Shamakhi

Shamakhi (Azerbaijani: Şamaxı) or Shamakha (Russian: Шемаха) is a rayon of Azerbaijan, and a town in the rayon.

The town is 70 miles west of Baku (40 38 N 48 40 E). It has some 20,000 inhabitants, consisting of Azerbaijanis (75%), Armenians and Russians. Shamakha is famous for its traditional dance, the Dance of Shamakha which has some similarities with the traditional Persian dance. The music is a traditional Azerbaijani wedding melody and the costume is based on a 19th century watercolor.

Though Shamakhi has gone most attacks, earthquakes and besieges in Caucasus it's very rich of historical and cultural monuments. Monuments such as the Diri-Baba which near the settlement Maraza.

Shamakhi has gone through 11 considerable earthquakes, thus it was reconstructed 11 times. The only building that passed through minimum eight of eleven earthquakes is a pride of the town; a majestic Djuma Mosque, a monument of the 10th century. Why the people of Shamakhi didn't just leave the seismic-active zone is because during almost seven centuries Shamakhi used to be economic and administrative capital of Shirvan Khanate and one of the key towns on the way of the Silk Road.

History

Shamakhi was first mentioned as Kamachia by the ancient Greco-Roman Egyptian geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 1st to 2nd century.

Shemakha was an important town during the Middle Ages and served as a capital of Shirvanshah state in 8-15 century and the capital of independent Shirvan Khanate ), which was also known as khanate of Shemakha The Catholic friar, missionary and explorer William of Ruysbroeck passed there on his return journey from the Mongol Great Khan's court.

In the middle of the 16th century it was the seat of an English commercial factory, under the traveller Jenkinson, afterwards envoy extraordinary of the Persian Shah to Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible of Russia.

In 1742 Shemakha was taken and destroyed by Nadir Shah of Persia, who punished the inhabitants for their disobedience and Sunnite creed by building a new town under the same name about 16 miles to the west, at the foot of the main chain of the Caucasus Mountains. The new Shemakha was at different times a residence of the Shirvan Khanate, but it was finally abandoned, and the old town rebuilt. The Russians first entered Shirvan in 1723, but soon retired leaving it to Ottomans who posessed it in 1723-35. Shirvan Khanate was not finally annexed by Russia until 1805.

Until devastating earthquake of 1859, Shamakhi was the capital of the Province of Shamakha. From 1859 as the capital of the province was transferred to Baku the importance of the city declined.

Earthquakes

1191 earthquake was so destructive that the capital of Shirvan was transferred to Baku.
1667 earthquake is considered to be the worst with a death toll of 80,000 and one third of the city plunged according to the Persian merchants' reports;
December 2, 1859 earthquake caused the shifting of the same-named gubernia center to Baku.
1902 devastating earthquake that destroyed the 10-century Juma Mosque.

Sources and References

Каталог землетрясений Российской Империи (The Catalogue of the Earthquakes in the Russian Empire).

Subdivisions of Azerbaijan

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