Shamakhi

Overview

Shamakhi is a historic city in central Azerbaijan, about 122 km west of Baku. For centuries it was the political centre of the Shirvanshah dynasty and a trading city on routes between the Caspian Sea and the Arab world. Repeated earthquakes destroyed and remade it; today it is a small city of about 40,400 people, known for its 8th-century Juma Mosque, its poets, and the Caucasus’s largest astrophysical observatory nearby (Iberogeorgia; Tahqiqat-e Tarikh-e Ejtemai; CityPopulation; AzerNews).

European travellers’ reports describe a Safavid-era Shamakhi that was a typical Iranian city, with several mosques, bazaars, caravanserais and other elements of Islamic urbanization, and the city grew dramatically in economic and social life in the 17th century (Tahqiqat-e Tarikh-e Ejtemai). That prosperity did not survive the 18th century: administrative policies and political insecurity drove a decay that left a depopulated and destroyed place (Tahqiqat-e Tarikh-e Ejtemai). Shamakhi nevertheless remained one of Azerbaijan’s most prominent cities, an important cultural and trading centre and a residence of the Shirvanshahs (AzerNews).

Capital of the Shirvanshahs

Shamakhi served for centuries as the political centre of the Shirvanshah dynasty, a role that continued after the dynasty’s end under the Safavids (Tahqiqat-e Tarikh-e Ejtemai). Its court produced one of the great Persian poets: Khaqani Shirvani, born in Shirvan around 1127, spent much of his life in Shamakhi, then capital of the Shirvanshah state, closely associated with the rulers’ court (AzerNews). His pen name came from the title khagan used by the Shirvanshah rulers, and his legacy includes a substantial Divan, the narrative poem Tuhfat al-Iraqayn (Gift of the Two Iraqs), and a collection of letters (AzerNews). In 2026, the 900th anniversary of his birth was marked by a presidential decree and an electronic database at the Azerbaijan National Library (AzerNews). The dynasty’s seat did not stay in Shamakhi forever: after a 12th-century earthquake, the Shirvan Shahs moved their capital to Baku, where their palace complex later entered UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2000 (Archnet).

Earthquakes, destruction and rebuilding

Shamakhi’s history is a cycle of destruction and rebuilding. The 12th-century earthquake that pushed the Shirvanshahs’ capital to Baku was only the first of the city’s great seismic blows (Archnet). A devastating earthquake in 1859 reduced Shamakhi to rubble (Smithsonian Magazine). The Juma Mosque, founded in the eighth century and conventionally dated to 743, has been destroyed and rebuilt several times — in the 1859 earthquake, in inter-ethnic clashes in 1918, and most thoroughly after the earthquake of 1902, which forced an almost total reconstruction (Smithsonian Magazine; Iberogeorgia). Its most recent restoration, completed in the 2000s with Azerbaijani state support, consolidated the main dome and the minaret (Iberogeorgia). The mosque’s survival in rebuilt form is the thread that runs through the city’s catastrophes: founded when Shamakhi was a key city on trade routes between the Caspian Sea and the Arab world, it still stands in the town centre today (Iberogeorgia).

Poets, observatory and the city today

Shamakhi’s literary fame did not end with Khaqani. In 2019, Azerbaijan declared the Year of Nasimi for the 650th anniversary of the poet Imadaddin Nasimi, and Shamakhi marked it with a book corner at its creativity festival (AzerNews). The city’s must-see attractions include the Juma Mosque, the Diri Baba mausoleum, the tomb of the Shirvan khans, and the ruins of the Gulistan citadel and the Gala-Bugurt fortress, while the Girkh-Bulag area is known for its forty springs (AzerNews). Nature is protected nearby by the Pirgulu State Reserve, covering 1,521 hectares (AzerNews). Above the city in the Pirgulu hills stands the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory, the largest in Azerbaijan and the whole Caucasus, named after the astronomer, mathematician and philosopher Nasreddin Tusi and equipped with a telescope whose 2-metre mirror is among the largest in the CIS (AzerNews). The city itself, about 122 km west of Baku on the E60 motorway, had about 40,400 people in the 2025 calculation (Iberogeorgia; CityPopulation).

Census or calculation	Shamakhi urban-place population	Change
1979 census	21,965	—
1989 census	24,681	+2,716
2019 calculation	38,800	+14,119
2025 calculation	40,400	+1,600

Source: CityPopulation, sourcing the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan.

Frequently asked questions

Why did the Shirvanshahs leave Shamakhi? A devastating 12th-century earthquake drove the Shirvanshahs to move their capital from Shamakhi to Baku, where they built the palace complex added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2000. Shamakhi remained an important Shirvan centre long after the court moved away.

How old is the Juma Mosque? The Juma Mosque was founded in the eighth century and is conventionally dated to 743, making it Azerbaijan’s first mosque and the second oldest in the Caucasus. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, most thoroughly after the 1902 earthquake, and was restored again in the 2000s.

Who was Khaqani Shirvani? Khaqani Shirvani was a 12th-century poet who spent much of his life in Shamakhi at the court of the Shirvanshah rulers. His pen name came from their title khagan, and his works include a substantial Divan and the narrative poem Tuhfat al-Iraqayn. His 900th anniversary was marked in 2026.

What is the Shamakhi observatory? The Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory, in the Pirgulu hills, is the largest astrophysical observatory in Azerbaijan and the whole Caucasus. Named after Nasreddin Tusi, it is equipped with a telescope whose 2-metre mirror is among the largest in the CIS today.

What happened to Shamakhi in the 18th century? Shamakhi decayed sharply in the 18th century. An academic study attributes the decline to administrative policies and political insecurity, which turned a prosperous Safavid-era city into a depopulated and destroyed place on the eve of the Russian conquest of the region.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not date the Shirvanshahs’ move to Baku to 1191 or 1192; sources differ, so the profile says 12th-century only.
• It does not repeat AzerNews’s claim that the Juma Mosque was the only building to withstand Shamakhi’s giant earthquakes; the rebuild evidence points the other way.
• It does not assert that Nasimi or Sabir were born in Shamakhi; no fully-read source for this profile verified their birthplaces.
• It does not give the 1667 earthquake’s death toll, the 1721 sack, or the Shamakhi dancers: the academic paper’s body is in Persian and was not read, and no fully-read source verified the other claims.
• It does not give a current population for the wider Shamakhi district; the figures quoted are for the urban place only.