Mehdigulu Khan Javanshir


Mehdigulu Khan Javanshir was the last khan of the Karabakh Khanate, functioning as its head from 1806 up to his flight in 1822.

Biography

Mehdigulu Khan was born to Ibrahim Khalil, the second Khan of Karabakh, and Khurshid Begum, daughter of Javad Khan and a granddaughter of Shahverdi Khan of Ganja. In July 1805, he was promoted to major-general by the order of Alexander I, after an agreement between his father and the Russians which stipulated that Russia would recognize him as the ruler of the khanate, and the confirmation that his son, Mehdigulu, would succeed his father.
After the murder of his father in 1806, Mehdigulu Khan was appointed as the Khan of Karabakh by General Ivan Gudovich. He didn't forgive the Russians for the crime they had committed, and was a secret ally of Iran during his reign. In November 1822, fearing Russia's punishment for the overtures he had made to the Iranian government, he escaped to Iran. The Khanate was subsequently abolished and transformed into a province of the Russian Empire. In 1836, he returned to Karabakh in order to be able to claim the property of his family, and lived the rest of his life as a Russian beneficiary.
His daughter, Khurshidbanu Natavan, was a prominent Azerbaijani poet.