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THE 1823 RUSSIAN SURVEY OF THE KARABAGH PROVINCE
http://www.mazdapublisher.com/BookDetails.aspx?BookID=300
Sep 22, 2011
George A. Bournoutian History
A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of Karabagh in the
First Half of the 19th Century
Description On May 14 (26), 1805 General Paul Tsitsianov, the
Russian commander in the Caucasus, and Ebrahim Khan of Karabagh
signed a treaty, by which the Karabagh Province became a Russian
protectorate. Ebrahim Khan promised to be a loyal subject of the
Russian Emperor, to pay an annual tribute of 8,000 gold rubles to
the treasury in Tiflis, and to send a son and a grandson as hostages
to Tiflis. In exchange, Russia promised that Ebrahim Khan and his
progeny would continue as the khans of Karabagh and that local rule,
including the courts and administration, as well as the taxes would
remain under Ebrahim Khan's jurisdiction.
On the night of June 2 (14), 1806, a group of Russian soldiers
killed Ebrahim Khan, after he had reportedly resubmitted to Fath
`Ali Shah of Iran and had left Shushi to join the Iranian army. The
Russians appointed Mahdiqoli, a son of Ebrahim Khan, as the new Khan
of Karabagh. He promised to abide by the articles of the 1805 treaty.
On November 21 (December 2) 1822 Mahdiqoli Khan fled to
Iran. Taking advantage of the situation, General Alexei Ermolov, the
Commander-in-Chief of Georgia, Astrakhan, and the Caucasus, declared
the 1805 treaty null and void. He terminated the protectorate and, on
December 26 (January 7, 1823) sent a letter to Count Victor Kochubei,
the Minister of Internal Affairs, stating that Karabagh was now
incorporated into the Russian Empire.
In order to enumerate the population of Karabagh and ascertain the
revenues collected by the Khan, Ermolov, on January 13 (25), 1823,
ordered State Counselor Paul I. Mogilevskii and Colonel Ermolov II
to conduct a detailed survey of the Karabagh Province. On April 17
(29) 1823, they presented their findings in thirty-five registers to
the Municipal Council in Shushi, and on May 2 (14) to General Ermolov
in Tiflis.
The survey, titled The Description of the Karabagh Province, compiled
in 1823, was eventually published in 1866 by the printing house of
the Viceroy of the Caucasus in Tiflis. The number of copies printed
must have been very few, for it, as well as the previous surveys
conducted in the Sheki (Shakki) Province by Mogilevskii and General
F. Akhverdov in 1819, and in the Shirvan Province, by Mogilevskii and
General V. Madatov in 1820, both of which were also printed in 1866 in
Tiflis, soon became rarities. To our knowledge, with the exception of
I. P. Petrushevskii, no serious scholar of 19th-century Transcaucasia
or Iran has mined the valuable information contained in these surveys.
As a historian of the various khanates of Transcaucasia and Iran,
Prof. George Bournoutian had been very interested in examining
this survey for many years. Although he was told that it contained
information about the Armenians of Karabagh, his main interest was
the data on land tenure and taxation of another khanate which had been
under Iranian rule, but which had developed its own unique system of
land tenure and taxation, prior to its incorporation into the Russian
Empire. His interest in the region began as a graduate student, when he
chose the social and economic history of the Khanate of Erevan under
Iranian suzerainty as his doctoral subject. The survey conducted in
the Erevan Province immediately after the Russian annexation revealed
unique data on the administration, land tenure and taxation of the
khanate during the rule of its last Khan, Hoseynqoli, and added a
great deal of new information to our knowledge of the region.
The author, therefore, sought the 1823 survey printed in 1866 for
many years. Although he had been able to obtain a number of Xerox
copies from Armenia and Georgia, they were incomplete and poorly
reproduced. Finally, in 2003, he was delighted to learn that a new
edition, numbering only 500 copies, had appeared in Baku. However,
instead of printing a facsimile of the original, the production team
had decided to reformat the entire text. In doing so, they not only had
made numerous spelling and typographic errors, but had also omitted
important data, some of which appear to have been intentional. The
editors had not bothered to explain the invaluable data on the
administration, land tenure and taxation of Karabagh prior to its
annexation to Russia. One would have hoped that in reformatting the
entire text, the editor or some other scholar would have researched
the many terms and presented a true picture of the socioeconomic
conditions of Karabagh under the last Khan.
The present work is an accurate translation of the original survey,
which was obtained with the help of Vadim Gomoz from the Moscow
Library. It details the revenues collected from the city of Shushi, as
well as each district of Karabagh in 1822. Prof. Bournoutian explains
the various taxes collected and the types of land tenure prevalent
at the time. He also indicates the number of Armenians, Tatars,
and nomadic families, which inhabited each district in the region.
