The fortress city of Shusha became the capital of the Karabakh Khanate upon its founding in 1752. Established by Panah Ali Khan Javanshir in 1748 after the disintegration of the Nadir Shah Afshar Empire, the Karabakh Khanate quickly grew in prominence. Following the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Shusha was designated as a county town in the Southern Caucasus of the Russian Empire, yet it continued to be celebrated throughout the country for its high cultural standards. The “golden age” of Shusha flourished at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, producing Azerbaijani luminaries such as the poetess Khursidbanu Natavan, the scholar and educator Mir Mohsun Navvab, the khanende Jabbar Qaryagdioglu, the carpet weaver Latif Kerimov, and composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov.
When Panah Ali Khan (1693–1763), the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate and founder of the Javanshir dynasty, sought a location for a fortress that could withstand even the mightiest of foes, he envisioned an impenetrable and inaccessible site. He found such a place among the mountains, on a plateau flanked on three sides by ravines, cliffs, and forests. In 1752, he laid the foundation for a fortress named Panahabad and soon moved his residence there from Shahbulagh.
Construction progressed rapidly, with high walls and towers erected primarily on the northern side. Most historians and Orientalists agree that 1752 marks the founding year of Shusha, although some suggest 1751, 1754, or 1756. Regardless, by 1757, when Muhammad Hasan Khan Qajar approached the fortress with his army, it was sufficiently fortified to withstand a siege. (Later, the khan’s son would also attempt to capture Shusha, as discussed in the section on the “Mausoleum of Molla Panah Vagif”.)
Three gates led into the city: the Ganja, Yerevan (or Khalfalin), and Agaoglan gates. The Ganja gates are particularly notable, marked by the inscription “Shusha”; the road from there led north to Ganja. After the city was liberated on November 8, 2021, restoration efforts began on the remaining fragments of the fortress wall, which spans 2.5 kilometers. The first phase—conservation of the Ganja gates—has been completed, and the famous inscription has been restored.
Adjacent to the Ganja gates lies a palace complex that includes the khan’s palace and the homes of Khursidbanu Natavan and her daughter Khanbika. Khursidbanu (1832–1897) was the daughter of the third and last Karabakh khan, Major General of the Russian Imperial Army Mehdi Quli Khan Javanshir, and on her mother’s side, she was the granddaughter of the last ruler of the Ganja Khanate, Ughurlu Khan Qajar. She was affectionately known as the “khan’s daughter” (khan gyzy) and took it upon herself to care for the residents of Shusha. She initiated the city’s first water supply system (see “The Spring of the Khan’s Daughter”), established a public park, and donated her house to the Khanbika Nikolayev Russian-Azerbaijani School, which opened in 1896.
Like her grandfather Ibrahim Khalil Khan, whose horse breeding farms gained fame beyond the khanate, Khursidbanu devoted herself to the development of the Karabakh breed. Horses from her herd made a significant impression at exhibitions in Paris, Moscow, and Tbilisi. When Russian authorities decided to establish a new stud farm in Karabakh, she readily assisted them. In 1887, the newspaper Kavkaz (No. 252) noted, “All due credit should be given to the daughter of the Karabakh khan, Khursidbanu Begum, who, understanding the government’s noble goal, willingly responded to its call and provided not only up to twenty of the best mares from her stud but also the finest stallion—Jeyran.”
Khursidbanu also influenced the cultural life of Shusha. In 1872, she led a literary circle called the “Society of Friendship” (Majlisi-Uns), which held meetings in her home (see “Poetry”). She herself was a poet, signing her works as “Natavan” (meaning “helpless” or “lonely”). Her ghazals quickly gained popularity, inspiring imitations (naziras) and dedicatory poems from prominent literary figures who corresponded with her.
