The Melikdom of Varanda was one of the five Armenian melikdoms of the Karabakh region. It encompassed Varanda, a district located in the southeastern part of Karabakh.[1][2]
The ruling meliks (princes) of the principality belonged to the Shahnazarian family, who not long before their rise to power lived in an area around Lake Sevan, from which they eventually fled.[3] The melikdom was established in 1606, when Melik Shahnazar of Gegham installed his brother at Varanda, which he himself had received as a reward by Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), the Safavid shah (king) of Iran.[4] Prior to the takeover of the Shahnazarians, Varanda was ruled by another line of meliks, the last ruler of which was Melik Muzaffar.[5] Varanda and the other melikdoms upheld the notion of Armenian statehood, which was used by the Safavids to fight the Ottoman Empire.[6] The Shahnazarian family was one of the last families to lose their melikdom, which occurred in 1813, when the Russian Empire conquered it.[7]
The seat of the meliks of Varanda was at Avetaranots (Chanakhchi).[8] The fortress of Askeran protected the eastern frontier of the melikdom.[8] In 1719–1724, the Karabakh Armenian military commander Avan Yuzbashi built the sghnakh (military camp) of Shushi or Shusha in Varanda.[9] Later, Melik Shahnazar II of Varanda showed the site of Shusha to his ally Panah Ali Khan, who expanded it into a proper fortress and capital for the Karabakh Khanate.[9][10]
This list is taken from Artak Maghalyan's The Melikdoms and Melik Houses of Artsakh in the 17th-19th Centuries.[11]