Finally he analyzes the data and provides an accurate picture of
the demography and economic conditions of Karabagh prior to its
incorporation into the Russian Empire and an important addition to
the history of the region under Iranian rule. The present study will
finally put to rest the claims that Armenian arrived in Karabagh only
after 1828.
http://www.mazdapublisher.com/BookDetails.aspx?BookID=300
Sep 22, 2011
George A. Bournoutian History
A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of Karabagh in the
First Half of the 19th Century
Description On May 14 (26), 1805 General Paul Tsitsianov, the
Russian commander in the Caucasus, and Ebrahim Khan of Karabagh
signed a treaty, by which the Karabagh Province became a Russian
protectorate. Ebrahim Khan promised to be a loyal subject of the
Russian Emperor, to pay an annual tribute of 8,000 gold rubles to
the treasury in Tiflis, and to send a son and a grandson as hostages
to Tiflis. In exchange, Russia promised that Ebrahim Khan and his
progeny would continue as the khans of Karabagh and that local rule,
including the courts and administration, as well as the taxes would
remain under Ebrahim Khan's jurisdiction.
On the night of June 2 (14), 1806, a group of Russian soldiers
killed Ebrahim Khan, after he had reportedly resubmitted to Fath
`Ali Shah of Iran and had left Shushi to join the Iranian army. The
Russians appointed Mahdiqoli, a son of Ebrahim Khan, as the new Khan
of Karabagh. He promised to abide by the articles of the 1805 treaty.
On November 21 (December 2) 1822 Mahdiqoli Khan fled to
Iran. Taking advantage of the situation, General Alexei Ermolov, the
Commander-in-Chief of Georgia, Astrakhan, and the Caucasus, declared
the 1805 treaty null and void. He terminated the protectorate and, on
December 26 (January 7, 1823) sent a letter to Count Victor Kochubei,
the Minister of Internal Affairs, stating that Karabagh was now
incorporated into the Russian Empire.
In order to enumerate the population of Karabagh and ascertain the
revenues collected by the Khan, Ermolov, on January 13 (25), 1823,
ordered State Counselor Paul I. Mogilevskii and Colonel Ermolov II
to conduct a detailed survey of the Karabagh Province. On April 17
(29) 1823, they presented their findings in thirty-five registers to
the Municipal Council in Shushi, and on May 2 (14) to General Ermolov
in Tiflis.
The survey, titled The Description of the Karabagh Province, compiled
in 1823, was eventually published in 1866 by the printing house of
the Viceroy of the Caucasus in Tiflis. The number of copies printed
must have been very few, for it, as well as the previous surveys
conducted in the Sheki (Shakki) Province by Mogilevskii and General
F. Akhverdov in 1819, and in the Shirvan Province, by Mogilevskii and
General V. Madatov in 1820, both of which were also printed in 1866 in
Tiflis, soon became rarities. To our knowledge, with the exception of
I. P. Petrushevskii, no serious scholar of 19th-century Transcaucasia
or Iran has mined the valuable information contained in these surveys.
As a historian of the various khanates of Transcaucasia and Iran,
Prof. George Bournoutian had been very interested in examining
this survey for many years. Although he was told that it contained
information about the Armenians of Karabagh, his main interest was
the data on land tenure and taxation of another khanate which had been
under Iranian rule, but which had developed its own unique system of
land tenure and taxation, prior to its incorporation into the Russian
Empire. His interest in the region began as a graduate student, when he
chose the social and economic history of the Khanate of Erevan under
Iranian suzerainty as his doctoral subject. The survey conducted in
the Erevan Province immediately after the Russian annexation revealed
unique data on the administration, land tenure and taxation of the
khanate during the rule of its last Khan, Hoseynqoli, and added a
great deal of new information to our knowledge of the region.
The author, therefore, sought the 1823 survey printed in 1866 for
many years. Although he had been able to obtain a number of Xerox
copies from Armenia and Georgia, they were incomplete and poorly
reproduced. Finally, in 2003, he was delighted to learn that a new
edition, numbering only 500 copies, had appeared in Baku. However,
instead of printing a facsimile of the original, the production team
had decided to reformat the entire text. In doing so, they not only had
made numerous spelling and typographic errors, but had also omitted
important data, some of which appear to have been intentional. The
editors had not bothered to explain the invaluable data on the
administration, land tenure and taxation of Karabagh prior to its
annexation to Russia. One would have hoped that in reformatting the
entire text, the editor or some other scholar would have researched
the many terms and presented a true picture of the socioeconomic
conditions of Karabagh under the last Khan.
The present work is an accurate translation of the original survey,
which was obtained with the help of Vadim Gomoz from the Moscow
Library. It details the revenues collected from the city of Shushi, as
well as each district of Karabagh in 1822. Prof. Bournoutian explains
the various taxes collected and the types of land tenure prevalent
at the time. He also indicates the number of Armenians, Tatars,
and nomadic families, which inhabited each district in the region.
Finally he analyzes the data and provides an accurate picture of
the demography and economic conditions of Karabagh prior to its
incorporation into the Russian Empire and an important addition to
the history of the region under Iranian rule. The present study will
finally put to rest the claims that Armenian arrived in Karabagh only
after 1828.