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Azerbaijani historians consider Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov (1794–1847) the founder of Azerbaijani scientific historiography. The Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Azerbaijan is named after him.
A few words about his biography. Bakinkhanov was the son of Mirza Muhammad, Khan of Baku. For his time, he received good education. In addition to the local Turkic language, he mastered the Persian, Arabic, Russian and French languages. From 1819 he served in the Russian army. He participated in the 1826-1828 Russian-Persian and 1828-1829 Russian-Turkish wars. He wrote fiction and historical works, also worked as a translator.
One of his most prominent historiographical works is “Gülüstani-İrəm” (“The Heavenly Rose-Garden”, 1841).
It should be emphasized that he wrote it in Persian. The book was published in 1844 and translated into Russian under the title “History of the Eastern part of the Caucasus”. The Azerbaijani translation of the book was published only in 1951.
Azerbaijani historiography tries to present this work as the first attempt to write a complete history of Azerbaijan. The problem is that it can be considered a source for writing the history of Shirvan, Dagestan and some neighbouring areas, but not Azerbaijan, since there was no “state of Azerbaijan” in the region before that. The historical region of Azerbaijan is in the territory south of the Araks River, in Iran.
In the work, which consists of a preface, four chapters and an epilogue, Bakikhanov covers the history of Shirvan and Dagestan and, in general, the East Caucasus, since the ancient times to 1813.
In the first chapter, relying on medieval eastern sources, the author presents a brief history of the ancient period of the region. The second chapter presents the history of the region during the period of Arab rule. There is also a separate reference to the anti-Arab rebellion of Babak in the 9th century. The third chapter recounts the history of the region during the rule of Ilkhanate and Timurid empires, as well as the history of Shirvanshahs. There is also information about Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu. The fourth chapter is devoted to the Safavid empire, Nader Shah, Ottoman-Persian wars, Russian campaigns to the Caucasus. The last, fifth chapter describes the events that took place after the assassination of Nader Shah until the conclusion of the peace treaty of Gulistan. In the epilogue, the author presents the biographies of renowned people of Shirvan and surrounding areas.
Although Azerbaijanis consider Bakikhanov the founder of their historiography, in the comments in Bakikhanov’s published books they try to falsify historical data, presenting them in accordance with the guidelines of Azerbaijani state propaganda. In this regard, the famous Azerbaijani historian Ziya Bunyadov (1921-1997)[1] stands out in particular. He worked hard on Bakikhanov’s book “Gülüstani-İrəm” published in Russian[2] (1991, Baku) and it was criticized even by famous Iranologists Willem Marius Floor and Hassan Javadi. They point out a number of falsifications in the book[3].
And why did Bunyadov and other Azerbaijani so-called “historians” deliberately distort the work written by Bakikhanov? The problem is that in his work Bakikhanov, as mentioned above, repeatedly relies on the information given by Armenian historians; besides, he also mentions about Armenians and Armenia from ancient times to his days. This, of course, can have no place in Azerbaijan’s official, ideological false historiography, where they mainly advance the false thesis that Armenians are newcomers and did not play any significant role in the region.
As a result, it turns out that on the one hand, Bakikhanov is the founder of Azerbaijani scientific historiography, and on the other hand, he deviated from the modern Azerbaijani nationalist, anti-Armenian “historical” concept already in the first half of the 19th century. Of course, Bakikhanov, who lived in the 19th century, had no idea that he was an Azerbaijani and would become the founder of Azerbaijani scientific historiography.
Here are some examples from Bakikhanov's book about Armenia and Armenians.
According to A. Bakikhanov, the borders of ancient Armenia passed along the Kura River[4]. Of course, there is no mention of Azerbaijan. He refers only to Armenia, Georgia and Caucasian Albania.
Bakikhanov's book also includes the history of St. Gregory the Illuminator and Armenian king Tiridates, the construction of Etchmiadzin and other events related to the declaration of Christianity as the state religion in Armenia[5]. The author quite justly presents this as the most important history of the early medieval Armenian state. There is no mention of Azerbaijan whatsoever.
Bakikhanov also writes that Muhammad, the son of Seljuk Sultan Melik-shah (1072-1092) ruled over Syria, Diyar Bakr and Azerbaijan (here, by saying Azerbaijan, Bakikhanov refers to the territory of historical Atropatene), Mughan, Armenia and Shirvan[6]. Thus, the author makes a clear distinction between Atropatene, Armenia, Shirvan and Mughan as separate territories.
In another part of the book Bakikhanov, referring to the Russian-Turkish agreement concerning the countries of the region, mentions the territories (Armenia, Georgia and most of Shirvan) that remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire[7]. There is no mention of Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus.
In another part of the book, while describing the events that took place in Artsakh, Bakikhanov states that with Melik Shahnazar’s help, Panah Khan, the chief of the Sarjallu branch of the Javanshir clan, settled in Shushi. He notes that Panah started a war against the local Armenian melikdoms[8]. This part does not fit into the theses of Azerbaijani false historiography either, according to which Armenians “settled in the territory of Artsakh in the 19th century and did not have any power there”.
In another part, Bakikhanov mentions that the Qajars were one of the clans of the Jelairian Turks, who were displaced to Iran by the Mongol Hulegu Khan. There were about 200,000 such families. Afterwards, Tamerlane gave part of them - about 50,000 families - territories in the South Caucasus[9]. Bakikhanov adds that later, during the reign of the Safavid dynasty, many of them held government positions and ruled Armenia and Shirvan. Thus, there is no mention of Azerbaijan, and according to the author, there are only Armenia and Shirvan in the region.
Bakikhanov mentions that the mass settlement of Turkic-speaking tribes in the territory of the South Caucasus took place only in the 14th century.
In the epilogue of his book, speaking about his travels, A. Bakikhanov mentions the territories (Shirvan, Armenia, Dagestan, Circassia, Georgia, Anatolia and Azerbaijan) he visited[10]. Here, the author of the book again separates Shirvan from Azerbaijan, by which he understood the historical Iranian Atropatene.
Thus, Bakikhanov, the Turkic-speaking historian from Shirvan who wrote in the first half of the 19th century, unwittingly retorts Azerbaijani falsifiers, refutes their false theses about the old Azerbaijani state, the migration of Armenians, and Artsakh being non-Armenian.
[1] The prominent Soviet Օrientalist Igor Dyakonov recollects an interesting incident in his memoir regarding that infamous “historian”. Describing a party organized in his honor in Baku, Dyakonov notes that a hero of the USSR was also present at the meeting, and he later became famous for publishing one of the medieval Muslim sources, carefully removing all references to Armenians. Dyakonov makes an interesting observation in this book, also mentioning that although Azerbaijan was going to celebrate the jubilee of the poet Nizami, however, that medieval author was Iranian, not Azerbaijani. See Дьяконов И. М., Книга воспоминаний, СПб., 1995, с. 731.
[2] Гюлистан-и Ирам, Баку, Элм, 1991, 304 с.
[3] The Heavenly Rose-Garden: A History of Shirvan & Daghestan. Abbas-Kuli-Aga Bakikhanov, Willem Floor, Hasan Javadi, Mage Publishers, 2009.
[4] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 11.
[5] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 24.
[6] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 37.
[7] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 67.
[8] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 77.
[9] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 85.
[10] See Гюлистан-и Ирам, 1991, с. 101.