Battle of Sultanabad

The Battle of Sultanabad occurred on February 13, 1812, between the Russian Empire and Persian Empire. In the resulting battle, the Russians were routed.

Battle of Sultanabad
Part of the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)

This painting once decorated the Abbas Mirza's palace. Depicted on this huge canvas is the defeat of the Russian Trinity Infantry Regiment in the battle near Sultanabad, which took place on 13 February 1812. Persian soldiers wearing European uniforms and bearing Persian banners, on which a lion holds a sabre in its paw against a background of the rising sun.[1]
Date13 February 1812
Location
Sultanabad, Aras River, Qajar Persia (nowadays Azerbaijan)
Result Persian victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire Persian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Pyotr Kotlyarevsky Abbas Mirza
Strength
900[2] 2,300[2]
Casualties and losses
More than 300 (including the Russian commander and 12 other officers)[2]
or 500 killed or wounded[3]		 100[3]
or 140 (including 2 British sergeants)[2]

The Persians, numerically superior,[3] were led by Abbas Mirza and fought the Russians led by Pyotr Kotlyarevsky. A Persian offensive into Georgia, with their British and French trained Nezam-e Jadid infantry,[4] initiated the battle. The Persians had also obtained European cannons from the French.[4]

The Persians won the battle by moving faster than the Russians and attacking them near their camp. Although this was a minor victory for the Persians, Abbas Mirza tried to show it as a major victory.

In the end however the Persians lost the invasion due to the Russian maneuvering around the Aras River which culminated in the Battle of Aslanduz. The Persians would have given up had it not been for the news of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in the spring.

References
  1. "Battle Between Persians and Russians". State Hermitage Museum. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
  2. Atkin, Muriel (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780–1828. University of Minnesota Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0816609246.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Denis Wright, The English Amongst the Persians: Imperial Lives in Nineteenth-Century Iran, (I.B.Tauris, 2001), 52.
  4. Building a new Army:Military reform in Qajar Iran, Stephanie Cronin, War and Peace in Qajar Persia, ed. Roxane Farmanfarmiaian, (Routledge, 2008), 53.

Bibliography
  • Roxane Farmanfarmiaian (editor). (2008) War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-42119-5
  • Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Volume 36, Tehran Author, Article Title, page numbers needed
  • Atkin, Muriel. (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780 - 1828. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-5697-4
  • Kazemzadeh, Firuz. (1974). Russian Penetration of the Caucasus. In Russian Imperialism: From Ivan the Great to the Revolution, ed. Taras Hunczak. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-0737-5

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