Fath Ali Shah Qajar at the Battle of Iravan (Erivan)

by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Created: 12 April, 2026

Azeri Turk Fath Ali Shah Qajar's victory over the Russians at the fortress of Iravan

(city-fortress of Iravan, Qajar's Azerbaijani Iravan Khanate, now Yerevan, Armenia)

Qajar-era Royal court painter Mirza Baba's depiction of Fath Ali Shah's victory over the Russians at Iravan
(First Siege of Erivan), First Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813, painting, National Museum of Iran, Tehran

Portrait of Azeri Turk Fath Ali Shah Qajar, painting by Azeri Turk Mirza Qadim Iravani,
paper, watercolor, 1825-1875, National Museum of Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
http://www.visions.az/en/news/493/5ee054d8/

Azeri Turk Fath Ali Shah Qajar in full regals and
Crown Prince Abbas Mirza Qajar (at the shah's left hand side in a blue dress person),
painting, National Museum of Iran, Tehran 

Azeri Turk Crown Prince Abbas Mirza Qajar was a Commander of the Azerbaijani Army in the Caucasian front, First Russo-Iranian War 1804-1813.

Abbas Mirza (8 years old boy) accompanied his great-uncle Aga Muhammad Shah Qajar in his campaign to Shusha, Qarabagh khanate, present-day Azerbaijan. 

Azeri Turk Aga Muhammad Shah Qajar proclaimed Abbas Mirza as the official heir of the Qajar throne. 

Crown Prince Abbas Mirza's headquarter and his army's arsenal were in Tabriz, Azerbaijan, Qajar Empire. 

Abbas Mirza was only 15 years old when he was appointed as a commander of Azerbaijan's Army to fight the Russians. He was in charge of the defense of Azerbaijan and Caucasia's Azerbaijani khanates.

Notwithstanding his young age, Abbas Mirza demonstrated bravery and commanding skills. In the first siege of Iravan on 7 July 1804,  he, leading 10,000 man cavalry, attacked the Russian army's center and forced them to retreat. 

Crown Prince Abbas Mirza Qajar's portrait (1789-1833), 

Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;my;Mus21;2;en  

Later, on 10 July 1804, the freshly arrived troops under the personal command of Fath Ali Shah Qajar pushed the Russians from Iravan back to the previously stormed and occupied fortress of Ganjeh/Ganja, present-day Azerbaijan.

In 1805, the Crown Prince initiated a military reform (Nezam-e Jadid) in his army of Azerbaijan to bring it to the merit of the European discipline and military tactics.

Qajar's Azerbaijani fortress of Iravan (now Yerevan, Armenia),
completely destroyed by Russians/Soviets and Armenians
https://qerbiazerbaycan.com/en/sardars-fortress/

Palace (left upper corner) of Azeri Turk Hosein Qoli Khan Qajar,* Sardar of Iravan
and ruins of Iravan fortress, photo, 19th century (now Yerevan, Armenia),
palace and fortress demolished by Russians/Soviets and Armenians
https://irs-az.com/en/journal/no-52-2022/429

According to the Treaty of  Finckenstein of 1807 between Napoleon Bonaparte of France and Fath Ali Shah Qajar of Iran, French engineers upgraded the fortifications of Iravan, as well as the forts of Sardarabad and Urdubad (now Ordubad) in Nakhcivan, and built a new fort of Abbasabad (named in honor of Abbas Mirza, Crown Prince) on the bank of Aras river, present-day Azerbaijan.

In interlude between First and Second Russo-Iranian wars, the prince regent Abbas Mirza sent most talented students, as a part of establishing modern Nezam forces' program, to study modern military, weapons production, engineering, technology, languages and medicine abroad, in Britain particularly. He planned to establish a military college in Tabriz.

* In 1806-1828, Azeri Turk Hosein Qoli Khan Qajar, a close relative to Fath Ali Shah Qajar and one of the best commanders of the Shah's army, was a governor/ khan of Iravan khanate and held the title "Sardar Iravani". The regular garrison of Iravan fortress was about 3,000 men under Sardar Irevani command and 11 artillery pieces under Sardar Iravani's younger brother Azeri Turk Sari Aslan command.

