page_title: Shusha
section_title: Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Shusha / History / Foundation
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Шушинский ханский дворец дочери бывшего владетельного хана. Сейчас стоит в руинах, разрушен во время войны.
context_page_description: Shusha, or Shushi, is a city in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. It has been under the control of the self-proclaimed Artsakh Republic since its capture in 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. However, it is a de jure part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the status of an administrative division of the surrounding Shusha Rayon. According to the United Nations General Assembly by the Resolution No.62/243, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was partially recognized and they include a demand of withdrawal of the Armenian forces. Situated at an altitude of 1,400–1,800 metres in the Karabakh mountains, Shusha was a mountain recreation resort in the Soviet era.
  According to some sources the town of Shusha was founded in 1752 by Panah Ali Khan. From the mid-18th century to 1822 Shusha was the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. The town became one of the cultural centers of the South Caucasus after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region in the first half of the 19th century over Qajar Iran. Over time, it became a city and a home to many Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and especially, musicians.
context_section_description: Shusha as a settlement is first mentioned as Shushi in the Middle Ages, with the 15th century illuminated Armenian Gospel kept on display at Yerevan's Matenadaran (archival number 8211) being the earliest known artifact from the town. The Gospel was created in Shusha by the calligrapher Ter-Manuel in 1428.
  According to several sources, a settlement called Shushi served as an ancient fortress in the Armenian principality of Varanda, and had traditionally belonged to the Melik-Shahnazarian princely dynasty. The town and fort of Shusha was mentioned as a linchpin of one of East Armenian military districts, called "syghnakhs", which played a key role in the Armenian commander Avan Yuzbashi's campaign against Ottoman forces in the 1720s and 1730s, during the Turkish invasion of the Southern Caucasus.
  Kehva Chelebi, an Armenian patriot who maintained correspondence between the meliks of Karabakh and the Russian authorities, in this report of 1725 mentions Shushi as a town and a fort:
  … The nearest Armenian stronghold … was Shushi. Shushi is four days' distance from Shemakhi. Armed Armenians under the command of Avan Yuzbashi guard it. After meeting with the Armenian leaders, including the Patriarch, they returned to Derbent via Shemakhi. Rocky mountains surround the town of Shushi. The number of the armed Armenians has not been determined. There are rumors that the Armenians have defeated the Turks in a number of skirmishes in Karabagh …
  In his letter of 1769 to the Russian diplomat Count P. Panin, the Georgian king Erekle II documented that "there was an 'ancient' fortress which was conquered, through deceit, by one man from the Muslim Jevanshir tribe." The same information about the 'ancient' fortress is confirmed by the Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov in his letter to Prince Grigory Potemkin. Suvorov writes that the Armenian prince Melik Shahnazar of Varanda surrendered his fortress Shushikala to "certain Panah", whom he calls "chief of an unimportant part of nomadic Muslims living near the Karabakh borders." When discussing Karabakh and Shusha in the 18th century, the Russian diplomat and historian S. M. Bronevskiy (Russian: С. М. Броневский (1763-1830) implied in his Historical Notes that Shusha was a possession of the Melik-Shahnazarian clan. Russian historian P. G. Butkov (Russian: П. Г. Бутков (1775-1857) confirms this. Joseph Wolff, during his mission in the Middle East, visited "Shushee, in the province of Carabagh, in Armenia Major". 
  Azerbaijani and some Armenian 19th century sources, including Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi, Mirza Adigozal bey, Abbasgulu Bakikhanov, Mirza Yusuf Nersesov and Raffi, attest to the foundation of the town Shusha in 1750-1752 (according to other sources, 1756–1757) by Panah-Ali khan Javanshir (r. 1748-1763), the founder and the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate (1748–1822), which comprised both Lowland and Highland Karabakh. The mid-18th century foundation is supported by Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
  According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi (1773–1853), the author of the Persian-language text History of Karabakh, one of the most significant chronicles on the history of Karabakh in 18th-19th centuries, the Karabakh nobility assembled to discuss the danger of invasion from Iran and told Panah Ali Khan, "We must build among the impassable mountains such an inviolable and inaccessible fort, so that no strong enemy could take it." Melik Shahnazar of Varanda, who was the first of the Armenian meliks (dukes) to accept the suzerainty of Panah Ali Khan and who would remain his loyal supporter, suggested a location for the new fortress. Thus, Panahabad-Shusha was founded.
  According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, before Panah Ali khan constructed the fortress there were no buildings there and it was used as a cropland and pasture by the people of the nearby village of Shoshi. Panah khan resettled to Shusha the population of Shahbulag and some nearby villages, and built strong fortifications.
  Another account is presente
caption: The palace of Khurshidbanu Natavan, the daughter of the last ruler of Karabakh Khanate, late 19th-early 20th centuries
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