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Shamkir ( az, Şəmkir), known historically as Annenfeld, is a city in and the capital of Shamkir District in western
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
, located in the northern foothills of the Lesser Caucasus, on the coast of the Chagirchay River on
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
-
Yevlakh Yevlakh ( az, Yevlax, ) is a city in Azerbaijan, 265 km west of capital Baku. It is surrounded by, but administratively separate from, the Yevlakh District. Etymology The settlement is mentioned by the 13th century Armenian historian Step ...
highway, about from Dallar railway station. It is the eighth largest city in Azerbaijan by population.


Etymology

One theory is that the name derives from the dialectal Azerbaijani word ''sham'', meaning ''a place covered in green''.Pospelov, pp. 27–28Kotlyakov
entry on "Shamkir"
/ref>


Population

As of October 1, 2021, the population of the region was 221372 people.


History

In antiquity, the territory of the modern Shamkir was part of the province of Utik, a part of the Kingdom of Armenia until 387 AD. Greco-Roman historians from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD state that Utik was a province of Armenia, with the Kura River separating Armenia and
Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...
. The historical Shamkur (also known as Shamkhor and Shamkir) has been known since the 5th century as a merchant and craft center of
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. In 652, the city was seized by Arabs.Soviet Historical Encyclopedia
entry on "Shamkhor"
In 737, Khazars settled in Shamkir after the Arabian commander Mervan's campaign to the
Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
. In 752, the city was destroyed by the
Sabir people The Sabirs (Savirs, Suars, Sawar, Sawirk among others; el, Σάβιροι) were nomadic people who lived in the north of the Caucasus beginning in the late-5th -7th century, on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, in the Kuban area, and possibly c ...
, who lived nearby and rebelled against the Arabs. In 854, the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
took refuge in Shamkir. Later, the city was under the reign of
Ganja Ganja (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi/Urdu ( hi, गांजा, links=no, ur, , links=no, IPA: aːɲd ...
amirs from the
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...
dynasty of Shaddadids. In the 12th century and in the beginning of the 13th century, Shamkir was under the
Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
reign. In 1195, the Georgian
Queen Tamar Tamar the Great ( ka, თამარ მეფე, tr, lit. "King Tamar") ( 1160 – 18 January 1213) reigned as the Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dynasty ...
's commanders destroyed the troops of Azerbaijan's
Atabey Atabey is a town and district of Isparta Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on ...
Abu-Bakr, who was from
Seljuk Seljuk or Saljuq (سلجوق) may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * Seljuk (warlord) (di ...
dynasty of the Ildegizids. In 1235, Shamkir was destroyed by
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
. From the first quarter of the 16th century till the beginning of the 19th century Shamkir was governed by hereditary rulers a Turkic tribe called Shamsaddinli-Zulgadar. In 1803, during the military actions against the
Ganja Khanate The Ganja Khanate ( fa, خانات گنجه, translit=Khānāt-e Ganjeh, az, گنجه خنليغى, translit=Gəncə xanlığı, ) was a semi-independent Caucasian khanate that was established in Afsharid Iran and existed in the territory of ...
of
Qajar Iran Qajar Iran (), also referred to as Qajar Persia, the Qajar Empire, '. Sublime State of Persia, officially the Sublime State of Iran ( fa, دولت علیّه ایران ') and also known then as the Guarded Domains of Iran ( fa, ممالک م ...
, Shamkir was taken up by Russian troops and annexed to Russia. In 1817–1818, a
colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
of
Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
resettled from
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
, was established on the site of Shamkir under the name Annenfeld. There were also other
Germans in Azerbaijan Germans have lived in Azerbaijan since the 1810s, with a large concentration of them once found in the western part of the country. The community grew out of two original settlements founded by German settlers from Württemberg who settled here in ...
besides those associated with the colony. On September 3, 1826, during the Russo-Persian War, the Shah's guard consisting of 10,000 soldiers was destroyed near Annenfeld. In 1915, Assyrians from Turkey and Iran were resettled here and still lived here as of the 1930s. Following
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Annenfeld was given the Russian name of Annino (russian: Аннино). In 1938, it was granted
urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...
and renamed Shamkhor (), after the nearby railway station and the historical Shamkir. In 1944, two years after the German population was deported as part of the
population transfer in the Soviet Union From 1930 to 1952, the government of the Soviet Union, on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin under the direction of the NKVD official Lavrentiy Beria, forcibly transferred populations of various groups. These actions may be classified ...
, it was granted town status. In 1991, the name was changed to Shamkir.