Sources:

Maziar Behrooz, "Iran at War", 2023, London, I.B.TAURUS, 213.

National Museum of Iran, Tehran, available at: www.irannationalmuseum.ir

National Museum of Art, Baku, Azerbaijan, available at: https://nationalartmuseum.az/  

Virtual Western Azerbaijan, Baku, available at: https://qerbiazerbaycan.com/en/

Huseynov Rizvan, "Destroyed Iravan Fortress: Brief Overview of Historical Site in Yerevan", IRS-HERITAGE, 2022, Vol 52, p. 22-29, available at: 

https://irs-az.com/sites/default/files/2022-09/Heritage_52_2022%20small%20%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80.%2022%20-%2029.pdf

Tase Peter, "Abbasabad Fortress: Capturing the historical essence of Azerbaijan," Foreign Policy News, August 16, 2015, available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20170912003412/http://foreignpolicynews.org/2015/08/16/abbasabad-fortress-capturing-the-historical-essence-of-azerbaijan/

Portrait of Abbas Mirza Qajar, Islamic Art Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, available at: https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;my;Mus21;2;en

Lake of Gekcha / Sevanga / Sevan and Azerbaijani Iravan Khanate

by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Created:  September 29, 2024

Updated: May 05, 2025

Lake of Gekcha or Sevanga and Qajar's Azerbaijani Iravan Khanate,
Tsar Russia's Map of Transcaucasia in 1801 - 1813, published in Tiflis, 1901, Legend in Russian.

Imperial Russia's official map (1801-1813) shows the ceded by the Qajars (Azeri/Turk dynasty of Iran, Azerbaijani: Qacarlar) Iravan Khanate (Persian: Khānāt-e Iravān, Azerbaijani: Irəvan xanlığı, Russian: Erivanskoe xanstvo) and the Lake of Gekcha (Azerbaijani: Göyçə/Gökçe, Turkish: Kökçe)/ Sevanga that means blue water.

In Classical Antiquity, the lake was called Lychnitis Lacus, (Ancient Greek: Λυχνῖτις), meaning blue and transparent water.

The lake's name has a Sasanian origin and derives from Pahlavi (Middle Persian) Sivāng-e/ Sivān.

Notably, the name of the Hrazdan River (Pahlavi: Hurazdān, Azerbaijani/ Turkish: Zangi/ Zanga çay), which flows out from the lake, is derived from the Middle Persian name Frazdān, which is related to Zoroastrian mythology. Frazdān is the lake's name mentioned in the Avesta (Frazdānu). Frazdānu is composed of the elements "fraz“ elevated, high, and "dānu“ river. "

Lake of Gekcha or Sevanga

The Russified name Sevanga originates from the Middle Persian Sivāng-e. 

The Armenized name Sevan is a corrupted form of the Russified name Sevanga, which derives from the Middle Persian Sivāng-e.

Finally, American scholar James Robert Russell correctly mentioned that Armenian toponyms are borrowings from the Parthian Arsacid and Sasanian periods.

Lake of Gekcha or Sevanga, Erivan province map, Imperial Russia, 1886, Legend in Russian

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Ethnographic_map_of_the_Erivan_Governorate-1902.png

References:

- The Caucasian region in 1801- 1813, The Head-Quarter of Russia's Caucasian Military District, Tiflis, 1901, Legend in Russian, available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Map_of_Caucasus_1801.jpg

- Allen, William Edward David; Muratoff, Paul. "Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border 1828–1921", Cambridge University Press. 1953, p 9. ...Lake Sevan (A. Sevan; T. Gök-çay; 'Blue water')

- Bosworth C. E., “ARRĀN,” Encyclopedia Iranica, 1986, II/5, pp. 520-522, available online at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arran-a-region

-  Graesse, J. G., Orbis Latinus, "Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit Großausgabe", Band II, E – M, Braunschweig, 1972, vol. 2, p. 434, available at: 

https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0005/bsb00050913/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&seite=436&pdfseitex=

- Ghodrat-Dizaji M., Ādurbādagān During the Late Sasanian Period: A Study in Administrative Geography, Iran, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2010, Vol 48, Issue 1, 69-80, https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2010.11864774

- Marquart, J. 1901. "Ērānšahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenac‘i, mit historisch-kritischem Kommentar und historischen und topographischen Excursen, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin.

