19th and 20th Century Historians (part IV)

Bakikhanov, Abbasghuli Agha (1794-1847)
Work: Golestan e Eram

A native of the Caucasus, Bakikhanov has done extensive research on the history of Aghvank (Aran and Shirvan) and has presented the results under the title Golestan e Eram in Persian. He delineates the borders of Shirvan and confirms the River Kur as the southwestern limits of that region that separates it from Armenia and the Mughan plain (region to the southwest of the Caspian, south of Pytakaran). Bakikhanov admits that the right bank of the River Kur until the point it unites with the Arax River is part of Armenia. ●

Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi (? - 1853)
Work: Tarikh-e Qarabagh (History of Karabakh)

Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi’s work recording the events between 1747 and 1806 is written in the later years of his life starting in 1847, in Persian. He attests to a majority Armenian presence in Artsakh and reaffirms that in the quest for pasture for their cattle the Turkic nomadic tribes gradually appeared in Armenian populated Artsakh from the 17th century onward. He relates the murderer and rapist Panah’s escape (from Persian law) to Artsakh, his abusing of the chaotic circumstances after Nader Shah’s assassination and his appointing of himself as a khan in mid 18th century and he adds that Panah ruled over Artsakh except the five Armenian Melikdoms (Moluk Khamsa).

He considers Partaw, the once glorious capital of Aghvank part of the khanate of Karabakh, “and the foremost city in the province of Karabakh is the city and fortress of Bardha (Partaw H.) situated near the source of the Tartar River three farsakhs (6.24 km H.) away from the River Kur. And in the past, the inhabitants of that city were Armenians and other non-Muslims.”

Mirza Jamal Javanshir mentions the Moluk Khamsa of Artsakh: “before establishing the khanate of Karabakh, in the time of the Safavids the districts of Dizak, Varanda and Khachen and [the rest of] the five Armenian districts were under the Safavid king’s appointed governor… Each district was ruled by a melik.” ●


Igrar Aliev (Aliyev)
Works: Voprosi istorii Kavkazkoi Albanii, Baku, 1962,
Ocherk istorii Atropateni, Baku, 1989

Far from being pro-Armenian or anti-“Azeri”, this contemporary scholar from “Azerbaijan” is nevertheless a rare phenomenon. Naturally, all of his works haven’t been to the taste of “Azeri” fascists and incidents of burning of his books have occurred in fake “Azerbaijan”.

Igrar Aliev has done extensive research regarding the language and origins of Atrpatakan and considers the language of the people of Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) Iranian without a shadow of a doubt.

He rejects the “Azeri” falsifiers who try very hard to attribute a Turkish origin to the name Azerbaijan (Atrpatakan, Aturpatekan, Aturpayegan, Atropatena) and mockingly compares their work to “coffee reading” (a type of fortune telling by describing the coffee patterns created by turning the cup of Turkish coffee upside down after drinking its content H.). He severely criticizes the Turkish “historians” who without any regard to linguistics, attribute Turkish origin to every word that remotely sounds like a word in Turkish. He expresses his anxiety that this sort of “reasoning” has found its way in “scientific” works in “Azerbaijan”.

While for every Armenian the suffix akan’s function is as clear as daylight and it’s used on daily basis to signify the attribution of something to something else: parskakan = Persian (Attributed to Persia), fransakan = French, angliakan = English, hndkakan = Indian, islamakan = Islamic, etc., etc., etc., after comparing Atrpatakan to the Parthian term Friapatikan from Friapatia and the Armenian term Anahitakan from Anahit, Aliev comes to the conclusion that Atrpatakan means attributed, named after Atropat, a fact that’s known to us for twenty three centuries as of now (2007).

Igrar Aliev rejects any Turkish origin for the name Azerbaijan: “The name Aturpatekan is a purely Iranian term”, Ocherk istorii Atropateni, p. 34. He also agrees with Dorn’s delineation of Albania’s (Aghvank) borders: Sarmatia to the northeast, Georgia and Alazan River (Olazanes) to the northwest, Armenia and the joining point of Kur and Arax to the southwest, south and southeast and the Caspian to the east.

Concerning the people of Atrpatakan, Igrar Aliev also calls them the Atropateni, i.e. the Atropateneans and not “Azeris”. ●

*****