Malik Yeqan

Avan-khan III or Yegan (Armenian: Ավան խան or Մելիք Եգան) was the Armenian ruler of Dizak from 1716 to 1744 and the ancestor of and families.

Origin He was born in the village of Artu in the province of Lori in the family of vardapet Lukas from the Avanid dynasty.

Biography Melik Avan moved to the village of Tugh in Dizak where he became a melik. Here his father restored the Gtich monastery. Avan erected a magnificent church in the village and fortified the settlement with circumferential walls. The Palace of Dizak Meliks he built in the same village decorated with Armenian inscriptions is still preserved today.

From 1722 to 1728, he participated in the liberation struggle of Armenians against foreign domination under the command of Davit Bek. The military talent of the ruler of the Principality of Dizak was noted by the Persian and Russian courts.

During the reign of Empress of Russia Anna Ioannovna he went with his retinue to Russia, where he met with a wonderful reception. The Russian tsarina for the services rendered by him to Peter the Great during the Persian campaigns granted melik Avan the rank of major general and various orders.

The Persian Shah Nader in 1736 appointed him khan and beylerbey of all the provinces of the Karabakh khanate. He was raised to the baronial dignity of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor of Austria under the name of Johann von Giovanni.

In 1741, Avan Khan at the invitation of Elizabeth of Russia attended the celebrations on the occasion of her coronation. At the festivities the khan negotiated and held a series of meetings with the queen and high-ranking officials of Russia. An inscription on his tombstone reads:

Family He had at least two wives. One of them was Armenian Khanum-aga begum, who is mentioned on the wall of the church of St. Hovhannes in the village of Tugh. Cyril Toumanoff mentions his wife Gohar-Khanum.

He had many sons: Aram, Esayi, Altoukhan,

The first two sons successively inherited from their father the titles of meliks. Two other sons were forcibly held hostage at the Shah's court were converted to Islam and elevated in Iran to the rank of khan. The remaining sons and their families continued to live in Karabakh under various surnames.