Shoragel, Shuragel, Shorayel, or the Sultanate of Shoragel was a

sultanate Sultan (; ', ) is a Royal and noble ranks, position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". La ...

established around 1747, in the period of

Afsharid dynasty The Afsharid dynasty () was an Iran, Iranian dynasty founded by Nader Shah () of the Qirqlu clan of the Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman Afshar people, Afshar tribe, ruling over the Afsharid Empire. List of Afsharid monarchs Family tree ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, and it often was part of the

Erivan Khanate The Erivan Khanate (), also known as , was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid dynasty, Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most o ...

. Its area was 1037.91

verst A verst (; ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length, defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the nominative singul ...

s (1181.16 km²).

History

The sultanate was located in the north-west of the

Erivan khanate The Erivan Khanate (), also known as , was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid dynasty, Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most o ...

at the foot of

Aragats Mount Aragats (, ) is an isolated four-peaked volcano massif in Armenia. Its northern summit, at above sea level, is the highest point of the Lesser Caucasus and Armenia. It is also one of the highest points in the Armenian Highlands. The Ara ...

mountain. The sultanate was surrounded by the mountains separating the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom from the north, the Talyn and Seyidli-Agsaqqalli districts from the south, and the Pambek province and Aparan districts from the east. The Akhurayan River separated the Shorayel sultanate from the Kars pashalyk. The center of the sultanate was

Artik Artik () is a town in the Artik Municipality of the Shirak Province of Armenia. As of the 2011 census, the town had a population of 19,534. As per the 2016 official estimate, the population of Artik was around 18,800. As of the 2022 census, the t ...

. The “Review Book of Erivan Province” shows the existence of 172 villages in Shoragel Sanjak (together with Pambak Province). According to the information given during the reign of Nadir Shah, there were 109 villages in Shoragel district as a part of

. In 1804, Russian troops invaded Shoragel resulting in the exodus of large portion of the local :Muslim population and the final abolition of the Shoragel sultanate in 1805. Abandoned villages were eventually inhabited by the Armenian population resettled from

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Those records were mentioned three decades later in the "Review of Russian possessions beyond the Caucasus" printed by Russian State Department for External Trade in 1836. Part of the Shoragel residents, mainly Karapapakh Turks, left their lands in the wake of the

Russo-Turkish war The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

in 1807 and found refuge in the territories of

and Kars pashalyk.

Rulers

* Budaq sultan sultan is the last ruler of the Shoragel sultanate. On October 20, 1805, he signed a document with

Pavel Tsitsianov Prince Pavel Dmitriyevich Tsitsianov (; –) was an Imperial Russian general of Georgian noble origin who played a prominent role in the Russian conquest of the South Caucasus. He served as the Russian Commander-in-chief in the Caucasus from 18 ...

on Shoragel's permanent subordination to Russia in

Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: �aːɲd͡ʒa� ...

city. Budag sultan had three sons named Gara Mohammad bey, Hamid bey, Khalil bey.

History

Rulers

See also

References

Further reading