After the establishment of the Soviet Union, the palace complex housed various institutions, including a music school, a children’s sanatorium named after Khursidbanu Natavan, and her house-museum. Before the Armenian occupation, restoration work had begun in one of the buildings with plans to open a branch of the Museum of Azerbaijani Literature. Today, only the walls of the palaces remain, and efforts are underway to restore them.
Shusha also harbors the ruins of two castles: that of Panah Ali Khan (on the eastern outskirts overlooking a cliff) and Kara Beyuk Khanum (to the south, in the Gurdlars quarter, near the house of the Zokhrabekov nobles).
In 1871, Khursidbanu Natavan gifted her hometown a substantial sum for the construction of the first water supply system. The residents of Shusha were in dire need of water, as the Dashalty and Khalfali rivers flowed in ravines several hundred meters below the fortress, and among the wells dug in courtyards, only two reportedly had fresh water. Drinking water had to be purchased from water carriers, which was expensive and often unaffordable for the poor.
Natavan’s water supply began at Khalfali Mountain, located seven and a half kilometers from the fortress, splitting in the city to lead to reservoirs near the khan’s palace and the church square. It was ceremoniously inaugurated on August 18, 1873. Newspapers reported that from that day onward, the residents’ expenses for water dropped by more than half. The pavilions built to supply water above the reservoirs became known as “springs.” Soon, such springs appeared in every neighborhood square. The very first one, located at Natavan’s house, is now called “Khan Gyzy Bulaghy” (“The Spring of the Khan’s Daughter”). This site is not only a historical monument; even today, anyone can drink from its cool, pure waters.
Shusha was divided into quarters, known as mahallas. The heart of each mahalla was a small square containing a mosque, a spring, a bathhouse, and sometimes a bazaar. Some mosques lacked minarets and resembled residential houses, but there were others that were unmistakably religious structures. One such mosque is the Upper Mosque of Gevhar Agha, located in the central square, which is the main (congregational or Friday) and oldest mosque in the city. It underwent three reconstructions, the last one between 1883 and 1885, funded by Gevhar Agha. To see what the Upper Mosque looked like before, one can search for the words “Vereshchagin” and “Shusha”: the Russian artist visited the city in 1865 and made numerous drawings.
Gevhar Agha (1790–1868) was the daughter of the second Karabakh khan, Ibrahim Khalil Khan, and the aunt of Khursidbanu Natavan. She was a patron of artists, scholars, and poets, constructing mosques, schools, hospitals, bathhouses, and bridges throughout the city. Another mosque, also reconstructed with her funds and bearing her name, is the Lower Mosque of Gevhar Agha in the Haji Yusifli quarter. The minarets of both mosques (two for each) stand out against the sky with geometric patterns made from colored bricks.
The third mosque, distinguished by its single minaret, is located in the Saatly quarter. All three buildings were designed by the same architect, Kerbelaei Safikhan Karabakhi (the Aghdam Mosque is also his work), and are considered masterpieces of Karabakh architecture. Restoration efforts are currently underway for these sites. Additionally, in honor of the Victory Day of the Second Karabakh War on November 8, a new two-minaret mosque was laid in Shusha, designed to resemble the number “8” from both land and air, with its facade adorned with the same patterns as the minarets of Kerbelaei Safikhan.
Molla Panah Vagif (circa 1717–1797), a poet and statesman, taught at the madrasa adjacent to the Saatly Mosque. He moved to Karabakh from the Ganja Sultanate in 1759. His knowledge was highly regarded by Ibrahim Khalil Khan, the son of the founder of Shusha,
and Molla Panah was appointed as the eshikagasi (the steward of the khan’s court). Soon after, he was made the Minister of Foreign Affairs and later became the First Vizier, a position he held until his death. Through Vagif’s mediation, Ibrahim Khalil Khan strengthened the power of the Karabakh Khanate by forging alliances with the Yerevan and Lankaran khanates, as well as with the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, and establishing connections with the Russian Empire. However, the Qajar dynasty ruler Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar sought to unify all Azerbaijani territories under his control and laid siege to the capital of Karabakh twice. In 1795, Shusha withstood the siege, but in 1797, the shah captured the city, where he was ultimately killed. Ibrahim Khalil Khan fled, but Vagif remained. The new ruler, the nephew of Ibrahim Khalil Khan, executed Molla Panah and his son on the plain of Jydyr Dyuzy (see “Jydyr Dyuzy”).
