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 The published and unpublished archive documents of the period show that the poll-tax named ‘abrishum-i din’ (in Persian), ‘din ipaki’ or ‘ipak dini’ (in Turkish) levied from the Christians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