Alinja (also known as "Alıncak"; ; ) is a village and municipality in the

Julfa District Julfa District () is one of the 7 districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. The district borders the districts of Ordubad, Babek, Shahbuz, as well as the Syunik Province of Armenia and the East Azerbaijan Province of Ira ...

of Nakhchivan,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. The mausoleum and shrine of the Hurufi

Fazlallah Fazlallah, also spelled Fadlallah, Fazlollah, Fazlullah etc. ()) is a male Muslim given name, composed of the elements ''Fadl'' and ''Allah'', meaning ''bounty of God''. In modern usage it may serve as a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Fazla ...

are located on a hillside overlooking the village. Qara Iskander, the ruler of

Kara Koyunlu The Qara Qoyunlu or Kara Koyunlu (, ; ), also known as the Black Sheep Turkomans, were a culturally Persianate, Muslim Turkoman "Kara Koyunlu, also spelled Qara Qoyunlu, Turkish Karakoyunlular, English Black Sheep, Turkmen tribal federation th ...

was murdered in the castle in 1437 by his son Shah Kubad.

History

Alinja is mentioned in historical records for the first time in the seventh century atlas, the '' Ashkharhatsuyts'', commonly attributed to Anania Shirakatsi, under its original Armenian name, Yernjak. It is described as the first district of the Kingdom of Armenia's province of Syunik'. Darbinyan, M. ''«Ernjak»'' (Yernjak). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1977, vol. 3, pp. 637-38. The ruins of the medieval Yernjak (or Ernjak) fortress, which dates to the seventh century, are located on a crag overlooking Alinja village. This fortress once controlled and gave its name to, Yernjak province, which comprised the whole valley down to the Araks river. A separate Armenian tradition states that the province was named after Lady Yernjik, a member of the royal family of the Syunik' princes. The Armenian historian Stepanos Orbelian noted its formidable position, describing it as the "impossible to penetrable Yernjak" (անհնարին ամուրն Երնջակ). The province belonged to the Arshakuni kings of Armenia until their kingdom was dissolved in 428 A.D. The Armenian king Smbat I Bagratuni captured the canton and the fortress from the Arabs, who had taken them in 698. However, the emir of Āzarbāijān,

Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj Yusuf ibn Abi'l Saj (died, d. 928) was the Sajids, Sajid Emir of Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan from 901 until his death. He was the son of Abi'l-Saj Devdad. War with Armenians and Georgians Yusuf came to power in 901 by overthrowing his nephew, ...

, put the fortress under siege for a year and captured it, awarding it to the Muslim emir of Goght'n. The long and arduous struggle between King Smbat and emir Yusuf ended at Yernjak, where the latter put the former to death in 914. However, by the end of the tenth century Yernjak was back in the hands of the princes of Syunik'. After the dissolution of the Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia in 1045, in the following centuries the region passed into the hands of external powers. It was taken by the

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture. The founder of th ...

in the eleventh century, and by the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

in the thirteenth century. Yernjak was invested by the forces of

Tamerlane Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timuri ...

but the fortress managed to withstand the siege for thirteen years until it was taken in 1401.Bedrosian, Robert (1997). "Armenian during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods," in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century'', ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 267-68. The fortress was probably razed by the forces of

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

. The district became part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

following the conclusion of the 1826-1828 Russo-Persian war. In 1921 it became a part of the

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

History

References

Further reading