Yerevan Khanate

founded in 1604 by the shah of Iran, Abbas I, on the territory of Eastern Armenia. The trade and artisan center of the khanate was the city of Yerevan. The commander Amirgunakhan (1604-28) was appointed first ruler, or beglerbeg. After the mid-18th century, the office became hereditary. The predominant form of land ownership was the mulkadarate. Themulkadars were Iranian khans and beys, Armenian monasteries, and Armenian meliks, who collected their own taxes from the peasants, in addition to the state taxes. The peasants performed corvee and had various obligations. Incessant Turkish-Iranian wars devastated the Yerevan Khanate, disrupted trade, and strengthened the despotism of local rulers. In the early 18th century, the wars of national liberation took on a particularly uncompromising character.

The Armenians were supported in their struggle by the Georgian king Vakhtang VI, as well as by the population of Giandzha (western Azerbaijan). The Armenian rebels fought in the battle of the Siunik and Karabakh melikates against the Turkish yoke (1724-28) and in the Russo-Iranian wars of 1804-13 and 1826-28 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12 on the side of Russia, from which they sought protection from the Turkish and Iranian yoke. The Treaty of Turkmanchai (1828) united the Yerevan Khanate with Russia.