History of Sheki

The name “Sheki,” a small ancient town in Azerbaijan, resonates with echoes of its storied past, yet it stands apart from the grand kingdoms and khanates that once dominated the region. Its etymology is intriguingly similar to “Saka,” referring to the Scythians, whose presence in this area dates back to the Urartian period. The mountains and steppes surrounding Sheki were known as Sakasena, the heart of the Ishkuz, a Scythian kingdom in the Caucasus. This region may even be considered a cradle of various ancient civilizations, with names like Erebuni, Eretia, Arran, and Alania hinting at a rich history that suggests the presence of Aryans long before other peoples arrived.

As the Scythians faded from the scene, the Caucasian highlanders descended into the plains, forming the Caucasian Albania with 26 tribes at the turn of the era. The capitals of this kingdom, Gabala and Barda, along with the last remnants of Nidz, are located not far from Sheki. However, the town’s significance rose considerably later, as the Caucasus fell under Muslim rule and many Albanian tribes began conversing in Persian. Notably, Sakasena and the upstream region of Kura, known as Kambisena, remained loyal to Christianity in its Armenian form. In 821 AD, as the Arab Caliphate weakened, the Sheki Kingdom emerged.

Declared by Prince Sahak Smbatyan from Karabakh, whose lineage traced back to either the Armenian Bagratids or the Persian-Albanian Arshakids, the kingdom’s roots are a topic of much interest in Azerbaijan. In 837, Smbatyan reconciled with his former suzerain, presenting him with a royal gift: Babek, the leader of a massive anti-Islamic uprising in Azerbaijan, whom he had captured. Although Smbatyan himself was arrested by the Arabs in 854, his descendants continued to rule the Sheki Kingdom, and the influence of the Caliphate gradually waned.

Following this period, Georgian influence began to rise. Previously, Eretia was part of the Sheki Kingdom, but over time, Sheki became a part of Eretia. Queen Regent Dinara and her son Ishkanik transitioned from Armenian Christianity to Greek Orthodoxy at the turn of the millennium, and by 1008, Sheki, along with Eretia, had joined Kakhetia.

David the Builder, however, would not conquer Sheki until 1117, not 1105 as some records suggest. The boundary between the Christian and Muslim worlds ran near Sheki, where the remarkably amicable relations between Georgia and Shirvan were evident. After the Mongol invasion, Sheki became a ulus of the Orlat dynasty on the outskirts of the Ilkhanate, and the border shifted slightly up the Kura River. This shift was seized upon by a man known as the Son of the Black Priest—Kara-Keshish-Oglu.

The son of a modest yet prosperous village priest, possibly of Armenian or Udin descent, he converted to Islam and forged a successful career, ultimately founding the Sheki State in 1444. This was neither a khanate, nor a beylik, nor an emirate, but rather a combination of all three, as its rulers were known variously as emirs, khans, and beks.

In 1551, the Safavids, the Azerbaijani rulers of Iran who revived Shia Islam in the early 16th century, ended the Kara-Keshish dynasty. Shah Tahmasp I captured Sheki, and Khan Dervish-Muhammad perished in a last stand at a mountain fortress, which would later be known as Gelyarsan-Goyarsan. Like the rest of the Caucasus, Sheki was swept along the tumultuous waves of war between Persia and Turkey, being captured multiple times, and from 1723 to 1735, during the collapse of the Safavid dynasty, it was ruled by Ali-Khan of the mountain Sultanate of Ilisu.

When Nadir Shah arrived to restore order in the Caucasus, Sheki was one of the last to submit, doing so in 1735, and it was the first among Azerbaijani khanates to declare independence. In practice, Nadir’s authority amounted to a temporary military occupation; by 1743, a distant descendant of Kara-Keshish-Oglu, Hajji Chelebi, assassinated the Persian governor and proclaimed the Sheki Khanate.

A year later, the same fortress where the last ruler had fallen withstood an assault from the Persian army, earning it the moniker Gelyarsan-Goyarsan, meaning “Come and See,” the antithesis of “Veni. Vidi. Vici.” However, the war ravaged Chelebi’s domain to such an extent that he deemed his victory a Pyrrhic one, leading him to seek forgiveness from Nadir Shah in 1746.

The Shah concluded that it was easier to forgive the rebel than to wage another war against him. Mere months later, Nadir was assassinated by conspirators. In the ensuing chaos of the new Azerbaijani khanates, Sheki enjoyed a slight advantage, but Hajji Chelebi’s struggle for Shirvan ended in defeat against Gusein-Ali Khan of Guba in 1755, and his heirs found themselves embroiled in the conflicts of neighboring khanates as junior allies.

Yet, this narrative does not pertain to contemporary Sheki.

In 1772, a catastrophic flood of the Kishchai River swept away the capital of three states, carving a new riverbed straight through the town and eroding it beyond recognition in the following centuries. The khan’s court and the surviving inhabitants found a new home in Nukh, an ancient trading village whose name could be translated from Albanian languages as “Roadside.”

The khanate retained the name Sheki, and in foreign policy, it continued to act as a junior ally to Guba, and subsequently to Karabakh as Guba’s influence waned. When Russian forces arrived in the Caucasus, Selim Khan of Nukh similarly pledged fealty to the distant Tsar in 1805. However, this alliance was short-lived; his sister, married to the Khan of Karabakh, perished alongside him at the hands of Russian bullets when Shushi’s commandant, Dmitry Lisanovich, suspected the khan of treason—an accusation later deemed unfounded. Believing this was a ruse, Selim Khan staged a brief rebellion and fled to Persia.

Amid the ongoing Russo-Persian War, Russia sought a quasi-independent vassal, inviting another khan, Jafar-Kuli, to the Sheki throne. By that time, his Khoy Khanate, situated between Ararat and Urmia, had been returned to Persian control. His descendants ruled Nukh, contributing two noble families to the Russian aristocracy: the Khan-Khois and Shekihanovs, descendants of Selim Khan’s brother, Fatali, who remained in Russia. The Sheki Khanate was transformed into the Sheki Province in 1819.

In 1826, Nukh was briefly occupied by the Persian army, and Selim Khan’s son, Hussein, even sat on his father’s throne for a time. The last raid by highlanders on Nukh occurred in 1838, and by 1840, the province was redefined as Sheki District, changing its name six years later to Nukh District. Within less than 30 years, it transitioned through four administrative regions: Caspian Province, Shemakhinskaya, Baku, and finally, from 1867, Elizabethpol Province, where it remained until the Soviet era. By the early 20th century, Nukh boasted a population of 24,000, including several hundred Slavs, a few thousand Armenians, while Azerbaijanis constituted the majority.

In 1968, the 200-year cycle of history came full circle: the Soviet government decided to develop Nukh as a tourism center, protecting the historical district of Yukhari Bash and renaming the town. Despite the enduring local attachment to its former names, the name “Sheki” settled onto Nukh as if it had always belonged.