| native_name = {{lang|fa|خانات ایروان}}<br /> Xānāt{{transliteration|fa|Khānāt-e Iravān}}

| common_languages = [[Persian language|Persian]] (official), [[ArmenianAzerbaijani language|ArmenianAzerbaijani]] (majority), [[AzerbaijaniArmenian language|AzerbaijaniArmenian]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]]

| image_map = ErevanKhanateMap of the Erivan Khanate in 1820.gifsvg

| image_map_caption = The Erivan Khanate c.in 1800.1820

The '''Erivan Khanate'''{{efn|Also spelled as "Iravan Khanate" or "Erevan Khanate"}} ({{lang-langx|fa|خانات ایروان|translit=XānātKhānāt-e Iravān}}; {{lang-hy|Երեւանի խանութիւն|translit=Yerevani xanut'iwn}}; {{lang-az|ایروان خانلیغی|translit=İrəvan xanlığı}}), also known as '''{{Transliteration|fa|italic=no|Chokhur-e Sa'd}}''',{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}}{{efn|The comparable administrative entity of the [[Safavid dynastyIran|Safavid]] era, the [[Erivan Province (Safavid EmpireIran)|Erivan Province]], was also known as {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}}.{{sfn|Floor|2008|pages=86, 170}}}} was a [[Khanates of the Caucasus|khanate]] (i.e., province) that was established in [[Afsharid dynasty|Afsharid Iran]] in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 &nbsp;km²,{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}} and corresponded to most of present-day central [[Armenia]], the [[Iğdır Province]] and the [[Kars Province]]'s [[Kağızman]] district in present-day [[Turkey]] and the [[Sharur District|Sharur]] and [[Sadarak District|Sadarak]] districts of the [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic]] of present-day [[Azerbaijan]].

Under Iranian rule, the kings (''[[shah]]s'') appointed various governors to preside over their domains, thus creating an administrative center. These governors usually carried the title of "[[khan (title)|khan]]" or "[[beglarbeg]]",<ref>{{harvnb|Bournoutian|1992|page=xxiii}}. "The term khanate refers to an area that was '''governed by hereditary or appointed governors with the title of khan or beglerbegi who performed a military and/or administrative function for the central government'''. By the nineteenth century, there were nine such khanates in Transcaucasia (...)"</ref> as well as the title of [[sardār]] (“chief”). Prior to the establishment of the khanate (i.e., province),<ref>{{harvnb|Bournoutian|1980|pages=1–2}}. "During the eighteenth century, Persian Armenia was composed of the provincial boundaries or Khanates (subdivided into Mahals) of Erevan and Nakhchivan (...)"</ref> the Iranians had used the [[Erivan Province (Safavid Iran)|Erivan Province]] (also known as {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}}) to govern roughly the same area. Both the Safavid era province, as well as the administrative entity of the [[Zand dynasty|Zand]] and [[Qajar dynastyIran|Qajar]] era, were alternatively known by the name of {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}}.{{sfn|Floor|2008|pages=86, 170}}{{efn|The name {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}} ({{lang|fa|چخور سعد}}) derives from the name of a 14th-century Turkic tribal leader, Amir Sa'd, whose followers were called ''Sa'dlu'' and settled in the plain of Surmalu and nearby areas in the territory of the future Erivan Khanate. Thus, the area where they settled was called {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}} (the first word is [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] {{lang|az|çuxur}} {{gloss|pit, hole}}), meaning 'Sa'd's pit/hole'{{Sfn|Papazian|1960|p=25}} or 'vale of Sa'd'.{{Sfn|Bournoutian|1982|p=7}} The term initially indicated a much smaller area than the territory of the future province. The contemporary Armenian equivalent of this name was {{transliteration|hy|Sahata pos}} 'Sa'd's pit' or {{transliteration|hy|Yerkirn Sahatu}} 'Sa'd's land'. In 16-17th-century Persian sources, {{Transliteration|fa|Chokhur-e Sa'd}} was poetically reinterpreted as meaning 'happy pit'.{{Sfn|Papazian|1960|p=25}}}}

