Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, Sassanid, and Byzantine forces were prominent from the 4th century BC, followed by the Arab armies of Islam in 646.

The region, most of the time remaining in Persian hands, was officially ceded once again in 1746, when it became part of the Erivan khanate, a Muslim principality in Persia.

Under Russian administration, the area became the Surmalu uezd (with its capital at the city of Iğdır) of the Armenian Oblast and later the Erivan Governorate within the Caucasus Viceroyalty.

[9][10] After an attack into the territory by the Turkish army in October 1920, Iğdır was ceded to Turkey by the Soviet government under the Treaty of Kars.

[6][11] The area of the present-day Iğdır Province was administered by the Russian Empire as part of the Surmalu Uezd between 1828 and its capture from Persia by the Turkmenchay, and 1918.

According to the Russian family lists accounts from 1886, of the total 71,066 inhabitants of the districts 34,351 were Azerbaijanis (48.3%, mentioned as 'Tatars' in the source), 22,096 Armenians (31.1%) and 14,619 Kurds (20.6%).

[16] From comparing the statistics available in 1916 and 1927, it is evident the population of the Iğdir Province lessened by 79,582, a decline of 76% over eleven years, which is indicative of the constant state of warfare, famine and turmoil in the district between 1918 and 1920.