Customer Reviews

A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-E Qarabagh

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Translator George A. Bournoutian has produced a work of meticulous scholarship. The 466 footnotes included in Mirza Jalal Qarabaghi's "History of Qarabagh" not only offer extensive biographical and historical background guide for the reader, but provide valuable references to other ancient and contemporary sources. The book also features a detailed bibliography, a glossary, and a facsimile copy of the original Persian text. Finally, A History of Qarabagh is testimony to the wide-ranging linguistic and scholarly skills of Bournoutian, whose works has established him as a leading authority on Azerbaijan and Eastern Armenia.

The study is a fully annotated English translation of Tarikh-e Qarabagh, a 19th-century manuscript on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh written by Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi, a Turkic (Azeri) historian. Without using any Armenian chroniclers, the annotator, relying primarily on Muslim historians, has assembled additional material from Arabic, Persian, Azeri and Turkish sources (dating from the 9th to the 20th centuries) on Karabakh and has incorporated it into the more than five hundred footnotes in the text. This unique work challenges the somewhat awkward claims of Azerbaijani Republic's current leadership, which still tries, albeit desperately, to deny a historic Armenian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh and prove the presence of ethnic Azeris in this region earlier than the date of their official arrival there, which is 1752 AD. The text proves beyond any doubt that the Armenians, according to all primary sources, including the author of the Tarikh-e Qarabagh, inhabited the region from pre-Christian times and constituted an absolute demographic majority in its mountainous part in mid-XVIII century. This excellent hardcover volume of 236 pages includes five specially prepared historical maps, the complete facsimile of the original manuscript, English text, glossary, assessment of the sources, bibliographical data, and index. Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's "Tarikh-E Qarabagh" is highly recommended to all historians studying the Caucasus and, in particular, Azerbaijan.

The publication of The History of Qarabagh will come as unwelcome news for the scholars responsible for asserting Azerbaijan's historical claim to Mountainous Karabagh (Nagorno-Karabakh). A History of Qarabagh is one of four primary sources of Mountainous Karabagh dating from the 19th century. All were written by Azerbaijani Turks -- three in Persian and one in Russian. As representatives of a people whose national consciousness crystallized only with the imposition of Soviet rule, Azerbaijani scholars have long grappled with a sense of insecurity and inferiority in their relations with the ancient cultures of their Armenian and Georgian neighbors. During the Soviet period, the Persian-language histories were translated into Russian and Azeri, and published in relatively small numbers with little fanfare. Since the dispute over Mountainous Karabagh erupted in 1988, the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences has reissued each of the histories in much larger printings. More important, Azerbaijani scholars have scrupulously deleted references to Armenians from the translations. A History of Qarabagh represents a serious setback for Azerbaijani efforts. As a resource for specialist, A History of Qarabagh will undoubtedly prove more useful than the publications produced by the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences. In contrast to the Azerbaijani translations, which lack annotations, Bournoutian's footnotes in A History of Qarabagh carefully compare Mirza Jamal's account with the three other 19th-century histories, as well as with additional sources. From the Azerbaijani standpoint, Bournoutian's scholarship will be difficult to dispute. The documentation for the footnotes of A History of Qarabagh relies almost exclusively on Persian and Azerbaijani sources. The publication of The History of Qarabagh is an important event. This reverend text is a great asset for everyone who is interested in serious scholarship on the Caucasus.

For a long time I wanted to get a view on Karabakh from a perspective of an Azeri historian. I would like to note that unlike many now day's historians, Mirza Jamal did not pursue political ends in exploring the history of the region. His was simply writing history for the sake of history not political implications. This made him unbiased towards Armenians and Aeries.
I highly recommend this book especially if you would like to get an unbiased glance of Azeri historian on region of Karabakh.

For a long time I wanted to get a view on Karabakh from a perspective of an Azeri historian. I would like to note that unlike many now day's historians, Mirza Jamal did not pursue political ends in exploring the history of the region. His was simply writing history for the sake of history not political implications. This made him unbiased towards Armenians and Aeries.

I highly recommend this book especially if you would like to get an unbiased glance of Azeri historian on region of Karabakh.

For a long time I wanted to get a view on Karabakh from a perspective of an Azeri historian. I would like to note that unlike many now day's historians, Mirza Jamal did not pursue political ends in exploring the history of the region. His was simply writing history for the sake of history not political implications. This made him unbiased towards Armenians and Aeries.

I highly recommend this book especially if you would like to get an unbiased glance of Azeri historian on region of Karabakh.

For a long time I wanted to get a view on Karabakh from a perspective of an Azeri historian. I would like to note that unlike many now day's historians, Mirza Jamal did not pursue political ends in exploring the history of the region. His was simply writing history for the sake of history not political implications. This made him unbiased towards Armenians and Aeries.

I highly recommend this book especially if you would like to get an unbiased glance of Azeri historian on region of Karabakh.

The book present a classic tool of Armenian propaganda. The facts are distorted, the true writings of Mirza Jamal Javanshir have been changed by the "translator" Bournoutian to fit his version of Karabakh's history. This ancient Azerbaijani land, the home of the greatest Azerbaijani writers, poets, musicians and statesmen, where ancient Albanians (ancestors of Azerbaijanis) first accepted Christianity, has been portrayed as a "part of Great Armenia". To make his "annotations" credible, the "translator" uses the name of Azerbaijani historian, in order to further mislead the readers. The author/ "translator"...END

This book, even though stylish and interesting, present a blatant distortion of facts. I, personally, doubt the fact that the book is truly a translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's notes, who is claimed to be an ethnic Azeri historians. In fact, there is no person under that name seems to be known as historian, or writer in Azerbaijan or Iran.

The undeniable fact, that Armenians moved into Karabakh region of Azerbaijan only about 150 years ago is hidden in this book. Instead, the author misrepresents Karabakh as "ancient Armenian land". The book is just another product of Armenian propaganda. Another attempt to rewrite history and justify the crimes of Armenian military against Azerbaijani population of Armenian Republic and Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

The book presents several Armenian myths as a reality. Shortly after Armenians migrated to Transcaucasia from Middle East (during the Ottoman Empire and Russian rules), the entire nation of Armenians became a victim of so-called "historians". They invented several myths, such as "the most ancient nation", "the first Christian nation", and "Great Armenia, from sea to sea". All those myths were intended to create in hearts of ordinary Armenian men and women a hatred towards their neighbors, on whose lands they settled, and encourage ethnic wars and massacres of non-Armenian population. Their goal was to "clear the land from Turks, Kurds, Jews and others", and create an "ethnically cleans state". However, they needed some "historical facts", in order to justify their crimes. And this book - is one of those myths, presented as a "historical facts".

The authors can get credit, however, for creativity in using a name of "Azerbaijani historian", to backup their writings. Of course, the poor "Azerbaijani historian" had no idea that his name would be used centuries later to sign somebody's hateful fantasies.