Great Return

Restoration of the mausoleum of the vizier of the Karabakh Khanate and poet, Mullah Panah Vagif, in Shusha is nearing completion. The mausoleum was built in 1982, but was plundered and seriously damaged during
Armenian occupation

The period of prosperity in the Karabakh cultural heritage is closely related to local khans and the activ- ity of their successors. The Shahbulag Castle, built in the 18th-19th centuries, the Asgaran Fortress, as well as dozens of mosques, madrasas, caravanserais, bridges and mansions, were considered to be pearls of Kara- bakh. The Shusha fortress city was an uncovered mu- seum with one-of-the-kind architectural samples. There were a total of 17 neighborhoods in the city with each possessing its own shades and hues, historical build- ings, mosques, bath-houses, water springs, etc.

Shusha was a significant cultural center of not only Karabakh but the entire Azerbaijan in the second half of the 19th century, along with being a cradle of national music. It was called “the South Caucasus conservato- ry”. Dozens of outstanding personalities like the great khanendes (singers) who promoted the Azerbaijani mugham in Europe, including Jabbar Garyaghdioghlu and Mahammad Kechachioghlu, as well as the author of the first opera in the Muslim East, composer Uzeyir Hajibayli, hail from this territory. Theatrical and circus performances were staged in Shusha for the first time in the history of Azerbaijani culture, along with European and Oriental concerts, musical and scientific events. A publishing house and a library were opened as well.
Azerbaijani literature has an abundant history traced back to Karabakh. In the Middle Ages, this land nurtured such well-known thinkers of the East as Said Amirul Bar- dayi, Sadullah Bardayi and Mahammad Garabaghi. Molla Panah Vagif, vizier (chief minister) of the Karabakh Khan, laid the foundation of a new national school of poetry in Azerbaijani literature in the 18th century. Furthermore, the 19th century was the “Golden Age” of literature in Karabakh. This era was mainly tracked in the city of Shusha. “Tazkireyi-Navvab”, a piece of work composed by Mir Mohsun Navvab, a Shusha-based painter, poet and scholar, cites the names of up to 100 writers who lived in the city in that time period. Prominent poetess Khurshidbanu Natavan (1832-1897), known as “Khan’s daughter” (a daughter of Mehdigulu, the last Karabakh Khan), made a special contribution to the enrichment of literature in Shusha and Karabakh overall. Natavan brought together a great number of poets of that era by establishing a literary community called «Majlisi-uns» in


Shusha. In addition to writing poetry, Natavan was a tal- ented artist and excelled in artistic embroidery. French writer Alexandre Dumas (‘father’) wrote in his “Tales of the Caucasus” in 1858 about his meeting with Natavan and her creative talent. Natavan was also known to have undertaken charitable activities, such as the construc- tion of numerous buildings in Shusha, along with as- sisting the needy people and building a water pipeline in the city. The Karabakh literary community was also home to well-known satirical poet Gasim Bay Zakir and Ashiq Pari, a poet and folk singer. In the late 19th cen- tury and the early 20th century, this land also nurtured such writers and playwrights as Najaf bay Vazirov, Ab- durrahim bay Haqverdiyev, Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli and Suleyman Sani Akhundov.
The Karabakh school is one of the seven main car- pet-making schools in Azerbaijan. Barda and the city of Shusha have been recognized as major regional centers of craftsmanship since the 10th-11th centuries and the 18th century respectively. Carpet-weaving was wide- spread in Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil and other regions. Numerous Azerbaijani carpets made in Karabakh adorn well-known museums around the world.

Horse-breeding in Karabakh has a long history as well. Purebred horses from Karabakh have been known well in many countries since the Middle Ages. Karabakh horses have been part of special royal cavalry units in Europe and a number of races.
Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region has also been famed in the world for the Azykh Cave, an ancient human habi- tat dating back around 2 million years. Karabakh is also home to the successors of the Paleolithic-era Guruchay culture, as well as the Kura-Araz and Khojaly-Gadabay cultures that existed during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and superseded one another. Scores of historical and cultural monuments have been recorded in Kara- bakh, including 13 monuments of global importance (including six architectural and seven archaeologi- cal sites), 292 monuments of nationwide importance (119 architectural and 173 archaeological sites) and 330 monuments of local importance (270 architectural monuments, 22 archaeological monuments, 23 gar- dens, parks, monumental and memorial sites and 15 decorative art samples).
A significant number of Christian monuments dat- ing back to the epoch of Caucasian Albania, including ancient places of worship and shrines, are available in Karabakh as well. The Albanian Apostolic Church was the most ancient Christian shrine with an extensive his-