MONEY CIRCULATION AND COINAGE OF THE STATE OF SHIRVANSHAHS IN XIV-XV CENTURIES

State of Shir­van­shah with its spe­cial place in 3 thou­sand years his­tory of Azer­bai­jani state­hood played an impor­tant role in the socio-economic and polit­i­cal his­tory of the South Cau­ca­sus and the Mid­dle East for more than two thou­sand years.  As one of  first states in north­ern Azer­bai­jan,  State of Shir­van­shah  entered Azer­bai­jani state­hood his­tory as the longest lived authority.

Accord­ing to the his­to­ri­ans of antiq­uity and the Mid­dle Ages,  Shir­van com­bin­ing the cen­tral provines of Cau­casian Alba­nia,  had bor­ders  lying between Der­bent and Samur River in the north, the Kura and Araz rivers in the south, the Caspian Sea in the east and Gan­jabasar in the east. Shir­van­shahs which sub­dued the cities  such as Barda, Bey­la­gan, Ganja, Sheki, Tabriz, Ard­abil, Gabala and Dar­band in dif­fer­ent peri­ods of his­tory, had a power over Mil, Mugan, Sheki, Karabakh, Geor­gia, West Azer­bai­jan, South Azer­bai­jan, Nakhichevan, Talysh and some regions of  Dagestan.

The fol­low­ing  ancient and medieval East­ern, Euro­pean, Russ­ian, Azer­bai­jani sci­en­tists reported  about  dif­fer­ent peri­ods of Shir­van in their works :  Plini, Sekund, Ptole­mey, Movses Kalankatlı, Yegıse, Favs­tos Buzand, Abu Hamid al-al-Qarnati Andalusi, Yagut Hamavi, Zakariya al-Kazvini, hand-Masudi, hand-Balazuri, hand-Yaqubi, hand-Istakhri, Abu Dulaf , Ahmad ibn Lüt­ful­lah (Head Astrologer),  Kemal Ed-Din ibn al Fuvati, Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Havqal, Abdur­rashid ibn Salih ibn al-Nuri Bakuvi, Ed-Din Muham­mad Shi­hab al-Nasavi, Chair­man, Ed-Din Ali al-Husseini, Ham­dul­lah Gazvini, Fazlul­lah Rashid Ed-Din, Abu Bekr Tehrani, Moham­mad ibn Bakr, Iskan­der bey struc­tural Munsi, Abdur­razaq Samar­qandi, Gias-Din-Din al-Husseini Xan­damir Humam unit, Hasan bey Rumlu, Fazlul­lah ibn Ruzbi­han Khunci, S.Bidlisi, AABakikhanov, M.H Valiev (Baharli), V.V.Bartold, I.Y.Krackovski, K.V.Trever, B.A.Dorn, N.V.Xanıkov, V.M.Beylis, V.F.Minorski, Y.A.Paxomov, I.P.Petrusevcki, D.D.Kuymcan, S.B.Asurbsyli, Z.M.Buniyadov, N.M.Valikhanlı, M.S.Neymat, A.V.Rahimov, A.B Clin­ton, C.Ibrahimov, C.A.Khalilov, H.A.Ciddi, M.A.Seyfaddini, S.F.Farzalibayli, A.A.Alizadeh, O.A.Afandiyev, Y.Mahmudov, A.M.Rajabli, M.J.Khalilov, A.A.Guliyev.

