Mekhlu Baba

Mekhlu Baba (; ) or Mekhlu Vardapet was an early 17th-century anti-clerical leader of a movement in the South Caucasus. He led a heterodox movement that challenged the authority of the Armenian Church and its monastic elite, advocating redistribution of land and a return to perceived evangelical purity. His activity peaked between 1614 and 1618, and his movement attracted the support of marginalised groups, rural communities, and segments of the New Julfa mercantile elite.

Early life and ordination His original name and birth date is unknown. According to the chronicler Zakaria of Kanaker, he was born in Ganja and was an ethnic Udi. He was described as a person with blue sunken eyes, a long and sharp nose, a freckled and pockmarked face, a reddish and thin beard, large and sparse teeth, short of stature and sharp-headed. According to Nerses Akinian's calculations, he entered the Catholicosate of Aghvank after 1606, under Catholicos Hovhannes of Gandzasar, who was confirmed by Shah Abbas I (1588-1629) that year. He was trained at the clerical school in Gandzasar, learned psalmody and sacred music, and was ordained archdeacon. He later broke with the Church, was defrocked, and turned against the ecclesiastical order that had educated him.

He later returned to his native Ganja. There, he shaved his head and beard, changed his appearance, and presented himself before local governor Davud Khan, whom Zakaria equated with Daud Khan Undiladze, a Safavid-appointed beylerbey of Ganja-Karabakh. According to him, Mekhlu falsely claimed he had been punished by the Catholicos for preaching in the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which was seen as a fabrication intended to provoke Muslim outrage against the Armenian Church. Davud Khan summoned Catholicos Hovhannes and ordered that Mekhlu’s ecclesiastical rank and clerical garments be restored, and gave him official permission to preach.

Doctrines and movement Following his excommunication, Mekhlu presented himself as a vardapet without Church sanction. He adopted a deliberately provocative appearance — fashioning himself as a Christ-like figure, wearing a goat-hair cloak fastened by two nails, from which he earned the name Mekhlu (from + ) Baba by Muslims or Mekhlu Vardapet by Armenians. He assembled a sect which grew to over 500 members. He selected 12 armed lieutenants, modelled on the apostles, who accompanied him with swords and staffs. According to Zakaria, his sect had Turkic followers as well.

He also compiled a book of his teachings, called "Book of Collections" which included ideas like denial of clerical authority, especially of celibate monks (assertion that only married priests could properly celebrate the liturgy); rejection of Doctrine of Incarnation; Veneration of Cross, rejection of monastic landholding; emphasis on communal ownership and moral purity, as well as denunciation of wealth and luxury among the clergy. He refused food, clothing, or gifts, citing Gospel verses like "Take neither gold nor silver" and publicly humiliated monks. He was described by authors as a charismatic figure, who was eloquent in flattery, fast-talking and articulate.

Reportedly, merchants from New Julfa supported Mekhlu, both ideologically and politically. According to Grigor Daranaghtsi, they secured firmans from Shah Abbas and local khans, granting Mekhlu authority to act against vardapets, bishops, and monks throughout South Caucasus and Iran. His enemies accused him of abusing these decrees to assault clergy and seize monastic property. According to Nerses Akinian, his rise coincided with the plague years of 1615–1621, particularly severe in Yerevan in 1618. Movement exploited public fear, threatening villages that refused to expel their clergy with divine punishment or outbreaks of disease.

The Soviet Azerbaijani version further emphasised his multi-ethnic support base of Armenians, Udis, and Azerbaijanis and framed his anti-clerical campaign in Karabakh and Ganja as part of a broader anti-feudal uprising. His later persecution by the Armenian Catholicos and forced exile from Yerevan is presented not as a triumph of order over heresy, but as the suppression of a progressive movement by religious and political authorities aligned with Safavid interests.