- Minorsky, V., “Caucasica IV,” BSOAS 15, 1953, pp. 504-29.

- Russell, J.R.,  “Armeno-Iranica,” in D. Bivar and J. Hinnells, eds., Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce (Acta Iranica 25), Leiden, 1985, pp. 447-458 https://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Armenian/armeno-iranica.pdf

- Semenov, Petr Petrovič (1873). "Geografičesko-statističeskij slovarʹ Rossijskoj Imperii: Pavasterort – Sjatra-Kasy", Volume 4 (in Russian). Bezobrazov i komp. p. 532. "Sevanga, ozero, Erivanskoi gubernii, Novobayazetskogo uezda", sm Gokchinskoe, (Севанга, озеро, Эриванской г-іи, Новобаязетскаго у.; см. Гокчинское)

- Woods, John E."The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire", University of Utah Press, 1999,  pp 352. "...Lake Gökçe (Sevan) in Armenia...”

- Map of the khanate of Erivan in 1809-1817, available online at: https://picryl.com/media/khanate-of-eriwan-in-1809-1817-d371ef

- Map of Russia's Military Operations in Transcaucasia from 1809 till 1817, showing local borders under the Treaties of Gulistan and Bucharest, (Карта военных действий в Закавказском крае с 1809 по 1817 год, с границами по Голистанскому договору и Бухарестсткому миру), available online at: https://runivers.ru/upload/iblock/558/174748.png

- Gokcha/ Sevanga, 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica/Gokcha, available online at:  https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Gokcha 

- The lake Gókdje Deniz, or Sevanga to the NW. of Erivan, available online at: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=lychnitis-geo

- Maziar Behrooz, "Iran at War", 2023, London, I.B.TAURUS, 213.

Azerbaijani Erivan Khanate Flag (Khan's Standard)

by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh

Created:  September 28, 2024

Updated: March 28, 2025

Azerbaijani Erivan Khanate's Flag (Khan's Standard), National Museum of History, Baku, Azerbaijan

The Flag (Khan's Standard) of Qajar's Azerbaijani Khanate of Erivan (Persian: خانات ایروان, Khānāt-e Iravān, Azerbaijani: Irəvan xanlığı, present-day Armenia). 

The Khanate of Erivan was ceded to Imperial Russia by the Qajars (r. 1789-1925, Turk/Azeri dynasty) of Iran under the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828 (Persian: عهدنامه ترکمانچای, Ahdnāme-ye Torkmânčây,

Azerbaijani: Türkmənçay müqaviləsi).

Administrative division of  Azerbaijan's Khanate of Erivan, 1820

Later, Russia (Tsar's Order N1888 of March 21, 1828) created the so-called Armenian Oblast (province), which existed from 1828 to 1840. 

The Erivan Khanate was mostly populated by Azeri Turks up to 80%, whereas Christian Monophysites Armenians formed less than 20%.

Iravan Khanate's Sardar Flag, National Museum of History, Baku, Azerbaijan 

Iravan Khanate Flag, National Museum of History, Baku, Azerbaijan 

Source:

- Museum of History of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan, http://azhistorymuseum.gov.az/en/

- Ministry of Defense, Baku, Azerbaijan, mod.gov.az/en/the-history-of-iravan-410/

- Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (PDF). Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300153088, available at:  https://abkhazworld.com/aw/Pdf/Atlas_of_the_Ethno-Political_History_of_the_Caucasus.pdf

- The Compilation of Public Laws of the Russian Empire (Полное собрание законов Российской империи), Vol 3., № 1888, p. 272—273, available at: http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/264-t-3-1828-ot-1677-do-2574-1830#mode/inspect/page/276/zoom/4