The Imarat Garvand cemetery (), or simply as the Imarat cemetery () is a royal cemetery and a complex located in

Aghdam Aghdam () is a town and the nominal capital of the Aghdam District of Azerbaijan. Founded in the 18th century, it was granted city status in 1828 and grew considerably during the Soviet period. Aghdam lies from Stepanakert at the eastern foot ...

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 ...

. It contains the graves of some of the Azerbaijani and Turkic nobility of the

Karabakh Khanate The Karabakh Khanate (also spelled Qarabagh; ; ) was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate under History of Iran, Iranian and later Russian Empire, Russian suzerainty, which controlled the historical region of Karabakh, now divided between modern ...

History

The Mausoleum of

Panah Ali Khan Panah Ali Khan Javanshir (; ; 1693 – 1759 or 1763) was the founder and first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate under Persian suzerainty. Ancestry Panah Ali Khan was from the Sarijali branch of the Javanshir clan, who with their associate clan of ...

(), the founder of the

, and the first

khan Khan may refer to: * Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name * Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by various ethnicities Art and entertainment * Khan (band), an English progressiv ...

Karabakh Karabakh ( ; ) is a geographic region in southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras. It is divided into three regions: Highland Kara ...

, dates back to the 18th-19th centuries and is located in the complex. It is adjacent to another tomb, that of Panah Ali's son,

Ibrahim Khalil Khan Ibrahim Khalil Khan Javanshir (, 1732–1806) was the second khan of the Karabakh Khanate from the Javanshir family. He was the son and successor of Panah-Ali khan Javanshir. Early life He was born in c. 1732 in Karabakh. He was among depo ...

(). Panah Ali Khan's tomb has an entrance gate. The entrance door has an arched structure. The tomb has a polygonal conical plan structure hosting inside the grave of the deceased. There is also a bust of

Khurshidbanu Natavan Khurshidbanu Natavan (; 6 August 1832 – 2 October 1897) was an Azerbaijani people, Azerbaijani poet and philanthropist. She is considered one of the best lyric poetry, lyrical poets of Azerbaijan. Her poems are in either Azerbaijani language, A ...

in front of the tombs.

Modern period

The Armenian forces captured Aghdam in July 1993, during the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

. The heavy fighting forced the entire population to flee eastwards, making Aghdam a ''

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

''. As part of an

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus (disambiguation), a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of ...

that ended the

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, surrounding occupied territories. It was a major esca ...

, the town and its surrounding district were returned to Azerbaijani control on 20 November 2020. According to the US Department of State the sacred and historic 18th-century tombs of Imarat Garvand Cemetery, the city's "Martyrs' Alley," were among the cemeteries throughout Aghdam that had been desecrated, looted, or destroyed. Western diplomats who visited Martyrs' Alley reported that there were holes where bodies had formerly been interred and that there was just one damaged tombstone left in the cemetery. However, a report by the ''Caucasus Heritage Watch'' of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

states that the mausoleums of Ibrahim Khalil Khan and Mehdi Qoli Khan Javanshir in the cemetery had remained largely unchanged and well-preserved since the Soviet period. Furthermore, the mausoleum of Panah Ali Khan sustained major damage sometime before 2004 and the tomb of Khurshidbanu Natavan was destroyed and vandalized.

Notable burials

, the founder and first ruler of the

. *

, the third

. * Mehdi Qoli Khan Javanshir, the fourth and last khan of Karabakh. *

Jafargulu agha Javanshir Jafargulu agha Javanshir (; 1782 or 1787–1866) was an Azerbaijani poet, figure and a major-general of the Russian Army. Early life Jafargulu was born either in 1782/3 or in 1787, in Shusha. He was the elder son of Mammadhasan agha Javanshi ...

, Azerbaijani poet and a major-general of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. * Govhar Agha, Azerbaijani poet and daughter of Ibrahim Khalil Khan. *

, Azerbaijani poet and daughter of Mehdigulu Khan. * Khanbika Khanum, Azerbaijani poet and daughter of Khurshidbanu Natavan.

References

{{authority control Cemeteries in Azerbaijan Monuments and memorials in Azerbaijan Karabakh Khanate