Lankaran, a city in the Talish region, was previously held by Mir-Mostafa Khan of the Talysh Khanate, a subject of Iran.

Shortly before the siege, Kotlyarevsky had offered the 4,000 stationed soldiers and their commander Sadeq Khan Qajar the chance to surrender, but they refused.

[2] Like other khanates in the Caucasus, it was still seen as an Iranian dependency even when the shahs (kings) in mainland Iran lacked the power to enforce their rule in the area.

[7] Abbas Mirza had ignored British officers' requests to set up guards at Aslanduz in order to deter Russian assaults.

As a result, Russian commander Pyotr Kotlyarevsky led two successful ambushes against the Iranians, causing significant damage and stealing most of Abbas Mirza's artillery.

Due to Abbas Mirza's withdrawal towards Tabriz following the battle of Aslanduz, Kotlyarevsky had time to attack Lankaran.

[12] He had the majority of his troops organized into three columns, but had his artillery surrounded by two companies from the Georgian Grenadier Regiment to give impression that he intended to launch the main assault from that place.

Major Abkhazov of the Georgian Grenadiers succeeded in scaling the wall, thus making the Iranian artillery shift their focus.

The silver mace of Sadeq Khan, two banners, eight artillery pieces, an enormous amount of supplies and ammunition were all taken by the Russians.

However, Iran was soon compelled to accept a unfavourable peace as Britain decided it was no longer worth continuing the conflict.

Now that Mir-Mostafa Khan was in land ruled by the Russians, Fath-Ali Shah was unable to punish him physically, and thus tried to find other means to do it.