Shusha Fortress

The Shusha fortress (Azerbaijani: Şuşa qalası, Persian: قلعه شوش) or Shushi fortress (Armenian: Շուշիի բերդ) is a fortress surrounding the historical centre of Shusha. The newly conquered castle town was called "Panahabad fortress" named after Panah Ali Khan who together with Melik Shahnazar was the founder of the fort. In later years, the city was just called "Fortress". A settlement at Shusha is first recorded in a 15th-century illustrated Armenian gospel which mentions the "Shushu village".

The area where the Shusha fortress was built is a mountainous plateau in the form of amphitheater from the west with numerous hills and rifts. The highest area of plateau is 1600 metres and the lowest area is 1300 metres above sea level. At present, the territory of Shusha city consists of plateau with a hill located lengthwise in its center. The architecture of Shusha fortress represents basic principles of architecture of feudal period in terms of both the choice of location, structural planning and the artistic appearance of the fort.

Shusha fortress had three main gates: Ganja Gate, Iravan Gate and Aghoghlan Gate. The names of all these gates are often mentioned in historical sources, as well as in all the drawn plans of 19th-century Shusha.

Historical and political situation

Following the assassination of Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) in 1747, internal chaos erupted in Iran, particularly in the South Caucasus, where semi-autonomous khanates emerged as a result of the lack of a centralized government, one of them being the Karabakh Khanate. Each of these khanates, which was implementing their own policies and trying to develop their economy, had a center to control the areas that was under their supervisory. This period was associated with several complicated events in the military-political history of the South Caucasus. Some of them are as follows:

1. Forty Years’ War (1709–1749) had not yet ended.

2. The wars and the uprisings of peasants in feudal society were frequent.

3. The region was being attacked by Turks and Iranians.

In such a situation, khanates were mainly in need of a well-fortified capital city because they had to maintain their territorial integrity and political independence. Therefore, the construction of such fortified cities was primarily driven by the demand of military-political situation.

Panah Ali khan who founded the Karabakh Khanate with the support of Armenian Melik Shahnazar in 1747 decided to build a fortress which would help him to control this large country extending from The Aras River to Lake Sevan, from The Tartar River to Meghri, Tatev and Sisian and including the areas of Karabakh, Zangezur and Bargushad. In 1748, Panah Ali Khan ordered to start the construction of Bayat castle near Barda. Panah Ali Khan were willing to build "a fortress where his family can live and he can protect the people in the case of invasion by enemies". Therefore, Bayat castle was surrounded by deep ditches and thick exterior walls.

Bayat castle, which was built with fired bricks, features Khan's palace, mosque, bazaar, bath and houses. Following the settlement of Khan's family in Bayat, artists from nearby villages as well as Ardabil and Tabriz moved here. However, Bayat did not remain as Khan's residence for a long time. Despite numerous reinforcement efforts, the castle was still weak against the attacks of foreigners. Taking into account the threat, Panah Ali Khan started to look for a strategically more favorable area to build a new fort. As a result, the area of Ternekut best known as Shahbulag, which was a foothill located near Shahbulag spring (10 km away from Aghdam), was preferred.

The 19th-century Karabakh historians stated that fortress, stone houses, mosque, bath and bazaar was built in accord with Panah Ali Khan's instructions. The information related to the construction of civil and religious buildings in Shahbulag can be found in the works of Mirza Yousif Karabakhi and Mirza Jamal Javanshir. M. J. Javanshir noted "In the section about monuments and buildings erected by the order of deceased Panal Ali Khan" in his "The History of Karabakh" book: "Shahbulag fortress, mosque near the fort, bath, other buildings and bazaar were built by the order of Panah Ali khan". The khan, who moved to a new castle and fortified his positions, instructed to destroy his former headquarters.

Construction in the area of Shahbulag, especially the architecture of castle and mosque, had a significant impact on the subsequent building process in Shusha. Almost all fortresses in Shusha used the features of the Shahbulag castle again in terms of architectural planning and the structure of volume-space. Later, however, the relatives of Panah Khan advised him to choose a safer place for the construction of a new fort and thus he decided to build Shusha fortress.

Construction

Ahmad bey Javanshir noted that "The eternally impassable, inaccessible place chosen for construction of the fort would not allow even the strongest enemy to besiege it". The construction of a new fortress required such a location that one of its sides would be open to be in contact with elats as well as would provide Panah Ali Khan with a chance to get in touch with mahals under his control.

"The sole place in whole Karabakh was Shusha lowland, which was a natural fort surrounded by inaccessible rocks". Baharli, the historian of Karabakh, stated that the space selected for the construction of the new fort was surrounded all around, except the east, by dense forests. The area of the fortress is divided into the ravines completed by valleys. The ravines allow natural water to flow out of the fortress, so it reduces the possibility of flooding to zero in Shusha, where the rainy and foggy weather is characteristic.