V.F. Minovski in his work named  “Histroy of Shir­van and Der­bent” divided Shir­van­shahs into 4 dynas­ties:  1.  Ancient  Shir­van­shahs assigned to pro­tect moun­tain cross­ings of sasa­ni­ans;  2.  Mazyadi Arabs;  3. Kas­ranids;  4. Der­bendies — a trib­u­tary of the third dynasty.  (F.Minorskiy. His­tory Der­bend Shir­van, i. M.,1963, с. 176)

A.A.Bakixanov in his “Gulus­tani – Iram” work  refer­ring  to  “Nizam at –Tavarix”  by  Gazi Beyzavi  notes that the State of Shir­van­shahs was estab­lished by Bahram Chubi, descen­dant of  Ardashir Babakan. (A.A. Bakikhanov. Gulustani-Iram s.88). , Kemal Ed-Din ibn al Fuvati when describ­ing the Shir­van­shah III Fariburz ibn Gur­shas, points out that he is a descen­dant of the ancient dynasty.  His fam­ily starts from Bahram Chu­bin.  More than two thou­sand years have passed since they took the hold of Shir­van and Shamakhi lands. They are from the fam­ily of Bahram Chu­bin, a war­lord (kand al – asakir) of Khos­rovs (Sasa­ni­ans). [15, p. 213; 1, p.50–51; 8, p.70–71].

H. Zoten­berg states that Bahram is a son of Varxaran Gush­nasb, a big landowner rep­re­sent­ing Mehrani dynasty with Arshaki roots.  [26, p. 643]. Gazi Ahmad Gaf­fari in his work “ His­tory of Jaha­nara”  indi­cates that Shir­van­shahs belong to Khos­rov Anushiravan’s fam­ily. [30, p.192–194].

Fazlul­lah Rashidaddin (1247 – 1318) in his “Makat­i­bat” when talk­ing about Shirvanshah’s daugh­ter who was betrothed to his son – Ali,  tes­ti­fies that Shir­van­shahs are a dynasty belong­ing to the fam­ily of  Der­bent governor.

“It has been almost two thou­sand years that sultan’s throne belongs to their dynasty”.  Accord­ing to  his esti­ma­tions,  Shir­van­shahs have had an author­ity since the times of Ahamanids. [23, p.186; 1, p. 50].

As stated by an arab his­to­rian, Hamza Isfa­hani Bal­azuri, in order to pro­tect the bor­ders of the empire from the attacks of turks, sasa­ni­ans were build­ing  for­ti­fi­ca­tions there and giv­ing the title of “shah” (king) to the bor­der gov­er­nors.  Thus,  there appeared  Vaxran­shah (king of  wild boars), Shir­van­shah (king of lions), Filan­shah (king of ele­phants) and Alan­shah (king of crows) who were depen­dent on Vaxran­shah,  Sasa­ni­ans sha­hen­shah (king of the kings).  On their cloth­ings, there were descrip­tions of a wild boar, lion,  ele­phant and crow.  [25, s. 22].  Another arab his­to­rian, Al — Masudi men­tions  Tabasaran shah, Varaxzan shah, Var­dan shah and Shar­van shah amongst  the rulers who were gifted  a “shah” title.

Medeival sources  pro­vide infor­ma­tion  also on the estab­lish­ment of semi inde­pen­dent  states  such as  Shir­van­shahs, Layzan­shahs and Xur­san­shah after the refom of the king of kings I  Khos­rov Anushi­ra­van (531–579 years).

Bahram Chu­bin, the leg­endary founder of the Shir­van­shahs dynasty was a famous war­lord and  close rel­a­tive ofIV Hor­muz (579 – 590),   Sas­sanid ruler.

He  suc­ceeded in pre­vent­ing the attacks of turks in the east and then by sha­hen­shah he was appointed as a com­man­der in chief of Sas­sanid army  fight­ing against Byzan­tines.  Although he won the first bat­tles of Byzan­tines, he sus­tained a defeat later on.  IV Hor­muz,  pos­sessed by anger released Bahram from his post  and sent him an offen­sive let­ter, spin­nig wheel, and women cloth­ing what resulted in rebel­lion after­wards. Insulted Bahram  turned his troops towards the cap­i­tal. The troop’s switch­ing sides to rebels caused a con­spir­a­tion by courtiers in the cap­i­tal. So that the close rel­a­tives of the shah, Vin­doe and Vis­takhman broth­ers from Ispakh­pat gen­er­a­tion pass­ing ahead the rebels to pre­vent the power ceased by Bahram, cap­ti­vated the IV Hor­muz and made him blind.  After a while, the sha­hen­shah was assas­i­nated. Though the con­spir­a­tors declared Khos­rov, the son of the IV Hor­muz, as shah, they did not cause Bahram Chu­bin to change his mind to occupy Ctesiphon.

Khos­rov hav­ing not entrusted his sur­round­ing left Cte­siphon and run to the palace of the Byzan­tine emperor Mau­riki. Bahram Chu­bin entered Cte­siphon with­out resis­tance and declared him­self sha­hen­shah and there­after he was known as the VI Varakhan (590–591). Pos­sess­ing of author­ity by a per­son not from the Sasani gen­er­a­tion caused turn­ing away of the Per­sian courtiers from him.

In his turn, Khos­rov hav­ing taken a shel­ter in the Byzan­tine palace, nego­ti­ated with the emperor Mau­riki and promised him in case he sup­ported him, he would com­pro­mised the areas where Geor­gians and Arme­ni­ans lived to the Byzan­tine. Hav­ing received mil­i­tary aid from Mau­riki, Khos­rov passed the bor­ders and began match­ing towards Cte­siphon. The Iran­ian feu­dal turn­ing away from Bahram  changed their side to Khos­rov. Khosrov’s army won in the final bat­tle hap­pened near Gan­zaka city, Atropatena.(М,А, Seyfed­dini. Numis­mat­ics Azer­bai­jan. т.1. с.110–111).

The defeated Bahram Chu­bin run to the East, where Turks lived and a while later, he was killed. Accord­ing to the Ara­bian his­to­rian of the X cen­tury, al-Tabary, the Rashidi khal­ifa Omar ibn al-Khattab (634–644) ordered Suraga ibn Amraya to occupy Der­bent. Suraga hav­ing sent his com­man­ders Bukayr ibn Abdul­lah and Adur­rah­man ibn Rabia al-Bahili ahead moved towards Shir­van. Hav­ing met the Arabs near Der­bent, Shir­van­shah Shahri­yar stated his obe­di­ence. Shahri­yar was rec­og­nized as Shir­van ruler by the order of the Khal­ifa Omar. Accord­ing to the agree­ment con­cluded with the Amir Suraga, Shahri­yar was released to pay jizya tax, and assigned him to pro­tect Der­bent pas­sage from attacks by the Khazar fam­i­lies  (at-Tabari. I s.2663–2668, Bunyadov.Z. Azer­bai­janVII-IX cen­turies Bakı 1989).

The rise of Shir­van­shahs state is related with the reign of Mazyadis dynasty. The Mazyadis were descen­dants of  Shey­ban­i­lar fam­ily, whose roots belong to the Rabia kin with ara­bic ori­gin. Osman Khal­ifa ibn Affan  (644–656-years) power ibn Salman, who occu­pied the Arranib Rabia was a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dynasty. The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dynasty Yazeed ibn Abbasi  was appointed by the order of Harun of Ar-Rasid (789–809-years) the gov­er­nor of  Azer­bai­jani and Armaniyya areas.

Mazyadis took advan­tage of the weak­en­ing of the cen­tral gov­ern­ment and  tried to pur­sue an inde­pen­dent pol­icy in the area.  The res­i­dence of the gov­er­nor was located in Barda. Coins were minted on  behalf of caliph and gov­er­nor  in  the city.

In 801, Yazeed ibn Mazyad was buried in  Barda. After his death, his brother Ahmad ibn Yazeed and sons Asad and Muham­mad Khalid  by turn had been appointed to the South Cau­ca­sus as a gov­er­nor. Muham­mad ibn Yazeed relo­cated res­i­dence of gov­er­nor  to Ganja in 859

As stated by the head astrologer, Khalid ibn Yazeed had four sons– Muham­mad, Ali, Yazeed and  Haitham.  In 861 Haitham  ibn Khalid (861–881 years) declared him­self shah  and  appointed his brother Yazeed ibn Khalid   Lazyan­shah.  At this time, Muham­mad ibn Khalid was the gov­erner of Ganja.  Shir­van was the cap­i­tal of Shir­van­shahs  and  Lahij was the cap­i­tal of Laziyan­shah. [15, p. 48–49].

