Quba Khanate


The Quba Khanate was a quasi-independent Safavid khanate, under Iranian suzerainty on the territory of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan from 1726–1806. The Quba Khanate was founded in the mid-1680s by Hoseyn Khan. He was the sole survivor of the massacre around 1665, when the Majales branch of the ruling Usmi family of the Qaytaq killed the Yeki-kend branch. Hoseyn Khan was a small boy who was smuggled to Iran by a few family retainers. He stayed at Shah Soleyman's court and returned to his homeland in the mid-1680s and settled in Quba where he built Ft. Khudadad.
In 1689, he came to Bashli and took back the hereditary governorship from ‘Ali Soltan Usmi of the Yeki-kand branch. He was evicted by his relatives, but his son Ahmad took Bashli in 1706 where he ruled until 1710, when the rival Majales branch of the family killed him. Under Nader Shah Hoseyn Khan son of Ahmad became governor of Qubeh and Saliyan. Hoseyn Khan was well respected, and although under his son, Fath Ali Khan, his daughter married the Usmi the relationship remained hostile.
The Khanate achieved quasi-independence after the assassination of Nader Shah in 1747 and achieved its greatest prominence under Fath Ali Khan .
As a result of conquests and successful alliances, Fath Ali Khan seized the important port of Baku, Darband, the Shamakha Khanate and the Salyan Khanate and organized expeditions as far south as Ardabil in his fight against the Zand dynasty.
The Quba Khanate received military assistance from Russia in 1775, when Russia decided to take action against the Usmi of the Qaytaq, who had kidnapped Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin, a German scientist in Russian service and who had died in captivity.
After Fath Ali Khan's death, the Khanate's influence declined. As a result of Mohammad Khan Qajar's conquests and the devastation it had brought, the Alliance of Northern khanates disintegrated. The Khanate was conquered by Russia in 1806, and was fully incorporated into newly created Shamakha Governorate by 1816.

Saytaq Khans Rulers