Descendants of Erivan Khans visited Azerbaijan - or in the wake of the Erivan Qajars

The descendant of Irevan (Erivan) Khans, Amir Ali Sardar Iravani from 16^th-22^nd of August 2019 visited Azerbaijan with his family and relatives. Amir Ali Sardar Iravani was born in Tehran and currently lives in Germany (Stuttgart). He works as a design engineer at Robert Bosch Company and he is an author of several inventions.

His Grandfather in the seventh generation Huseyn Ali Khan Iravani was the ruler of Erivan (1750-1780) and during his ruling many architectural buildings were built, particularly Blue Mosque (in Erivan). While ruling the sixth generation grandfather Mohammed Khan Iravani (1796-1804) palace complex of Erivan khans, was expanded with additional construction of Mirror Hall and Summer Residence.

At the same day Amir Ali Sardar Iravani and his family met with Azerbaijani historians and scholars at the Presidential Library, where interesting facts from the history of Erivan Khanate and about its rulers were remembered.

Then the descendants of Erivan Khans visited the Heydar Aliyev Center, where an exibition of Erivan Khans heritage was held. Here they met with the Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov, who showed them the unique artefacts of the Irevan Khans. Amir Ali Sardar Iravani expressed his deep gratitude to the executives of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for the contribution to the preservation and popularization of Irevan Khanate`s history and expressed his readiness to comprehensively support such generous affair.

The visit to Sheki was also a part of familiarization with Azerbaijan, where the descendants of Irevan Khans visited the Sheki Khan`s palace and historical Center, which is included to UNESCO world Heritage List. The historical Center of Sheki and Khan`s palace looks like the destroyed palace and Khan`s buildings in Yerevan and occupied Khankendi. Additionally Ceramics Center and other sights. Later in Gandja they visited the medieval buildings, the mausoleum of the Nizami Ganjavi, the Shah Abbas Mosque, the funeral complex of last ruler of the Gandja Khanate Javad Khan and other monuments of medieval architecture.

Important to noted, that Irevan khans were the relatives of the Ganja Khans and belonged to the ruling family of Qajars in Iran. Also, Irevan khans were related to Sheki, Nakhichevan, Baku, Karabakh and other Azerbaijani khans.

In Baku Amir Ali Sardar Irevani had a conversation with Azerbaijani scholars and Yagub Makhmudov, the director of the Institute of History of ANAS.

The great merit in organizing of this visit belongs to the chairman of the public association "In the name of social welfare of citizens", and the representative of the Irevan intellectuals Irada Rzazade. Strong support also was provided by the head of division in the Presidential Administration, the political analyst Fuad Akhundov, as well as the Council on State Support to NGOs under the Auspices of the President of Republic of Azerbaijan. Organizational and logistical support was provided by the National Forum of NGOs of Azerbaijan, by the Center for the History of the Caucasus and the public association "In the Name of Strong Azerbaijan".

It could be useful here to share some important information about the history of Irevan (Erivan) Khanate and its bitter fate.

The Erivan fortress and the city were built in 1504-1511 by order of the Safavid Shah Ismail Khatai. For many centuries, Azerbaijani Turks lived and ruled here, however, after the arrival of tsarist Russia in the region, the situation changed. After the fall of the Erivan Khanate in 1827 and with annexation to tsarist Russia, began the mass settlement of Armenians to the region. In contrary to it, started the expulsion of Azerbaijani population from these lands. Later began the destruction of medieval architectural buildings, which was on a massive scale in the Soviet period and after the creation of the Armenian SSR. By the end of the 20th century, during the period of independent Armenia, the entire Azerbaijani population was expelled and almost the entire architectural heritage suffered with detrimental fate.

Eventually, the complex of the Sardar palace of the Irevan (Erivan) Khan located in the center of Yerevan and other medieval Azerbaijani buildings, as well as the entire Irevan (Erivan) fortress, were completely destroyed by the Armenian authorities. Thus, the historical center of Yerevan, its centuries-old architecture and culture were destroyed during the 20th century.

But many years later, during the period of independent Azerbaijan, it was made attempts to restore the history and memory of the medieval Azerbaijanian Erivan`s Khanate.

For the memory of this unique architectural monument, Baku on 23th of December 2011, celebrated the 500th anniversary of currently destroyed Erivan Fortress, which was before the historical Center of Yerevan.

During this event the local and foreign scholars, public and political figures expressed their solidarity with the concern regarding the vandal destruction of the Yerevan fortress by the Armenian authorities. Speaking at the event, the head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Republic Fuad Akhundov reminded, that after Pompey was dug out from volcanic ash, not a single stone was changed in the city and now Pompey is the best-preserved ancient city. But unfortunately now the central Erivan is totally destroyed. Yerevan is the only city in the world, whose historic center was deliberately wiped off. It was committed intentionally, the destruction of Erivan was due to the fact, that the city was foreign to settled here Armenians.

Several years ago, numerous artifacts, removed by Russian troops after the capture of the Erivan fortress in 1827, were discovered in Tbilisi. From May till the 5^th of October 2019, these artifacts will be presented in Baku at the Heydar Aliyev Center, under the name “Masterpieces of History”.

The exposition of Azerbaijan and Eastern collections from the National Museum of Georgia includes about 300 exhibits. Three exposition sections present samples of Azerbaijani art of the Kajar era, a collection of items, utensils and paintings from the complex of the Sardar palace of the Irevan (Erivan) khan and rare photo documents about the Erivan khanate from the archive of the pioneer of Russian photography Dmitry Yermakov (1846–1916).

At the exhibition inside of Heydar Aliyev Center are presented, samples of Qajar era art, world-famous paintings, miniatures, ceramics, metal products, textiles and carpets dating from the reign of Fatali Shah Kajar. The exhibition displays also six paintings restored in the 19th century by the founder of the Azerbaijani panel - the master of ornaments and portraits Mirza Gadim Irevani, who had a great influence on the fine arts of Azerbaijan. Gadim Irevani is known for stencil drawings for embroidery, wall designs, jewelry, varnished paintings and glass painting. His unique canvases represented here, are from destroyed Sardar (Erivan) palace, which portrays Kajar shah, Erivan rulers and heroes of eastern epics. Gadim Irevani was that person, who in the middle of the 19th century restored again the survived in the Sardar Palace original works and plates used in the decor of the palace and mosque.

The exposition presents artifacts from the Sardar Palace in Erivan (Yerevan) including traditional costumes and household items, furniture, vases and other attributes of the daily life of the Azerbaijani people living in the Erivan Khanate, the territory of modern Armenia. Familiarity with these exhibits will help to more clearly recreate the picture of life, life and architecture of that era.