TWO CHRONICLES ON THE HISTORY OF KARABAGH

Introduction and Translation by George A. Bournoutian

From the beginning of the seventeenth century until the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) the region of Transcaucasia was nominally under Persian control. The Christians (Armenians and Georgians) and Muslims (Persians, as well as various Turkic and Kurdish people) lived under the rule of Muslim khans, Georgian princes, and Armenian meliks. The majority of Persian primary sources are chiefly concerned with the political history of Persia proper during the Safavid, Afshar, Zand, and Qajar periods. The region of Karabagh, as well as the rest of Transcaucasia, is, for the most part, allotted a cursory paragraph by the main Persian chroniclers. A number of local historians, however, have focused on the history of the various regions of Transcaucasia. Two such histories, Tarikh-e Karabagh and Karabagh-name, both written in the first half of the nineteenth century, deal with the Khanate of Karabagh. They are translated here in their entirety, supplemented by material from three other local sources, which detail the history of Karabagh and its surrounding khanates. Together, they provide new information on the history of Persia (Iran), Georgia, eastern Armenia, eastern Transcaucasia (present-day Azerbaijan), the Ottoman Empire, and Russia from 1736 to 1828.

Mazda Publishing (2004)