While states replaced each other in the south of Azer­bai­jan (the Sajis, Salarids, Rav­vadis), the bor­ders of the State of Shir­van in the north reached just south of Der­bent in Dagh­es­tan.  The new phase of Shir­van­shahs dynasty rise coin­cides with the reign  of the Shirvanshahs-Darbands dynasty.

At the end of the four­teenth cen­tury,  peas­ants and small feudal’s  revolt against  nobles took place.  In  1382  Shir­van­shah Hushang  was killed by  his cit­i­zens (B.F Minorski. His­tory of Shir­van and Der­berda M-1963, p.170; S.Len-Pul. Mus­lim dynasty. St. Peters­burg. 1899. S.295–296.; S.Ashurbayli. State of Shir­van­shas. Baku 1997.s .206)

Sheikh Ibrahim is the first rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Der­bendi Sir­van­shahs, the rel­a­tive fam­ily to Mazyadis dynasty. The father of Sheikh  Ibrahim I of  Sul­tan Muham­mad ibn Key Gubad  was a ruler of  Der­bent for­merly. Sul­tan Muham­mad and his son of Ibrahim being sub­jected to pres­sure in one of Sheki vil­lages were forced to hide dur­ing the reign of  Shir­van­shah  Kavus (1357–1369 ) and Hushang (1369–1382). After Hushang’s death, the del­e­ga­tion arrived in Sheki from Shamakhi , and as sources say  they found  Ibrahim I asleep  after work  in his field.

They con­grat­u­lated Ibrahim when he woke  up and they swore loy­alty to him. They took Ibrahim to  the city (Shamakhi) and he started to  con­quer the coun­tries, had treated with jus­tice their cit­i­zens ..” (Sh.A. Sirv. S 281; Date Djan­navi Myunedjim-per, 170–171). It is worth to men­tion that start­ing from Ibrahim I , the dynasty of Shir­van­shah Mazyadi-kasranis was named  Derbendy.

In 1385, Shir­van exposed to the attack by ninety thou­sand strong army of Tokhtamysh from north and from south by Tamer­lane.  Though his Grand Vizier advised him to hide in the moun­tains,  Ibrahim I  decided to greet Timur the Great.  Shir­van­shah com­manded to read a ser­mon and mint coins on behalf of Timur and went to his encamp­ment  with the most expen­sive gifts to express his obe­di­ence to him.

In con­for­mity of turk’s prac­tice mak­ing  presents of nine pieces of each kind, Sheikh Ibrahim did every­thing accord­ing to the estab­lished tra­di­tion.  Nev­er­the­less he pre­sented only eight out of nine slaves, hav­ing declared: “I am the ninth”. Timur was so pleased that he offi­cially announced Ibrahim the King of Shir­van and Shemakha.

In  1385 – 1386 , under Tokhtamysh’s war­lord Bek Fulat lead­er­ship a mon­go­lian army of 90 thou­sand cross­ing Der­bent attacked Shir­van.  Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I  made his way to greet Tokhtamysh with expen­sive presents and  saved from destruc­tion the lands of Azer­bai­jan as a  result of diplo­matic process.  He com­manded to read a ser­mon in Shir­van mosques  and mint coins  on behalf of Tokhtamysh.

. In 1387 Tokhtamysh again invaded Shir­van.  The com­bined forces of Timur the Great and Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I as well as armed forces of Miran shah who joined to sup­port them, defeated Golden Horde and as a result Toktamysh’s army was forced to flee.

