The Javanshirs (Azerbaijani: Cavanşirlər; Persian: جوانشیران – Javānširān) are a Turkic clan from Karabakh,[1] who are a branch of the Oghuz Turks.

[3] Panah Ali Khan, forefather of the dynasty and founder of the Karabakh Khanate, was a representative of an ancestral aristocracy of a Turkic tribe called Javanshir.

[4] After Nader Shah's accession to power in Iran, he was called for a service by him, but after several years, in 1738, he was forced to escape from Khorasan to the North, Shaki and Shirvan, with a group of supporters.According to Mirza Adigozal-bey, Nader Shah replaced murdered Fazl Ali-bey with his younger brother, “handed him the chomak (staff), clad him in the clothes of an eshik-agasy, and conferred on him the rights of his dead elder brother;” Mirza Adigozal-bey believed that Panah Ali-bey found it undignified to “carry the chomak, bow to Nader Shah, and talk to his osauls.”[2] Due to Nader Shah killing his brother, he went off to plunder wealth with his tribesmen and went into hiding.

[citation needed] At that time, Otuziki, Javanshir and Kebirli tribes, which were forcibly evicted to Khorasan, returned to Karabakh.

Turkic tribes Otuziki, Javanshir and Kebirli dwelling in low-lying regions, became a kernel of the Karabakh Khanate.

Knowing about these discussions, Agha Mohammad Khan gathered a great army with overall strength of 85 thousand people, went over the Aras River and approached Shusha, in 1795.

But after conquering Shusha, Agha Mohammad Khan was murdered by his servants and losing its leader the Iranian army left Karabakh.

[5] Ibrahim Khalil Khan was obliged to pay an annual tribute of 8,000 chevrons,[citation needed] and allowed the Russian garrison to enter Shusha.

In the spring of 1806, when the Iranian army consisting of 20 thousand soldiers arrived at Shusha, lieutenant-colonel Lisanevich, commander of the Russian garrison, ordered 80-years-old Ibrahim Khalil Khan for suspicion and betrayal and annihilated all his family (including of his wives and a lot of little children).

Per the treaty, the conversion of the Karabakh Khanate to Russia was recognized and Qajar Iran was forced to officially cede it alongside much of its other Caucasian territories comprising modern-day Georgia, Dagestan, and most of the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan.

[citation needed] In November 1822, fearing the wrath of the Russians for the overtures he had made to the Iranian government, he escaped to Iran,[5] so hastily that he even forgot the state seal in Shusha.

The Iranians did not succeed to conquer Shusha, which was desperately defensed by the Russian garrison of lieutenant-colonel Reutt, and were eventually driven out.