Origins and Early Life
Panah Ali Khan was from the Sarijali branch of the clan of Javanshir, who with their associate clan of Otuz-Iki (meaning thirty-two in Azerbaijani) had for long been rivals of the Yirmi-Dört (meaning twenty-four in Azerbaijani) and Ziyadoglu Qajars of Ganja, whose chiefs had been official rulers of Karabakh since Safavid times.
Panah Ali's paternal great grandfather and namesake Panah Ali bey served at the court of Ganja beylerbeys (governors) in the early 17th century, at the time when the region's was directly controlled by the Safavid Empire of Iran. He soon retired, married a woman from the Javanshir clan of Karabakh and had a son by the name of Ali (nicknamed Sarija Ali). They lived in their estate located in Arasbar (Arasbaran) (present-day Khojavend and Agdam rayons of Azerbaijan) but also owned land in Tartar and the northern shores of the Aras River. The Arasbar estate was rebuilt into a castle in Sarija Ali's son Ibrahim Khalil's lifetime and has been known as Ibrahim Khalil Galasi since.
After the dethronement of the Safavids in 1736 by Nader Shah, the landed classes of Ganja and Karabakh gathered in Mugan (the Javanshirs were also among them) deciding to oppose the usurper's reign and agreeing on trying to get the Safavids back on the throne. When this news reached Nadeh Shah, he ordered all Muslim landowners of the region and their families deported to Khorasan (northeastern Iran) as a punishment. Thus the future khan Panah Ali happened to be among the deportees.
In 1747, Panah Ali, by then already a successful naib and royal gérant de maison, found himself displeased with Nader Shah's attitude towards him and having gathered many of those deported from Karabakh in 1736, returned to his homeland. Due to his reputation as a skillful warrior and his wealthy ancestor's legacy in Karabakh, Panah Ali proclaimed himself and was soon recognized throughout most of the region as a ruler (khan). The shah sent troops to bring back the runaway however the order was never fulfilled: Nader Shah himself was killed in Khorasan in June of the same year. The new ruler of Persia, Adil Shah issued a firman (decree) recognizing Panah Ali as the Khan of Karabakh.
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