In the Qajar era, members of the royal [[Qajar dynasty]] were appointed as governors of the Erivan khanateKhanate, until the Russian occupation in 1828.<ref name="Bournoutian 2002 p. 215">{{harvnb|Bournoutian|20022006|page=215218}}. "'''Iranians''', in order to save the rest of eastern Armenia, heavily subsidized the region '''and appointed a capable governor, Hosein Qoli Khan, to administer it'''."</ref> The heads of the provincial government of the Erivan Khanate were thus directly related to the central ruling dynasty.{{sfn|Bournoutian|2004|pages=519–520}} Administratively, the khanate was divided into fifteen administrative districts called ''[[mahalle|maḥal]]s'' with Persian as its official language.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Swietochowski|first1=Tadeusz|author-link = Tadeusz Swietochowski|title=Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521522458|page=12|quote=(...) and Persian continued to be the official language of the judiciary and the local administration [even after the abolishment of the khanates].}}<!--|access-date=3 December 2015--></ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Pavlovich|first1=Petrushevsky Ilya|title=Essays on the history of feudal relations in Armenia and Azerbaijan in XVI - the beginning of XIX centuries|date=1949|publisher=LSU them. Zhdanov|page=7|quote=(...) The language of official acts not only in Iran proper and its fully dependant Khanates, but also in those Caucasian khanates that were semi-independent until the time of their accession to the Russian Empire, and even for some time after, '''was New Persian (Farsi).''' It played the role of the literary language of class feudal lords as well.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Homa|last=Katouzian|title= Iranian history and politics|publisher=Routledge|date=2003|page=128|isbn=978-0415297547|quote=Indeed, since the formation of the Ghaznavids state in the tenth century until the fall of Qajars at the beginning of the twentieth century, most parts of the Iranian cultural regions were ruled by Turkic-speaking dynasties most of the time. At the same time, the official language was Persian, the court literature was in Persian, and most of the chancellors, ministers, and mandarins were Persian speakers of the highest learning and ability.}}</ref> The local bureaucracy was modeled on that of the central government, located in [[Tehran]].<ref name="Bournoutian 1982 p. 86">{{harvnb|Bournoutian|1982|page=86}}. "The Khan Hosein Qoli Khan's '''efficient administration''' soon transformed the region. He '''modeled his bureaucracy on that of the <u>central government</u>''', dividing power between tribal and settled groups (...) In essence '''the Erevan administration, like its counterpart in Tehran''', was organized into three branches (...)"</ref>

Together with the [[Nakchivan Khanate]], the area made up part of [[Iranian Armenia (1502–1828)|Iranian Armenia]] (also known as Persian Armenia).{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=1–2}}{{efn|[[Ordubad]] was added by the central government to the Nakhchivan Khanate in the early 19th century.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=2}}}} The Erivan Khanate made up the bulk of Iranian Armenia.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=1-2, 10, 13}} The remaining fringes of historic Armenia under Iranian rule were part of the [[Karabakh Khanate|Karabakh]] and [[Ganja Khanate|Ganja Khanates]]s as well as the [[Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti]].{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=1–2}}

Hoseyn Ali Khan died in 1783 and was succeeded by his son [[Gholam Ali-khan|Gholam Ali]], who was assassinated soon after; andhe was succeeded by his younger brother [[Mohammad Khan Qajar of Erivan|Mohammad Khan]].{{Sfn|Hakobyan|1971|p=122}} Like some of the other khans of the Caucasus, Mohammad Khan sought to make contact with [[Russian Empire|Russia]] in the aftermath of the [[Treaty of Georgievsk]].{{Sfn|Bournoutian|2021|p=264}} In 1794–95, [[Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar]] campaigned to restore central authority in the region. He received the submission of the khanates and forcibly subjugated Georgia.{{Sfn|Bournoutian|1997|p=93}} He had Mohammad Khan arrested and appointed his own brother [[Ali-Qoli Khan Qajar|Ali Qoli Khan]] to the position, although Agha Mohammad Khan's successor [[Fath-Ali Shah Qajar|Fath-Ali]] ({{Reign|1797|1834}}) reinstated Mohammad Khan after taking the throne.{{Sfn|Bournoutian|2021|p=264}} During the Qajar period, the city of Erivan was considered to be quite prosperous.{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}} After the [[Russian Empire|Russians]] annexed [[Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti|Kartli-Kakheti]] and initiated the [[Russo-Persian War (1804–1813)|Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813]], Erivan became, "once more", a center of the Iranian defenses in the Caucasus.{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}}

Per article III of the [[Treaty of Turkmenchay]], the Iranians had to give the tax records of the lost territories in the Caucasus to the Russians.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=2}} However, these records only represented the families that lived in these territories, as well as tax quotas ("''būniche"''), and thus were not an "accurate count" of the number of people that lived in these provinces, including Iranian Armenia.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=2}}

|[[Armenians]]{{efn|Number includes the "few [[Lom people|Gypsies of Erevan]]".{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=63}}}}

