Ganja, Azerbaijan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Kirovabad” redirects here. For other uses see Kirovabad (disambiguation).
Ganja
Gəncə
Official seal of Ganja
Seal
Coordinates: 40°40′58″N 46°21′38″E / 40.68278, 46.36056
Country Azerbaijan
Government
 - Mayor Eldar Azizov
Area
 - Total 110 km² (42.5 sq mi)
Elevation +408 m (1,339 ft)
Population (2007)
 - Total 500,000
Time zone GMT+4 (UTC+4)
 - Summer (DST) GMT+5 (UTC+5)
Website: [2]

Ganja IPA: [ɟæn'ʤæ] (Azerbaijani: Gəncə, Russian: Гянджа) is Azerbaijan's second-largest city. In Soviet times it was named Kirovabad (Russian: Кировабад).

Contents

[edit] Foundation of the city

According to medieval Arab sources, the city of Ganja was founded in 859-60 by Mohammad b. Khaled b. Yazid b. Mazyad, the Arab governor of the region in the reign of the caliph Al-Mutawakkil, and so-called because of a treasure unearthed there. According to the legend, the Arab governor had a dream where a voice told him that there was a treasure hidden under one of the three hills around the area where he camped. The voice told him to unearth it and use the money to found a city. He did so and informed the caliph about the money and the city. Caliph made Mohammad the hereditary governor of the city on a condition that he would give the money he found to the caliph.[1]

Foundation of the city by Arabs is confirmed by the medieval Armenian historian Movses Kagankatvatsi, who mentions that the city of Ganja was founded in 846-47 in the canton of Arshakashen by the son of Khazr Patgos, “a furious and merciless man”.[2] Khazr is believed to be a corrupted form of the name of “Khaled”, while “Patgos” stands for Persian “patgospan”, i.e. governor.[3] Arshakashen (Armenian: Արշակաշեն, meaning "built by Arshak") was one of the cantons of the province of Utik, which was part of Armenia, before 387 AD, and of Caucasian Albania after the division of the Kingdom of Armenia between Persia and Byzantium.

However, modern historians believe that the Persian name Ganja (گنجه / Ganjeh, "Ganja" derives from the New Persian ganj (گنج: "treasure, treasury")) suggests that the city existed in pre-Islamic times and was likely founded in the fifth century A.D.[4]

[edit] History

Historically an important city of the South Caucasus, Ganja has been part of Sassanid empire, Great Seljuk Empire, Atabegs of Azerbaijan, Khwarezmid_Empire, Il-Khans [5], Timurids [6], Jalayirids[7], Qara Qoyunlu[8], Ak Koyunlu[9][3], and the Ganja Khanate. Ganja is also the birthplace of the famous poet Nizami. The people of Ganja experienced a temporary cultural decline after an earthquake in 1139 and again after the Mongol invasion in 1231. The city was revived after the Safavids came to power. She was also managed by Ottomans between 1578-1603 and 1724-1735. For a short period, Ganja was renamed Abbasabad by Shah Abbas after war against the Ottomans.He build a new city 8 km to the southwest of the old one , but the name changed back to Ganja during the time[10] During the Safavid rule, it was the capital of the Karabakh (Ganja) beylerbey[11], one of the four such administrative units and principalities.[12] In 1747, Ganja became the center of the Ganja Khanate.

According to the October 1813 Gulistan Treaty, the Ganja Khanate, together with most of Azerbaijan and Georgia, was recognized as part of Russian Empire after Persia's defeat in the Persia-Russia wars.[13] It was renamed Elizavetpol (Russian: Елизаветполь) after the wife of Alexander I of Russia, Elizabeth, and in 1868 became the capital of Elizavetpol Governorate.[14]. Elizavetpol was a uyezd of Tiflis Governorate before 1868.

In 1918, Ganja became the temporary capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, at which point it was renamed Ganja again, until Baku was recaptured from the British backed Centrocaspian Dictatorship. In 1920, the Red Army occupied Azerbaijan and in 1935 Joseph Stalin renamed the city Kirovabad after Sergei Kirov. In 1991, Azerbaijan re-established its independence, and the ancient name of the city was given back.

