Mehdigulu Khan Javanshir

Mehdigulu Khan Javanshir (Persian: مهدیقلی خان جوانشیر‎, Mehdiqoli Xān Javānšir, Azerbaijani: Mehdiqulu xan Cavanşir; 1772–1845) was the last khan of the Karabakh Khanate, functioning as its head from 1806 up to his flight in 1822.

Mehdigulu Khan was born to Ibrahim Khalil, the second Khan of Karabakh, and Khurshid Begum, daughter of Javad Khan and a granddaughter of Shahverdi Khan of Ganja. In July 1805, he was promoted to major-general by the order of Alexander I, after an agreement between his father and the Russians which stipulated that Russia would recognize him as the ruler (khan) of the khanate, and the confirmation that his son, Mehdigulu, would succeed his father.

After the murder of his father (as well as the murder of one of his wives, his daughter, and his youngest son) in 1806, Mehdigulu Khan was appointed as the Khan of Karabakh by General Ivan Gudovich. He didn't forgive the Russians for the crime they had committed, and was a secret ally of Iran during his reign. In November 1822, fearing Russia's punishment for the overtures he had made to the Iranian government, he escaped to Iran. The Khanate was subsequently abolished and transformed into a province of the Russian Empire. In 1836, he returned to Karabakh in order to be able to claim the property of his family, and lived the rest of his life as a Russian beneficiary.

His daughter, Khurshidbanu Natavan, was a prominent Azerbaijani poet.

• Bournoutian, George A. (1997). "EBRĀHĪM ḴALĪL KHAN JAVĀNŠĪR". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 1. pp. 71–73.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)