The role of rivalry between Ziadoghli and Bagratoni families in the beginning of Iran-Russia wars

The Ziadoghli dynasty ruled the Ganja khanate and the Bagratoni dynasty ruled the governorship of Georgia and were considered prominent rival powers in the South Caucasus. After the death of Nadershah Afshar, the rivalry of these two local governments appeared in the form of territorial disputes and reached its peak with the tendency of the Georgians to the Russians and the Ziadoghlis to the Qajar government. The present study aims to investigate the competition of two local families, Ziya Oghli and Bagratoni, in the South Caucasus after the death of Nader Shah, using a descriptive-analytical method, and investigate the role of this competition as one of the reasons for the occupation of the lands of the Khanate of Ganja of Tsarist Russia. The findings show that at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the two powers of Qajar Iran and Tsarist Russia were looking for part of their interests in the South Caucasus. Thus, under the pretext of the Treaty of Georgievsk and the support of the Bagratoni family and the Qajars, the Russians set out for the Caucasus with the aim of restoring the borders of the Safavian government, suppressing the local centripetal powers and supporting the Ziyaoghli dynasty. Each time, with the support of one of these two extra-local powers, the balance of power between the two local governments of Ziyad Oghli and Bagratoni was upset, and the fate of the lands under their control changed one after another, and finally, this conflict and competition ended with the occupation of Ganja by the Russians.