As a result of the wise pol­icy of Ibrahim  I, Azer­bai­jani lands were released  as a one-time attack on the Golden Horde khans. .Shri­van­shah Sheikh Ibrahim I par­tic­i­pated in all marches of Tamer­lane as his clos­est ally.  On many later occa­sions, Timu­rused Shir­van as a base to move his armies to attack Geor­gia and Dages­tan.  In 1399–1402, Ibrahim par­tic­i­pated in Timur’s dev­as­tat­ing expe­di­tion against Geor­gia.  Georgi has accepted Islam on the insti­ga­tion  by  Timur the Great.

After the occu­pa­tion of Azer­bai­jan there were  minted coins on behalf of Timur the Great in the country.

Dur­ing the rule of Sheikh Ibrahim I  Baku, Shamakhi, Shabran, Der­bent, Mah­mud­abad, Gush­tasbi, Gabala mints were minted coins on behalf of Timur the Great, Tokhtamysh Khan, Sul­tan Ahmad, Amir Sul­tan Pir­budag and Kara Yusuf .

In 1405, after Teymur’s death Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I intended to get out of Timurides’ depen­dence, expand bor­ders of his state and cre­ate united Azerbaijan.

In doing so, his army crossed theriver Kura and occu­pied a greater part of Ganja and Karabakh. Scores of influ­en­tial feu­dal lord­sand the Geor­gian king joined his­army. In the mean­time, he ruined his friendly rela­tions between Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I and Teymur’s grand­son and son of Miran­shah — Mirza Omar changed into hos­tile ones. (ed Katrmera with a 70–71, 108, 59–60; Mirx­ond, t. VI, s. 242, 257–260; Petru­shevsky state of Azer­bai­jan in the XV cen­tury, with 154–157] The two armies were oppos­ing each other in theen­vi­rons of Barda.

In spring 1406, in Tabriz there rose a  revolt against Timurids. Head­ing it, Sheikh Akhi Gassab, which was urban tam­gachi Emir Bestam Jagir, hav­ing learned about the revolt, moved army to Tabriz. Bestam entered Tabriz in April 1406, not wait­ing till Ibrahims arrival. Their rela­tions went worse. Approach­ing Sheikh Ibrahim in Tabriz, Bestam leaved the city and went to Arde­bil. Shir­van­shah, how­ever, did not stay long in Tabriz.  After­wards He came back to Shirvan

In 1406, he entered Tabriz but stayed there not long. The army of Jalairid Sul­tan Ahmed approached the town and the Shir­van troops had to retreat.

In June 1406, he received news that Sul­tan Ahmed Jelairid was return­ing to South­ern Azer­bai­jan. At an obvi­ous dis­ad­van­tage, Ibrahim I decided to retreat from Tabriz, which was imme­di­ately occu­pied by the much stronger forces of Sul­tan Ahmed.

On 21 April, 1408, in the vil­lage of Sardrud not far from Tabriz, the ene­mies met for another and, as it turned out, very impor­tant bat­tle. Kara Yusuf reigned vic­to­ri­ous despite the 20 thousand-strong army Sul­tan Shah Rukh dis­patched to his brother Miran Shah. The Timurids were utterly defeated, Miran Shah was killed. This was the end of the Timurids’ dom­i­nance in Azerbaijan.

After learn­ing about the Tabriz devel­op­ments, Kara Yusuf has entered to South­ern Azer­bai­jan and reached Tabriz ear­lier than Prince Kayu­mars. On 30 August, 1410, the for­mer allies met on the bat­tle field at Shanbi Hazan not far from Tabriz. Com­pletely routed, Sul­tan Ahmed fled only to be later caught and brought to Kara Yusuf’s camp where he had to abdi­cate in favour of the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. This sealed his fate, on 31 August, 1410, Sul­tan Ahmed was stran­gled and his dead body was tied to a cross. This spelled the end of the Jelairid dynasty in Azerbaijan.