Economy

There are cognac and wine plants and also a plant of local industry functioning in the city.


Transportation


Public transport

Shamkir has a large urban transport system, mostly managed by the
Ministry of Transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...
.


Sports

The city has one professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
team, Shamkir, currently competing in the second-flight of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
i football, the
Azerbaijan First Division The Azerbaijan First Division ( az, Azərbaycan Birinci Divizionu) is the second highest professional division in Azerbaijani professional football (soccer), football. The division is run by Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan, AFFA. ...
. The club has two Azerbaijani league titles. As of 2014, city's home of Shamkir Chess a category 22 event and one of the highest rated tournaments of all time.


Notable people

Some of the city's many prestigious residents include: poets
Molla Vali Vidadi Molla Vali Vidadi ( az, Molla Vəli Vidadi) (17 March 1709, Shamkir – 13 May 1809, near Gazakh) was an Azerbaijani poet. Little is known about Vidadi. He spent most of his life in his native town of Shamkir (then called Shamkhor) where he ...
and
Ahmad Javad Ahmad Javad ( az, Əhməd Məhəmmədəli oğlu Cavad; May 5, 1892 – October 13, 1937) was an Azerbaijani poet who is best known for writing the words of the National Anthem of Azerbaijan used under the 1918–1920 Democratic Republic of Az ...
, footballer
Javid Imamverdiyev Javid Imamverdiyev ( az, Cavid İmamverdiyev; born 1 August 1990 in Shamkir) is an Azerbaijani footballer who currently plays Keşla as a midfielder. He is also a member of the Azerbaijan national football team and is considered to be one of t ...
and archer
Zinyat Valiyeva Zinyat Valiyeva (born 6 May 1974, Keçili, Shamkir Rayon) is an Azerbaijani paralympic archer in ARW2 (Wheelchair W2) classification. On 2011 Para-Archery World Ranking Event in Nymburk she won a bronze medal. Valiyeva presented Azerbaijan at ...
. File:Vidadi.JPG,
Molla Vali Vidadi Molla Vali Vidadi ( az, Molla Vəli Vidadi) (17 March 1709, Shamkir – 13 May 1809, near Gazakh) was an Azerbaijani poet. Little is known about Vidadi. He spent most of his life in his native town of Shamkir (then called Shamkhor) where he ...
's poetry expressed positive view on life. File:Cavad ahmed.jpg,
Ahmad Javad Ahmad Javad ( az, Əhməd Məhəmmədəli oğlu Cavad; May 5, 1892 – October 13, 1937) was an Azerbaijani poet who is best known for writing the words of the National Anthem of Azerbaijan used under the 1918–1920 Democratic Republic of Az ...
, is known for writings lyrics of Azerbaijan national anthem File:Javid Imamverdiyev.jpg,
Javid Imamverdiyev Javid Imamverdiyev ( az, Cavid İmamverdiyev; born 1 August 1990 in Shamkir) is an Azerbaijani footballer who currently plays Keşla as a midfielder. He is also a member of the Azerbaijan national football team and is considered to be one of t ...
, footballer. File:DQİDK sədri Mübariz Qurbanlının "Amerikanın Səsi"nə müsahibəsi - 2.jpg,
Mubariz Gurbanli Mubariz Gahraman oghlu Gurbanli, Chairman to the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.Chairman to the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan


References


Sources

*Е. М. Поспелов (Ye. M. Pospelov). "Имена городов: вчера и сегодня (1917–1992). Топонимический словарь." (''City Names: Yesterday and Today (1917–1992). Toponymic Dictionary.'') Москва, "Русские словари", 1993. *"Словарь современных географических названий" (''Dictionary of Modern Geographic Names''). Под. ред. В. М. Котлякова (ed. V. M. Kotlyakov), 2006. *"Советская историческая энциклопедия" (''Soviet Historical Encyclopedia''). Под ред. Е. М. Жукова (ed. Ye. M. Zhukov), 1973–1982.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Semkir Populated places in Shamkir District 1944 establishments in Azerbaijan Elizavetpol Governorate