The article is the continuation of the research published in the Bulletin of Oriental Studies, II, 20232 and starts from the period following the fall of the rule of the Safavid power over the region. It considers the state of the Christians of Eastern Transcaucasia in the given period, and the main causes leading to their intensified conversion to Islam. The main focus is on the economic incentives of their Islamization and particularly the poll-tax levied on the Christians in Shaki khanate from the times of Haji Chelebi Khan till the mid-nineteenth century already under the Russian Rule. The published and unpublished archive documents of the period show that the poll-tax named ‘abrishum-i din’ (in Persian), ‘din ipaki’ or ‘ipak dini’ (in Turkish) levied from the Christians of Shaki khanate was rather a heavy tax and in some cases was a reason for their conversion to Islam. The Persian document represented in the article with its English translation and commentaries contains a forcible argument for this.

Keywordshristianity Islam Christians Armenians Udins conversion poll-tax-jizya

Based on the comparative analysis of the causes and prerequisites of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and the Yazidi Genocide in Sinjar, it can be concluded that the two identical crimes have much in common. Both the Armenian Genocide and the Yazidi Genocide were based on racist ideologies. If the Armenian Genocide was based on the ideology of pan-Turkism, then in the case of the Yazidi Genocide it was based on the ideology of Arabism and radical Islam. In both cases, the organizers of the genocides pursued the goal of depriving the indigenous peoples of the right to live in their homeland and taking over their territories, which became one of the main motives for committing these crimes. Along with common features, there are also certain differences. The Armenian Genocide and the Yazidi Genocide were committed in different eras and in different regions, which undoubtedly influenced the causes and preconditions of these identical crimes. The main difference in the causes and prerequisites of the two crimes is that while the Armenian Genocide was planned and prepared by the legitimate authorities of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the First World War, the beginning of which became the signal for the implementation of this crime, the genocide of the Yazidis in Sinjar was prepared and carried out by the terrorist group ISIS, which took control of certain territories of Iraq, with the complicity of the authorities of the Kurdish autonomy, under the conditions of criminal inaction of the legitimate authorities.

Keywordsthe Armenian Genocide Ottoman Empire Pan-Turkism Yazidi Genocide Sinjar Province of Iraq (Shingal) ideology of Arabism radical Islam