[citation needed] In 1803, the newly appointed commander of Russian forces in the Caucasus, Paul Tsitsianov, attacked Ganja.

Javad Khan defended heroically and the siege lasted a month, Tsitsianov renewed demands to surrender five times, but to no avail.

By noon the battle began to subside, and broke again only for a moment when, according to Tstsianov,[11][12] the soldiers came upon five hundred men, who have entrenched themselves in the Juma mosque.

[12] At first they offered to surrender, but when one Armenian said that among them are some Lezgins, it was the signal for the death of all defenders, because the hatred of Lezghins was so strong among the Russian troops.

His younger son, Ughurlu, survived, went to Iran and later fought the Russian Empire when the Iranians attacked Ganja in the second Russo-Persian war.

Shah gathered a 30,000-strong force and sent them to Ganja, but the force did not reach the Ganja in time because of the coldness of January and also because Hossein Khan Sardar, the governor khan of the Erevan Khanate had rebelled against the Shah[need quotation to verify] and only one letter carrier, Saied Bayk, reached the town in time.

Thereafter, Tsitsianov changed the name of the city to Yelizavetpol, after empress consort Elizabeth Alexeievna, the wife of tsar Alexander I of Russia.

[24] The issue was now no longer to impose tribute on the Lezgins or about re-asserting Persian domination over Christian Georgia,[24] which had happened several years before; now, the integrity of Shi'ite Iran itself had been violated by the invasion of the town of Ganja.

[1] Other main places of Qarapapaq residence are the provinces of Ardahan (around Lake Çıldır), Kars and Iğdır in Turkey.