State of Jelary col­lapsed. Garagoyunlu state was founded in 1410. The Shir­van units under Prince Kayu­mars reached Tabriz when Sul­tan Ahmed and his troops had already been defeated. Unaware of the recent devel­op­ments, the prince set­tled down for the night only to be sud­denly attacked by Kara Yusuf. The Shir­van units were sur­rounded and routed, the prince was taken as a prisoner.

Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I offered a lot of money to get his son back, but Kara Yusuf let the prince go with­out a ran­som  instead the prince car­ried a let­ter with him in which Kara Yusuf demanded that Shir­van­shah rec­og­nized him as the supreme ruler.

He had no choice but to start ready­ing for a final bat­tle with his very dan­ger­ous oppo­nent. He had Seyyid Ahmed of Sheki and King of Kakhetia Kon­stan­tin I (1407–1412) on his side. The for­mi­da­ble alliance forced Kara Yusuf to wage war late in 1412.

The bat­tle took place in the month of sha­ban, that is  between 6 Novem­ber and 4 December,in 1412,  on the shores of the Kura. Kara Yusuf’s army out num­bered that of the Shir­van­shah and his allies,they were all sur­rounded and taken pris­oner. Kara Yusuf cap­tured the Shir­van­shah, his seven sons, the ret­inue, the Geor­gian king, and his many princes and aznaurs. They were all brought in front of the mejlis (assem­bly) of mil­i­tary nobles of Kara Yusuf. The Geor­gian king and his 300 aznaurs were exe­cuted with­out much ado, rank-and-file Shir­van sol­diers were set free with­out ran­som, while the Shir­van nobles, the Shir­van­shah among them, were clamped in irons and sent to prison. After rout­ing and plun­der­ing the Shir­van cities and vil­lages, Kara Yusuf stole about one mil­lion head of cat­tle. Con­stan­tine II was exe­cuted by Pir Budag, son of Kara Yusuf.

Shir­van­shahs I Ibrahim, Sidi Ahmed, Con­stan­tine II, brother of the Geor­gian tsar, Shir­van­shahs sons Qezen­fer, Esedulla, Manu­cohr, Abdur­rah­man, Nas­rat­ul­lah and Hashim, his brother Sheikh Behlül, Shir­van was cap­tured by his renowned sci­en­tists. Things took a dif­fer­ent turn — the heads of the mer­chant and hand­i­craft com­mu­ni­ties in Tabriz came to the divan of Kara Yusuf to ask him to accept the ran­som in goods. At that time, even wealthy mer­chants did not always have ready money at hand, while whole­sale trade was based on barter. Kara Koyunlu accepted goods total­ing 1,200 tumans, later Shir­van­shah Ibrahim I repaid the debt.

Kara Yusuf greeted the ran­somed Shir­van­shah with great hon­ours, he seated him next to him­self at the feast and poured his wine for him himself.

Ibrahim I died in 1417. His son Khalilul­lah I (1417–1462) ascended the throne. As a strong and skil­ful ruler, he con­tin­ued the pol­icy of his father and  under his gov­er­nance  the state grad­u­ally regained its strength. Khalilul­lah I refused to remain a vas­sal of the Kara Koyunlu padishahs.

After occu­pa­tion to Tabriz, Shahrukh Sul­tan came to for spend the win­ter in Karabakh. (1420)

Halilul­lah  mar­ried in Karakopak  (Fuzuli). Halilul­lah grand­son of Timur’s son (daugh­ter of Abu Bakr) expanded    the rela­tions between place for dervishes and timuri of dervishes. Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah strength­ened their forces with  Sul­tan Shahrukh  and  estab­lished diplo­matic rela­tions  with neigh­bor­ing states.

He sug­gested to  mes­sen­ger of Muham­mad Bakuyi sent to the Sul­tan of the Ottoman Mehmet to join the coali­tion against Kara Koyunlu. (1413–1431) Sul­tan Mehmet I refused to sup­ply that old union with Kara Koyunlus.