Today Ganja is the second largest city in Azerbaijan. [4] According to the official government data, at the beginning of 2006, the population of Ganja was 305,600.[15][16] It has an international airport, and is home to the Nizami Mausoleum, re-built in 1991.

[edit] Historic Armenian community

In addition to Persian- and Turkic-speaking Muslims, the city has had a numerically, economically and, culturally significant Armenian community [17][18]. Among the Armenians, the city is known as Gandzak (Գանձակ)[19][20][21][22]. The word Gandzak is likewise associated with the concept of treasure or riches - gandz (Arm. - գանձ)[23]. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services Country Reports, pogroms directed against the Armenian population have taken place in Ganja (Kirovabad) in November, 1988 following the expulsion of Azeris from Armenia [24] (see Kirovabad pogrom) . The city’s Armenian population (about 1/3 of the whole population) left in 1989, in the process of forced population exchanges that defined the Karabakh conflict [25].

The city's historically important Christian figures include Kirakos Gandzaketsi (Կիրակոս Գանձակեցի, 1201-1271, author of the History of the Armenians [26]), Armenian [27] philosopher Mkhitar Gosh (Մխիթար Գոշ, c. 1130–1213)[28] author of the Code of Laws that was used in Armenia, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and Armenian diasporan groups in Europe [29], and Grigor Paron-Ter (Գրիգոր Պարոն Տեր, 1560-1645) - Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. Among the modern time's prominent Armenian person's of the city were Russian-Armenian architect Karo Halabyan [30], secretary of Armenian SSR communist party, President Askanaz Mravyan [31], Marshall Hovhannes Baghramyan [32], Chief Marshal Hamazasp Babadzhanian and the Olympic champion Albert Azaryan [33].

[edit] Education

Ganja is home to four major institutes for post-secondary education.

[edit] Famous people

Ganja is known for its famous people:

[edit] Ethnic groups

Azerbaijan
Azeris
  
 98.25%
Other
  
 1.75%


[edit] Languages

About 99% of the population of Ganja speak Azerbaijani, only 1% of the population speak in other languages.

[edit] Sister cities

[edit] Pictures of Ganja

The Nizami Ganjavi Monument in Ganja

Ganja archeological museum

Ganja city hall

Ganja city hall

Ganja State Academy of Sciences

Statue of Nizami Ganjavi in front of the crumbling Kyapas Hotel

Ganja downtown

Cavadxan St (formerly Ganja St and before that Sabir St!)

Shah Abbas Mosque

Area around Shah Abbas Mosque

Ganja's quirky 'Bottle House' (Huseynli St)

Nizami Mausoleum

Statues depicting scenes from the works of Nizami, near the Nizami Ganjavi Mausoleum (Ganja)

Statues depicting scenes from the works of Nizami, near the Nizami Ganjavi Mausoleum (Ganja)

Statues depicting scenes from the works of Nizami, near the Nizami Ganjavi Mausoleum (Ganja)

Statues depicting scenes from the works of Nizami, near the Nizami Ganjavi Mausoleum (Ganja)

