MELIQ-BEGLARIANS

THE MELIQ-BEGLARIANS, Meliq-Beglaroffs

This was a princely house ruling over Gulistan-Talish principality of Artsakh (Karabakh). The domain of the Meliq-Beglarians was stretching from the Qurak river in the environs of Gandzak (Ganja) through the left bank of the Tharthar river in its lower stream. The paternal estates of the Meliq-Beglarians were the Gulistan fortress and the village of Talish, now in the present-day Martakert region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The church of Horek served as their family burial ground.

The Meliq-Beglarians had formed an independent meliq house at the beginning of the 17th century as a result of the branching out of the Aranian-Vaxthangian and Hasan-Jalalian houses. The Meliq-Beglarians themselves trace their origins back to the founder of the Aranian-Aranshahik dynasty, patriarch Aran, who was a direct descendant of Hayk the Projenitor. The family, however, received its name from prince Beglar I, who extended the territorial possessions of his father, Abov the Black, by restoring to them the fortress of Gulistan and forming a principality of the same name. Beglar I's son, Abov II, married the only daughter of khan of Gandzak and became an owner of a big fortune. Many representatives of the house, like meliq Beglar II, meliq Abov II, and a few others, were prominent political and military personages in Eastern Armenia. Together with the other princely houses of Artsakh, the Meliq-Beglarians took an active part in the liberation struggle in the beginning of the 18th century. Saruxan-bek, the son of meliq Thamraz, who commanded few divisions of the Armenian joint army during the campaign of 1723, was from the Meliq-Beglarian family.

At the end of the 18th century, trying to escape the persecutions of the Persian rulers of Shushi, the entire house of the Meliq-Beglarians and some 500 families of their subjects, first emigrated to Georgia, and then to Gandzak. In 1799 prince Freydun Meliq-Beglarian visited St. Petersburg, where he entered into negotiations on the Russian support for the liberation struggle of the Artsakh Armenians against Persia. During this same year Russian tsar Paul I by a special decree transferred Agjakala and part of Xachen-Borchalu (in today’s southern Georgia) under the rule of prince Freidun. However, due to frequent controversies with the local Georgians, in 1801 the Meliq-Beglarians and their subjects returned to Gulistan and managed to gain back their hereditary princely rights. Up untill the second half of the 19th century the Meliq-Beglarian house ruled over 18 villages of the Gulistan meliqdom. After Russia established its rule over Artsakh in 1813, many representatives of the Meliq-Beglarians entered into Russian state service and were recognized as hereditary nobles. Some of the representatives of this family left for Europe or the British colonies (like prince David, who established his residence in India). David-bek of Thalish, who in 1905 participated with his cavalry in the defense of the Armenian quarters of Gandzak (Ganja) from the Azeri extremists, was a member of the Meliq-Beglarian family.

References:
1. Raffi. Meliqdoms of Xamsa. Yerevan, 1991;
2. Ulubabian, Bagrat. Principalities of Xachen in the 10th to 16th Centuries. Yerevan, 1975;
3. Barxudariants, M. Artsakh. Baku, 1895;
4. Magalian, Artak. Of the Armenian Meliqdoms. Venice, 2004-2005.

Source:
Published with author’s permission