The war con­tin­ued. In May 1421, Kara Isk­ender, son of Kara Yusuf (1420–1429, 1431–1435), resumed mil­i­tary action against Sul­tan Shah Rukh and his ally Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I. On 1 August, 1421, the sides met for a deci­sive bat­tle in the Alashk­ert val­ley at Der­bend. This time, the sul­tan defeated and scat­tered the army of Kara Isk­ender; how­ever in the fall of 1421, the sul­tan pulled his forces out of Azerbaijan.

Thus the Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I estab­lished friendly rela­tions with one of the Timurids, namely, Sul­tan Shah Rukh (1409–1447) who ruled Cen­tral Asia and almost the whole of Iran. Sul­tan Shah Rukh, the most for­mi­da­ble of Kara Yusuf’s oppo­nents, took advan­tage of the oppor­tu­nity to weaken Kara Koyunlu and split it.

Kara Iskan­der attacked Shirvan,in 1425. Keyqubad , Isaac and Hashim broth­ers of Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I went against him. Shir­van­shah Halilul­lah I appealed to Shahrukh Sul­tan  and was revolted with the help of his of broth­ers revel. Accord­ing to the sources, (in 1427, 1430, and 1434), he tried to con­quer Shir­van three times and failed each time.

In 1427, he mis­cal­cu­lated and started a war on two fronts, he attacked Shir­van in an effort to sub­ju­gate the Shir­van­shah and started a war against Sul­tan Shah Rukh.

In May 1429, Shah Rukh led his 100 thousand-strong army against Kara Isk­ender; the Shir­van troops of Halilul­lah I sided with the sul­tan. Kara Isk­ender was defeated at Salmas; the vic­tor cap­tured Tabriz, the cap­i­tal of Kara Koyunlu. Sul­tan Shah Rukh pre­served the state under Abu Seyyid (1429–1431), one of Kara Yusuf’s sons, who accepted his vas­salage and received, in return, a deed grant­ing him the right to rule South­ern Azer­bai­jan, Karabakh, and part of Asia Minor. [Mirk­hond, t.VI, c 332–333]

Abu Yusuf, the son of Sul­tan Said Black Shahrukh Karakoyunlu del­e­gated to the throne  and went on to Karabakh to the barracks.

A copy of sil­ver tanga minted in Ard­abil has been found in the Murad­khan trea­sure.  Nev­er­the­less the coins were struck anony­mously, it is doubt­less that  they were minted by Khalilul­lah I. It is also worth to men­tion that, the Shir­van gov­er­nors who were attempt­ing to united Azer­bai­jan attacked many times the south­ern regions Thus,  Ibrahim I  instructed to mint the tan­gas on behalf of Shadibay,  a war­lorde of Golden  Horde dur­ing his march to Tabriz. The anony­mous tanga , a pro­duc­tion of Ard­abil mint house was minted by Shir­van­shah Khalilul­lah I, who sup­ported Sul­tan Shahrukh  through­out  his attack to  the state of Karakoy­on­lus.  It might be the case that the rea­son of the con­flict between  the dynasty of Shir­van­shahs and  Ard­abili sheykhs  was the occu­pa­tion of Ard­abil by  Shir­van rulers  and their claims towards this land.

Shahrukh Sul­tan returned to Herat and left Azer­bai­jan (in 1430). Kara Yusuf’s sons were still in fight for power. In 1430, when Timurid’s troops had been pulled out, Padishah Kara Isk­ender showed up in Azer­bai­jan; in 1431, after mur­der­ing Abu Seyyid in a bloody frat­ri­cide, he recap­tured the throne.  (1436 year )Kara  Isk­ender, son of his father’s side of Yar Ali fled with two thou­sand horse­men came near of  I Halil­lul­lah. The refusal of the request to take Yar Ali Isk­ender attacked Shir­van. Yar Ali sent brought the ship from the port of  Baku put him Halilul­lah Herat by sea. Shir­van armies of  Isk­ender dev­as­tated the put bonds the pros­per­ous cities and vil­lages of the black areas of crops destroyed, has achieved more than 300 exe­cuted the acqui­si­tion of Shirvan.

