Javanshir clan

The Javanshir clan
Family name
Khurshidbanu Natavan—daughter of the last khan of Karabakh, Mehdiqoli khan Javanshir—with her son Mehdiqoli khan Vafa (left) and daughter Khanbike.
Region of origin	Karabakh

The Javanshirs (Azerbaijani: Cavanşirlər; Persian: جوانشیران‎‎ – Javānširān) were a Turkic clan in Karabakh, who belonged to the Afshar tribe and were in turn a branch of the Oghuz Turks. Between 1748 and 1822, members of the Javanshir clan functioned as the head of the Karabakh Khanate.

Under the rule of Safavid Iran, the Javanshirs vied with the Qajars and other Qizilbash tribes over the influence in Karabakh. In the course of the Ottoman–Safavid wars, the Javanshirs subordinated the Ottomans in 1589. In retaliation, in 1612–1613, Abbas I of Iran induced the Qajars to kill the Javanshir leaders. In 1626–1627, the Javanshir clan was placed by the shah under the stewardship of Nowruz Beg, a Georgian from the Tulashvili clan and a brother-in-law of Davud khan Allahverdi, who was invested with the governorship of Karabakh.

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. 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, Sheki and Shirvan, with a group of supporters. Here he created a detachment and was robbing and plundering during ten years.