Jafargulu agha Javanshir was an Azerbaijani poet and public figure and was a major-general of the Russian Army.
Background
Javargulu Agha was born in 1787, in Shusha. He was the elder son of Mammadhasan agha Javanshir, a major-general of the Russian army and legatee of Ibrahimkhalil khan of Karabakh. After his father’s death in November 1805, “he was recognized as a legal heir of the Karabakh Khanate by the Russian government” and conferred a gold medal with the inscription “Karabakh’s Legatee”.
Career
Nevertheless, Jafargulu Agha’s uncle major-general Mehdigulu khan was promoted to khan of Karabakh “for political reasons” by a supreme order, after murder of Ibrahim Khalil khan, by lieutenant-colonel Lisanevich in 1806. Jafargulu Agha was especially distinguished during the Russo-Persian War on 1804-1813, when he destroyed Iranians under Ordubad and Qafan, in 1806, by commanding horse cavalry of Karabakh. On January 2, 1807 he was promoted directly to colonel by a supreme order.
On February 20, 1820 colonel Jafargulu Agha was conferred a golden gun “with diamonds and jewel adornments” with a ligature “Foreign Courage”.
Mehdigulu khan carried on a struggle against him, but in the issue he was forced to escape to Iran. Karabakh khanate was abolished and became a province of Russia.
Jafargulu Agha wrote poems under a pseudonym “Nava”. Jafargulu agha died in 1867 and was buried in an ancestral cemetery, in Shusha.
From these marriages, Jafargulu agha had three sons – Abdulla Pasha Agha, Karim Agha and Hidayat Agha.