It was a type of prebendalism in which lands were given away as fiefs to tribal military forces, thus demonstrating the Safavids' reliance on them to protect the country.

[2] The Qizilbash chieftains were rewarded with mamalek land in exchange for their military alertness and for paying limited defined sum every year.

[4][5] The plains of Karabakh were dominated by nomadic Turkic tribes, who moved to the hillsides in search of suitable pastures throughout the summer.

These Armenian-ruled principalities, which upheld the notion of Armenian statehood, were used by the Safavids to fight the Ottoman Empire.

[6] In the end of the Safavid era, the Karabakh Province consisted of the districts of Zagam, Barda, Akhtabad, Javanshir, Bargushat, Qara-Aghach (Q'araghaji in Signagi municipality), Lori-Pambak, Arasbar-Bayazidlu and Somay-Tergever.