Azadkənd (until 2003,Azerbaijan Parliament - renaming law
/ref> Aşağı Aza and Ashagy Aza "Lower Aza") is a village and municipality in the

Ordubad District Ordubad District () is one of the 7 districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. The district borders the district of Julfa, as well as the Syunik Province of Armenia, and the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran. Its capital and la ...

of Nakhchivan,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. It is located in the left side of the Ordubad-Nakhchivan highway, 20 km in the south-west from the district center, on the right bank of the Gilanchay River (tributary of

Aras River The Aras is a transboundary river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between Iran and both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, fin ...

). Its population is busy with gardening, vegetable-growing, farming, vine-growing, poultry farming and animal husbandry. There are secondary school, club, hospital and kindergarten in the village. It has a population of 1,054.

Etymology

''Azad'' آزاد is a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word meaning 'Free'. ''Kand'' or ''kənd'' کند in Persian and some other Iranian languages means 'village'. This word is derived from Persian verb کندن 'Kandan' which means 'to dig up'. Azadkand's meaning is thus 'The Free Village'. The former name of the village, ''Aşağı (lower) Aza'' means "Aza village which located in the down side". Since 2003, the name of the village is officially registered as Azadkənd. At the various sources, this settlement is described as a small town in versions of ''Aza'', Azar, Azat, Azad. In the location of the same city is now located, two villages of Aza and Azadkand.

History

Azad was an ancient Armenian city. According to sources, it was located about 20 km from the city of

Ordubad Ordubad is the second largest city of Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the capital of an eponymous district. Ordubad is a medieval city of the Caucasus and in its current capacity of a town was founded in the 18th century. The town ...

, on the bank of Gilanchay river. In the 11th-12th centuries, the city had maintained trade relations with the countries of the Near and Middle East. Iranian historian

Hamdollah Mostowfi Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini (; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, and the interregnum that followed. A native of Qazvin, Mustawfi belonged to fam ...

(1281-1350) and others have informed about Azad. Hamdollah Mostowfi wrote in his book "Nezhatol Qoloub": ''"Azad is small town which gained fame with corn, grapes and cotton products. The vineyards of this place are very famous. The city's water comes from the Kapan mountains and excesses flows to the

... The population are whitish Armenians and jews-zoki.... "''. The researchers are identified the connection between geographical positions of Azad with present Azad and

Aza Aza or AZA may refer to: Places *Aza, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality *Azadkənd, Nakhchivan or Lower Aza, Azerbaijan *Aza, medieval name of Haza, Province of Burgos, Spain *Aźa, a Tibetan name for the Tuyuhun kingdom *Aza, a Hebrew roman ...

villages. The formation of the villages Azad and Aza, likely has connect with decay of the city. From the Persian-language documents, it is clear that in the beginning of the 18th century, one of the villages was called "Azadbədəli", another one was "Azadcayı". The important trade routes to European countries had passed through from Azad. In the Middle Ages, the craftsmanship, trade, viticulture, wine-making were developed in the Azad. The city was most likely destroyed during the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

invasion.

Aza Bridge

Aza Bridge is the architectural monument of the 17th century, in the village of Aza of

, on the Gilanchay river. The width of the bridge, linking the village of

with

Darkənd Darkənd (also, Dər, Dar, and Der) is a village and municipality in the Ordubad District of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlock ...

is 35m, the length is 46 pagonameters. The bridge has five spans. It was built with local reddish colored hewn mountain stone. When the bridge was built, the area of the bridge were taken into account and distance between the arches were made in various sizes. There are four wave-cutter arches. Located over an important trade-caravan route connecting

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

with countries of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Aza Bridge, was built in the period of the

Shah Abbas I Abbas I (; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered one of the most important rulers ...

(1587-1629) ruler of the Safavid, in order to facilitate the work of the trade caravans moving from east to west and vice versa with the Great Silk Road. With the trade caravans which passed from here were exported the local products, including dried fruits, handicraft products, silk. As a result of some historical events and natural disasters the bridge was repeatedly destroyed, then was repaired. Due to tearing down a portion of the bridge by severe flood waters, it was substantially restored and reconstructed in 1997. At present, in order to go to the Azadkənd from Nakhchivan and Ordubad, the population and vehicles use this bridge.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Azadkend, Nakhchivan Populated places in Ordubad District