After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in more than four centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=14}} Some 35,000 Muslims of over 100,000 emigrated from the region, while some 57,000 Armenians from Iran and Turkey (see also; [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)|Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829]]) arrived after 1828.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=11–13}} Due to these new significant demographic shifts, in 1832, the number of Armenians had matched that of the Muslims.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=12–13}} Anyhow, it would be only after the [[Crimean War]] and the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878]], which brought another influx of Turkish Armenians, that ethnic Armenians once again established a solid majority in Eastern Armenia.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=13}} Nevertheless, the city of Erivan remained having a Muslim majority up to the twentieth century.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=13}} According to the ''[[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]]'', published in the final few decades of the Russian Empire, Russians made up 2 %, Armenians 48 % and Aderbeijani Tatars{{efn|The term "Tatars", employed by the Russians, referred to [[Turkic languages|Turkish-speaking]] Muslims (Shia and [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]]) of [[Transcaucasia]].<ref name="BournoutianTatarMuslim">{{cite book |last1=Bournoutian |first1=George |author1-link=George Bournoutian |title=Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914 |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |page=35 (note 25)}}</ref> Unlike Armenians and [[Georgians]], the Tatars did not have their own alphabet and used the [[Persian alphabet|Perso-Arabic script]].<ref name="BournoutianTatarMuslim"/> After 1918 with the establishment of the [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic]], and "especially during the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] era", the Tatar group identified itself as "[[Azerbaijanis|Azerbaijani]]".<ref name="BournoutianTatarMuslim"/> Prior to 1918 the word "[[Azerbaijan (toponym)|Azerbaijan]]" exclusively referred to the [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Iranian province of Azarbayjan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bournoutian |first1=George |author1-link=George Bournoutian |title=Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914 |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |page=xiv}}</ref>}} 49 % of the population of Erivan in the 1890s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Erivan |publisher=Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary |url=http://gatchina3000.ru/brockhaus-and-efron-encyclopedic-dictionary/119/119478.htm}}</ref> According to the traveler [[H. F. B. Lynch]], the city of Erivan was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim in the early 1890s.{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}} [[H. F. B. Lynch]] thought that some among the Muslims were Persians when he visited the city within the same decade.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=H. F. B. |title=Armenia: Travels and Studies. Volume I: The Russian Provinces |date=1901 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |location=London |page=225 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/51492/pg51492-images.html}}</ref> Whereas according to modern historians George Bournoutian and [[Robert H. Hewsen]], Lynch thought many were Persian.{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542-551}}

The Persians were the elite in the region, and were part of the settled population.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=3}} The term "Persians" in this specific matter refers to the ruling hierarchy of the khanate, and does not necessarily denote the ethnic composition of the group.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=15}} There were thus ethnic "Persians" and "Turks" among the ruling "Persian" elite of the khanate.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=15}} This ruling elite were primarily the members of the governors' household, his close associates, the officer corps, the members of the local Persian bureaucracy, and some of the prosperous merchants.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=49}} The Persian ruling elite was a minority among the Muslims in the khanate.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=15}} During the 1826–1828 war, which lead to the Russian conquest, a number of the Persian ruling elite was killed; the remaining number, basically migrated "''"[[in toto]]"''" to Iran proper after the Russians decisively gained control of the province.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=3}}{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=49}}{{efn|Indeed, in his 1840 review of the statistical data in the "Overview of Russian Domain in the Transcaucasus" published in 1837, in response to the listing of Persians as an ethnic group residing in the Armenian Oblast, Ivan Chopin notes that there were no "Persians" in the province and that the Muslim population there was of either [[Turkics|Turkic]] or [[Kurds|Kurdish]] stock.<ref>Ivan Chopin (1840). Нѣкоторыя замѣчания на книгу Обозрѣние российских владѣний за Кавказом; p. 6: "В Армянской области персиян вовсе нет. Тамошнее мусульманское народонаселение имеет происхождение татарское или курдинское", p. 111: "Ни одного персиянина нет в области".</ref>}}