Accord­ing to Mirx­on­dun judge Gush­tasb con­veyed Alexan­der Car­pet Shir­van Kara Yusuf  from Mah­mud­abad Halilul­lah  the news of attack and asked him for help . [Mirk­hond, t.VI, c 332–333]

In the autumn of 1434 moved to Azer­bai­jan from Heart. Isk­ender heard to come of Shahrukh and  had left . Bat­tle that took place between the par­ties, resulted in the vic­tory of Shahrukh. Isk­ender Alinja hid in fortress. Qubad Shah was assas­i­nated by his son. (1436–1437). Sul­tan Shahrukh  by enter­ing the year 1435–1436 in Tabriz, the youngest son of  Kara Yusuf was appointed ref­eree Karakoyunlu Cahan­shah and he went to Karabakh spend­ing  the winter.

Halilul­lah arrived  (1434–1435) to meet  with Far­ruh. After the death of Isgen­der, I Halilul­lah dom­i­nated struc­tur­ing activ­i­ties by estab­lish­ing peace­ful rela­tions with  Karakoyunlu Jahan­shah. How­ever, later Shir­van lands were met with the threat of a new enemy. This  was related result of Sheikh Junayd with the emer­gence. In 1456, Uzun Hasan mar­ried  his  sis­ter to the orders leader Sheykh Juneyd, a direct descen­dat of its founder Shayk Safi al-Din and  con­ducted an active pol­icy to start prepa­ra­tions to con­quer Shirvan.

He wanted to describe it as a sacred war against the athe­ists attack in Dages­tan. Mil­i­tary of  Juneyd  forces 10000  peo­ple attacked Shir­van  in 1460. Sheikh Juneyd was defeated by Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah  and died in 1460.  His tomb is located in the sacred place of the vil­lage of Hazra of Gusar region. (His­tory of Amini, p [65].  His mother died in 1435 and his son died in 1442, at the age of seven. Ten more tombs were dis­cov­ered later on; these may have belonged to other mem­bers of the Shah’s fam­ily, includ­ing two more sons who died dur­ing his own lifetime.

The vast major­ity of the coins were minted on the occa­sion of birth of  shahzadeh Far­rukh Yasar in  845 (1441).  Khalilul­lah  I.  spilled over in sor­row after the death of his elder son, ordered to mint new coins in con­se­quence of birth of his new suc­ces­sor to the throne.

After Shir­van­shah I Khalilul­lah died in 1465, his son Far­rukh Yaser (1465–1500) came to the power in Shir­van­shah.  Dur­ing the rule of Far­rukh Yaser, Shir­van­shahs state was attacked by Ard­abil rulers —  Sheikh Hey­dar and his son Ismayil. In 1500, Ard­abil ruler Ismayil’s army attacked Shir­van­shah and defeated Shir­van army in Jabani bat­tle occu­pied Shamakhi. Though Shir­van­shah Far­rukh Yaser died in the bat­tle, his son Gazi bey who came to power refused obey­ing to Safavis. In the fol­low­ing years, I Ismayil attacked to Shir­van two times, and though he occu­pied Shamakhi, Shir­van­shahs achieved to pro­tect and keep their inde­pen­dence. Safavis suc­ceeded to end the exis­tence of Shir­van­shahs state in 1538, dur­ing  the author­ity of Shah I Tahmasib.

The revealed coins include  tan­gas struck  in the mint­ing houses of Shir­van­shahs state at the end of XIV cen­tury – in the mid­dle of XV cen­tury. The tan­gas were mainly mint in Shamakhi and Der­bend mint­ing houses.  The trea­sure con­tains two copies of Baku, two copies of  Gabala and one copy of Ard­abil sil­ver coins.

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Akif Guliyev

 

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