[edit] References

  1. ^ V.Minorsky. A History of Shirvan and Derbent.
  2. ^ History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movses Dasxuranci, C.J.F. Dowsett trans. (London 1961), chapter 21.
  3. ^ C. J. F. Dowsett. A Neglected Passage in the "History of the Caucasian Albanians". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 19, No. 3. (1957), pp. 456-468.
  4. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "Ganja", C. Edmund Bosworth
  5. ^ Iran. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 17, 2007
  6. ^ Timurid Dynasty. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 16, 2007
  7. ^ Jalayirid. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 17, 2007
  8. ^ Kara Koyunlu. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 15, 2007
  9. ^ Ak Koyunlu. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 17, 2007
  10. ^ Seyyaf Sednik oqli Pashayev. The Monuments of Ganja Khanate of the Period form 1606 - 1804. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
  11. ^ "Beglerbeg" in Cyclopædia dictionary, (ed. Ephraim Chambers), First Volume, London: Printed for J. and J. Knapton (and 18 others), 1728, p. 95 (accessed March 17, 2007)
  12. ^ I.Petrushevskiy. Ocherki po istorii feodal'nikh otnosheniy d Azerbaijane i Armenii v XVI - nach. XIX vv., Leningrad, 1949, p. 122, in Russian
  13. ^ John F. Baddeley, "The Russian conquest of the Caucasus", London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1908, p. 67, citing "Tsitsianoff's report to the Emperor: Akti, ix (supplement), p. 920".
  14. ^ Елизаветпольская губерния (Elizavetpol Governorate) in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian)
  15. ^ The State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, "Population by economic regions at the beginning of the 2006"
  16. ^ Census table for Azerbaijani cities
  17. ^ Soviet Census in 1926-1979, Newspaper Pravda Press, Moscow, 1983
  18. ^ According to the 1892 official data, 10524 of 25758 inhabitants of the city were Armenians, there were 6 Armenian Apostolic (Gregorian) churches", Elizavetpol article, Brockauz and Efron Encyclopedia (in Russian)
  19. ^ "the union of Georgian and Armenian armies near Gandzak", Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE)
  20. ^ "Mkhitar Gosh was born in Gandzak", Mkhitar Gosh article, (BSE)
  21. ^ Рыжов К.В. Все монархи мира. Древняя Греция. Древний Рим. Византия - М.: 2002. - 576 с. "Irakly with his army.... took Karin (Erzeroum), Dvin, Nakhichevan and Gandzak (Ganja)" [1]
  22. ^ "Gandzak (Ganja)" [jss.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/6/2/145.pdf THE DEATH OF THE LAST 'ABBASID CALIPH: A CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM ACCOUNT, by BOYLE J. // Semitic Studies.1961; 6: 145-161
  23. ^ Dictionary.Hayastan.com
  24. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services Country Reports Azerbaijan. The Status of Armenians, Russians, Jews and Other Minorities
  25. ^ "During the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict (1989) all Armenians (about 1/3 of its population) left Ganja", Словарь современных географических названий / Под общ. ред. акад. В. М. Котлякова. - Электронное издание. - Екатеринбург: У-Фактория, 2006 (in Russian)
  26. ^ Kirakos, Gandzaketsi, History of the Armenians, New York: Sources of the Armenian Tradition, 1986.
  27. ^ "Armenian philosopher, literary and public activist", Mkhitar Gosh at BSE
  28. ^ Mkhitar Gosh at BSE
  29. ^ "Despite the code of Gosh hadnt official character, it used in Armenia, as in the foreign countries, where there were Armenian population". Code of Laws by Gosh at Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE)
  30. ^ Alabyan at BSE
  31. ^ Mravyan at BSE
  32. ^ Baghramyan at BSE
  33. ^ Azarian at BSE

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Coordinates: 40°40′58″N 46°21′38″E / 40.68278, 46.36056

v • d • e
Administrative divisions of Azerbaijan
Districts
Flag of Azerbaijan

Absheron · Agdam · Agdash · Agjabadi · Agstafa · Agsu · Astara · Babek · Balakan · Barda · Beylagan · Bilasuvar · Dashkasan · Davachi · Fizuli · Gadabay · Goranboy · Goychay · Goygol · Hajigabul · Imishli · Ismailli · Jabrayil · Jalilabad · Julfa · Kalbajar · Kangarli · Khachmaz · Khizi · Khojali · Khojavend · Kurdamir · Lachin · Lankaran · Lerik · Masally · Neftchala · Oguz · Ordubad · Qabala · Qakh · Qazakh · Qobustan · Quba · Qubadli · Qusar · Saatly · Sabirabad · Sadarak · Salyan · Samukh · Shahbuz · Shaki · Shamakhi · Shamkir · Sharur · Shusha · Siazan · Tartar · Tovuz · Ujar · Yardymli · Yevlakh · Zangilan · Zaqatala · Zardab
Cities

Baku · Ganja · Khankendi · Lankaran · Mingachevir · Naftalan · Nakhchivan City · Shaki · Shirvan · Sumqayit · Shusha · Yevlakh
Names in italics indicate parts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic