral Caucasian territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus, at that time not yet ceded to Imperial Russia , their fate in
36477-404: Was the founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran , ruling from 1789 to 1797 as Shah . Originally a chieftain of the Quwanlu branch of the Qajar tribe , Agha Mohammad Khan was enthroned as the king of Iran in 1789, but was not officially crowned until March 1796, having deposed Lotf Ali Khan of the Zand dynasty in 1794. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar was famously the eunuch Monarch, being castrated as
36670-422: Was to be decided at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference . Trusting Thomson, Andranik left, and British troops occupied Karabakh. The British command provisionally affirmed Sultanov (appointed by the Azerbaijani government) as the governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur , pending the final decision by the Paris Peace Conference. Ethnic conflict began to erupt in the region. Оn 5 June 1919, 600 Armenian inhabitants of
36863-521: Was to end with the feudal fragmentation and to restore the old Safavid State in Iran. By early 1795, he had already secured mainland Iran and was directly afterwards poised to bring the entire Caucasus region back within the Iranian domains. For this purpose he also wanted to proclaim himself Shah of Iran. However, according to the Safavid tradition, the shah had to take control over the whole of South Caucasus and Dagestan before his coronation. Therefore,
37056-547: Was translated into more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century, Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku , Ganja , Shaki , Tbilisi , and Yerevan . Since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia . In 2018, Azerbaijani language and literature programs are offered in the United States at several universities, including Indiana University , UCLA , and University of Texas at Austin . The vast majority, if not all Azerbaijani language courses teach North Azerbaijani written in
37249-454: Was willing to have Karabakh secured by this agreement for now, for he and his army subsequently moved further. In 1797, Agha Mohammad Shah Qajar, having successfully resubjugated Georgia and the wider Caucasus and having declared himself shah, decided to carry out a second attack on Karabakh. Trying to avenge his previous humiliating defeat, Agha Mohammad Shah devastated the surrounding villages near Shusha. The population had not recovered from
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