The province of Karabakh (also spelled Qarabagh; ) was a north-western province of the Safavid Iran, centered on the geographic region of Karabakh.
The governorship of Karabakh was generally held by a member of the Qajars, one of the Qizilbash tribes. Its highlands were controlled by the five Armenian melikdoms.
History These provinces were headed by the shah's governors-general, who were called beglarbegs, or at other times hakems. The main urban center of the province of Karabakh was the city of Ganja. The first Safavid governor of Karabakh (hakem) was Piri Beg Qajar, and was appointed as such in 1501. Shahverdi-Sultan, from the Ziyadoglu clan of the Qajar tribe, was appointed by Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576) in 1554.
Administration Under the Safavids, Karabakh was part of the mamalek ("state lands"), a form of the iqta' that had been used by the Buyid dynasty (934–1062). It was a type of prebendalism in which lands were given away as fiefs to tribal military forces, thus demonstrating the Safavids' reliance on them to protect the country. Due to its more exposed position as a frontier province, Qarabagh continued to remain mamalek land to maintain more security, in contrast to some other provinces which were transformed into khasseh ("crown lands"). The Qizilbash chieftains were rewarded with mamalek land in exchange for their military alertness and for paying limited defined sum every year. The governorship of Karabakh was generally held by a member of the Qizilbash Qajar tribe.
The plains of Karabakh were dominated by nomadic Turkic tribes, who moved to the hillsides in search of suitable pastures throughout the summer. The highlands of Karabakh were dominated by Armenian meliks (princes), who had established five melikdoms (Dizak, Gulistan, Jraberd, Khachen and Varanda) that ruled in Karabakh from the 16th-century to the 18th-century. These Armenian-ruled principalities, which upheld the notion of Armenian statehood, were used by the Safavids to fight the Ottoman Empire.
In the end of the Safavid era, the Karabakh Province consisted of the districts of Zagam, Barda, Akhtabad, Javanshir, Bargushat, Qara-Aghach (Q'araghaji in Signagi municipality), Lori-Pambak, Arasbar-Bayazidlu and Somay-Tergever.
List of governors This is a list of the known figures who governed Karabakh or parts of it. Beglerbegi and hakem were administrative titles designating the governor.
Date Governor Observations1501–1512? Piri Beg Qajar Hakem of Karabakh1526 Hoseyn Beg Ustajlu Hakem of Karabakh1528 Ya'qub Soltan Qajar Hakem of Karabakh1551–1556 Shahverdi Soltan Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh1554–1564 Shahverdi Khan Soltan Ziyadoghlu Hakem of Karabakh1564–1568–? Ebrahim Beg Ziyadoghlu Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh and Ganja1575 Yusof Khalifeh Ziyadoghlu 1576 Paykar Khan Igirmi Durt Hakem of Ganja and amir al-omara of Karabakh1576–1588 Emamqoli Beg Qajar Hakem of Karabakh and Ganja1588–1590 Mohammad Khan Ziyadoghlu Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh1589–1605 None Ottoman occupation1605–1606 Hoseyn Khan Ziyadoghlu Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh1606–1616 Mohammad Khan Ziyadoghlu Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh1616–1627 Mohammad-Qoli Khan Qajar Beglerbegi of Karabakh1627–1633 Daud Khan Undiladze Beglerbegi of Karabakh1633–? Mohammad-Qoli Khan Qajar (2nd term) Beglerbegi of Karabakh1651–1664 Mortezaqoli Khan Ziyadoghlu Beglerbegi of Karabakh1664–? Oghurlu Khan Beglerbegi of Karabakh1694 Abbas Qoli-Khan Beglerbegi of Karabakh and Hakem of Kakhetia1695 Kalb Ali Khan Ziyadoghlu Beglerbegi of Karabakh and Hakem of Kakhetia?–1723–? Constantine II of Kakheti Beglerbegi of Karabakh
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