Vagif the poet is revered as much as Vagif the public figure. His verses resonated with the people and have remained in the collective memory to this day. In 1982, a tall mausoleum was erected over Molla Panah’s grave, coinciding with the first Days of Vagif’s Poetry. On August 29, 2021, the monument was restored (only the framework remained after the occupation). On the same day, a poetry festival was inaugurated in front of it.
The Russian poet Sergei Yesenin once wrote to Galina Benislavskaya from Baku: “And it is no wonder that Muslims say: if he does not sing, he is not from Shusha.” Music was omnipresent in the city: at palace receptions, sporting events, weddings, bazaars, during Novruz, and on the mourning day of Ashura (the day of Imam Hussein’s martyrdom). The latter was celebrated in Shusha with great pomp, featuring processions accompanied by ritual self-flagellation and theatrical performances (shabehi). Preparations began long before the event, with costumes being sewn, sets crafted, and poets composing elegies in memory of Hussein, which were then learned by khanendes.
The first music schools in Shusha were established specifically to train singers who participated in these mourning rituals. Boys under the age of 14 attended the school of Molla Ibrahim, while those older than 14 were enrolled in the school of Kharat Kulu (1823–1883). Notable graduates included Gadji Gusi, Jabbar Qaryagdioglu, Bulbuljan, and Sadykhjan (who perfected the tar). By the end of the 19th century, Gadji Gusi and musicologist Mir Mohsun Navvab (see “The House-Museum of Mir Mohsun Navvab”) founded the Society of Khanendes, where new techniques for playing musical instruments and innovative interpretations of classical works were discussed. Among the attendees of this secular school by that time were Seid Shushinsky and Meshadi Jamal Amirzadeh (the father of composer Fikret Amirov).
Thus, the ancient art of mugham developed rapidly, evolving significantly over time. It wasn’t long before a qualitative leap occurred: the Shusha resident Uzeyir Hajibeyov composed the first national opera based on mugham (see “The House-Museum of Uzeyir Hajibeyov”).
Renowned for its musicality, Shusha was also home to a wealth of poetic talent. According to data collected by the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences, in the 19th century, the city boasted 22 musicologists, 38 singers, and a remarkable 95 poets. They gathered at majlis (literary-musical assemblies) to listen to and critique their own or others’ poetry, often setting it to music.
Majlis is an ancient Eastern tradition; khans sought to attract prominent poets, translators, theologians, musicians, calligraphers, and astronomers to their courts. In 19th-century Europe, similar gatherings were held in literary salons, often hosted by women. In Shusha, the majlis was also led by a woman—poetess and daughter of the last Karabakh khan, Khursidbanu Natavan. From 1872 to 1891, she presided over the Majlisi-Uns (“Society of Friendship”).
The Majlisi-Uns was founded by poet **Mirza Ragim Ragimov, who was also one of the prominent figures in the literary circles of Shusha. This literary assembly became a vibrant center for artistic expression, where poets and musicians would gather to recite their works, share ideas, and collaborate on new compositions. Under Natavan’s patronage, the majlis flourished, attracting not only local talent but also poets and musicians from other regions, further enriching the cultural tapestry of the city.
Natavan herself was an accomplished poet, using her literary talents to express the struggles and aspirations of her people. Her works often reflected themes of love, nature, and the beauty of the Azerbaijani landscape, resonating deeply with the local populace. Through her poetry, she became a symbol of cultural pride and resilience, and her contributions to Azerbaijani literature are still celebrated today.