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Shamakhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shamakhi or Shamakhy (Azerbaijani: Şamaxı) is a rayon of Azerbaijan, and a town in the rayon.
The town is 70 miles west of Baku. It has some 20,000 inhabitants, among them Azerbaijanis (75%), Armenians and Russians. Shamakhy is famous for its traditional dance, the Dance of Shamakhy which bears some resemblance to traditional Persian dance.
Though Shamakhy has suffered from attack, earthquake and siege it remains rich in historical and cultural monuments, chief among them the Diri-Baba near the settlement of Maraza.
In its history eleven major earthquakes have rocked Shamakhi, but each time it was reconstructed by its inhabitants due to role as economic and administrative capital of Shirvan Khanate and one of the key towns on the way of the Silk Road. The only building to have survived eight of the eleven earthquakes is the landmark Djuma Mosque (10th century CE).
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Shamakhy was first mentioned as Kamachia by the ancient Greco-Roman Egyptian geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 1st to 2nd century.
Shemakhy 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 1720's the population of Shemakhi was about 60,000, most of whom were Armenians and strangers[1]. In 1742 Shemakhy 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 possessed it in 1723-35. Shirvan Khanate was not finally annexed by Russia until 1805.
Until the devastating earthquake of 1859, Shamakhy was the capital of the Province of Shamakhy. From 1859, when the capital of the province was transferred to Baku, the importance of the city declined.
"Queen of Shemakha" is a major protagonist in the poem by Alexander Pushkin and opera "The Golden Cockerel" by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. The character has, however, no real relation to the city.
- 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.
- ^ An Universal History: From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time By George Sale, George Psalmanazar, Archibald Bower, George Shelvocke, John Campbell, John Swinton p. 138
- Каталог землетрясений Российской Империи (The Catalogue of the Earthquakes in the Russian Empire).
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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