Armenians were mostly concentrated in mountainous Daralayaz, while lowland Sharur was overwhelmingly Tatar. The population in Daralayaz was engaged primarily in cattlebreeding while the residents of Sharur were engaged in agricultural farming and gardening. Manufacturing was not developed in this part of the governorate. Only 47 winemaking enterprises, 299 mills, 89 cotton-cleaning, 4 rice-cleaning factories existed in the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd.[5]
Geography
The geography of the uezd resembled a crater surrounded from the south, north and east by tall mountain ranges of the Lesser Caucasus. The plain, which made up a small part of the uezd, was close to the Aras River, into which the only river irrigating the plains, the Arpa-chay, discharged. The mountainous part of the territory was called Daralayaz and the lowland part was called Sharur. Daralayaz constituted approximately 70% of the whole uezd area and Sharur constituted approximately 30%, even though it included about half of the uezd's population. The Arpa-chay started at the southeastern tip of Lake Sevan (Gokcha) and flowed 107 versts before discharging into the Aras. It had many tributaries, the Alagyoz-chay being the longest. Approximately 12,150 desyatins of the mountainous part of uezd was forested. The temperature in the winter reached -27 °C.[5]
History
The territory of the uezd was part of Persia's Erivan and Nakhchivan Khanates until 1828, when according to the Treaty of Turkmenchay, they were annexed to the Russian Empire. It was administered as part of the Armenian Oblast from 1828 to 1840.[6] In 1844, the Caucasus Viceroyalty was re-established, in which the territory of the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd formed part of the Tiflis Governorate. In 1849, the Erivan Governorate was established, separate from the Tiflis Governorate. It was made up of the Erivan, Nakhchivan, Alexandropol, Nor Bayazet, and Ordubad uezds. Following administrative reforms, the northern part of the Nakhchivan uezd (Daralayaz) was separated to form part of the new Sharur-Daralayaz uezd in 1870.[7]
After the establishment of Soviet rule in 1920, the territory of the uezd was divided. Daralayaz (modern-day Vayots Dzor) became part of the Armenian SSR and Sharur became part of the Nakhichevan ASSR of the Azerbaijan SSR in accordance with the treaties of Moscow and Kars.[9]
Administrative divisions
The subcounties (uchastoks) of the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd in 1913 were as follows:[10]
According to the Russian Empire Census, the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd had a population of 76,538 on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 41,055 men and 35,483 women. The plurality of the population indicated Tatar[b] to be their mother tongue, with significant Armenian and Kurdish speaking minorities.[13]
Linguistic composition of the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd in 1897[13]
According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar, the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd had a population of 90,25on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 47,399 men and 42,851 women, 88,496 of whom were the permanent population, and 1,754 were temporary residents. The statistics indicated the uezd to be overwhelmingly Shia Muslim with a significant Armenian minority:[14]
According to the 1897 census, there were 58 settlements in the Sharur-Daralayaz uezd with a population over 500 inhabitants. The religious composition of the settlements was as follows:[16]
Кавказский календарь на 1913 год [Caucasian calendar for 1913] (in Russian) (68th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1913. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022.
Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
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