The Turkics{{efn|Also variously referred to as "Turko-Tatars" or "Turks".{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=1–17}}}} were the largest group in the khanate, but they were composed of three branches; settled, semi-settled, and nomadic.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=3}} Similar to the Persian ruling elite, a number of them had perished in the 1826–1828 war against the Russians.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=3}} The principal settled Turkic groups in the khanate were the [[Bayat (tribe)|Bayat]], [[Kangarlu tribe|Kangarlu]], [[Ayrumlu]], Ak Koyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu, [[Qajars (tribe)|Qajars]], as well as the "Turkified Qazzaqs" (i.e., [[Karapapakh]]).{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=4, 15}} A large number of the Turkic groups, numbering some 35,000, were some sort of nomads.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=4}} Alike the Kurds, some of the Turkic groups had specific areas where they moved to for summer and winter.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|page=4}} The Turkic nomads were important to the local Persian governors for their animal husbandry, handicrafts and horses which they provided for the cavalry.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1980|pages=5–6}} The settled Turkics made up a large percentage of the workers in the agricultural sector.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=50}} Together with the Kurds, the nomadic Turkic groups used about half the territory of the khanate for their pastoral way of life.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=51}} There was rivalry between the leading Turkic groups.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=53}} Due to the nomadic nature of many of the Turkic groups, they were located in many of the districts. They were abundantly presented in the central and northern parts of the khanate, where they "controlled the marginal grazing lands".{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=53}} There was a traditional sense of hostility between the Turkic nomads and the Kurds.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|page=53}} The Karapapakh and the Ayrumlu were the largest Turkic nomad groups; most of them were resettled in [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Azerbaijan]] (historic Azerbaijan, also known as ''Iranian Azerbaijan'') with the help of [[Abbas Mirza]], after 1828.{{sfn|Bournoutian|1992|pages=53–54}}

Armenians in the territory of the Khanate lived under the immediate jurisdiction of the ''[[melik]]'' of Erivan, froma theposition Househeld by members of the Melik-Aghamalyan family,. whoThe ''melik'' of Erivan had the sole right to govern themthe Armenians of the khanate with the authorization of the shah. The inception of the melikdom of Erivan appears only after the end of [[Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639)|the last Ottoman–Safavid War]] in 1639 and seems to have been a part of an overall administrative reorganization in [[Iranian Armenia (1502–1828)|Iranian Armenia]] after a long period of wars and invasions. The first known member of the family is a certain Melik Gilan but the first certain holder of the title of "melik of Erivan" was Melik Aghamal, and it may be from him that the house had taken its surname. One of his successors, Melik-Hakob-Jan, attended the coronation of Nader Shah in the [[Mughan plain]] in 1736.{{sfn|Kettenhofen|Bournoutian|Hewsen|1998|pages=542–551}}

Azerbaijani historiography regards the Erivan Khanate as an "Azerbaijani state" which was populated by autochthonous Azerbaijani Turks, and its soil is sacralised, as Broers adds, "as the burial ground of semi-mythological figures from the Turkic pantheon".{{sfn|Broers|2019|page=117}} In the process of employing historical negationism, it has undergone the same type of transformation within Azerbaijani historiography like the historic entity of [[Caucasian Albania]] before it.{{sfn|Broers|2019|page=117}} Within Azerbaijani historiography, the terms "Azerbaijani Turk" and "Muslim" are used interchangeably when dealing with the Erivan Khanate, even though contemporary demographic surveys differentiate "Muslims" into Persians, Shia and Sunni Kurds and Turkic tribes.{{sfn|Broers|2019|page=117}}

* {{cite journal|last1=Bournoutianconference |first1first=George A. |last=Bournoutian |author-link=George A. Bournoutian |title=The Population of Persian Armenia Prior to and Immediately Following its Annexation to the Russian Empire: 1826–1832 |conference=Nationalism and Social Change in Transcaucasia |date=24–25 April 1980 |publisherlocation=TheWashington, D.C. |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-population-persian-armenia-prior-to-and-immediately-following-its-annexation-to-the|publisher=Wilson Center, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies}}

* {{Cite book |last=Bournoutian |first=George A. |title=The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century |publisher=Macmillan |year=1997 |isbn=0-333-61974-9 |editor-last=Hovannisian |editor-first=Richard |editor-link=Richard G. Hovannisian |location= |pages=81-10781–107 |chapter=Eastern Armenia from the Seventeenth Century to the Russian Annexation}}

* {{Cite book |last=Hakobyan |first=T῾T. |title=ErewaniErevani patmut῾yunəpatmutʻyuně (1500—1800 t῾t῾tʻtʻ.) |publisher=ErewaniErevani hamalsarani hratarakč῾ut῾yunhratarakchʻutʻyun |year=1971 |language=hy |trans-title=History of Yerevan (1500–1800) |oclc=582481141 |author-link=Tadevos Hakobyan}}

* {{Encyclopaedia Iranica | article = EREVANErevan | last = Kettenhofen | first = Erich | last2 = Bournoutian | first2 = George A. | last3 = Hewsen | first3 = Robert H. | author-link3 = Robert H. Hewsen | volume = 8 | fascicle = 5 | pages = 542–551 | url = https://iranicaonline.org/articles/erevan-1 }}