Ganja

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Ganja

Ganja () is Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan , is the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located partially in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia....
's second-largest city. In Soviet times it was named Kirovabad (Russian: ?????????).

rding 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

Al-Mutawakkil

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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

Al-Mutawakkil

Al-Mutawakkil ?Ala Allah Ja?far ibn al-Mu?tasim was an Abbasid caliph who reigned in Samarra from 847 until 861. He succeeded his brother al-Wathiq and is known for putting an end to the Mihna "ordeal", the Inquisition-like attempt by his predecessors to impose a single Mu'tazili version of Islam....
, 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.

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”. Khazr is believed to be a corrupted form of the name of “Khaled”, while “Patgos” stands for Persian “patgospan”, i.e. governor. Arshakashen (Armenian: ?????????, meaning "built by Arshak") was one of the cantons of the province of Utik

Utik

Utik was a historic province of the Kingdom of Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan immediately west of the Kura River while a part of it lies within the Tavush province of present-day Armenia....
, 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 (???? / Ganjeh, "Ganja" derives from the New Persian ganj (???: "treasure, treasury")) suggests that the city existed in pre-Islamic times and was likely founded in the fifth century A.D. The area in which there was Ganja, during the 9th to 12th century named Arran

Arran

Arran may refer to:...
; its urban population spoke mainly in the Persian language

Persian language

Etymology

Some experts believe that the best the etymology of "Ganja", ( Ganja / Ganjeh) that it refers to the Persian word of ganj ??? which means treasure

Treasure

Treasure is a concentration of riches, often one which is considered lost or forgotten until being rediscovered. Some jurisdictions legally define what constitutes treasure ....
, or treasury

Treasury

A treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical antiquity times to describe the votive buildings erected to house Sacrifice, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by competing city-states to impress others during t...
. There are several other places in Iran and the wider region wich has a similar name as Ganja. Other experts think that the name derived from a turkic word "gen" meaning wide.

History

Historically an important city of the South Caucasus

South Caucasus

The South Caucasus is a mountainous, geopolitical area of south-central Eurasia, also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Transcaucasus....
, Ganja has been part of Sassanid empire, Great Seljuk Empire, Atabegs of Azerbaijan

Atabegs of Azerbaijan

The Atabegs of Azerbaijan rose from the ashes of the vast Seljuk Empire in the beginning of the 12th century. The atabeg was the title referred to the guardians appointed for minor princes of the Seljukid line who were nominally set over garrisons in provinces....
, Khwarezmid Empire, Il-Khans, Timurids, Jalayirids

Jalayirids

The Jalayirids were a Mongol Jalayir dynasty which ruled over Iraq and western Persia after the breakup of the Mongol Khanate of Persia in the 1330s....
, Qara Qoyunlu, Ak Koyunlu

Ak Koyunlu

The Ak Koyunlu or Aq Qoyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans , was an Oghuz Turks tribal federation, that ruled parts of present-day Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and western Iran from 1378 to 1508....
, and the Ganja Khanate

Ganja Khanate

Ganja khanate was a Muslim principality mostly under the dominion of Iran in 1747-1805.The principality was ruled by the dynasty of Ziadogly , which had ruled Ganja as governors under Nadir Shah and was of Qajar extraction....
. Ganja is also the birthplace of the famous poet Nizami

Nizami

Nizami may refer to:*Nezami, a romantic epic poet in Persian literature*Nizami, Armenia, a town in the Ararat_ Province of Armenia*Nizami raion, a settlement and raion in Baku, Azerbaijan...
. The people of Ganja experienced a temporary cultural decline after an earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
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

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
between 1578-1603 and 1724-1735. For a short period, Ganja was renamed Abbasabad by Shah Abbas

Abbas I of Persia

Shah ?Abbas the Great or Shah ?Abbas I was Shah of Iran, and the greatest ruler of the Safavid Dynasty of the Persian Empire. He was the third son of Mohammed Khodabanda....
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 During the Safavid rule, it was the capital of the Karabakh (Ganja) beylerbey

Beylerbey

Beylerbey The rank was used initially for very large parts of the empire ? all of Anatolia and Rumelia ? but in later centuries the title was devaluated by extending it to the governors of various much smaller Ottoman eyalets....
, one of the four such administrative units and principalities. In 1747, Ganja became the center of the Ganja Khanate

Ganja Khanate

Gulistan Treaty

The Treaty of Gulistan was a peace treaty concluded between Russian Empire and Qajar dynasty on October 24, 1813 in the village of Gulistan as a result of the Russo-Persian War ....
, the Ganja Khanate, together with most of Azerbaijan and Georgia, was recognized as part of Russian Empire after Persia's

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
defeat in the Persia-Russia wars

Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)

The 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, began like many wars as a territorial dispute....
. It was renamed Elizavetpol (Russian: ????????????) after the wife of Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , also known as Alexander the Blessed served as Tsar of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and Ruler of Poland from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland....
, Elizabeth

Louise of Baden

Elizabeth Alexeievna was the wife of Tsar Alexander I of Russia....
, and in 1868 became the capital of Elizavetpol Governorate. Elizavetpol was a uyezd

Uyezd

Uyezd or uezd was an admistrative subdivision of Rus' , Muscovy, and Russian Empire used from the 13th century, originally describing groups of several volosts formed around the most important cities....
of Tiflis Governorate

Tiflis Governorate

Tiflis Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire with its centre in Tiflis . In 1897 it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants....
before 1868.

In 1918, Ganja became the temporary capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis....
, at which point it was renamed Ganja again, until Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes known as Baqy, Baky, Baki or Bak?, is the capital, the largest city, and the largest port of Azerbaijan....
was recaptured from the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
backed Centrocaspian Dictatorship

Centrocaspian Dictatorship

The Centrocaspian Dictatorship was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland-backed anti-Russian Civil War government founded in Baku on August 1, 1918....
. In April 1920, the Red Army

Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
occupied Azerbaijan. In May 1920, Ganja was the scene of an abortive anti-Soviet rebellion

Rebellion

Rebellion is a refusal of obedience. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience and mass nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established authority such as the government....
during which the town was heavily damaged by fighting between the insurgents and the Red Army. In 1935, Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
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. According to the official government data, at the beginning of 2006, the population of Ganja was 305,600. It has an international airport, and is home to the Nizami Mausoleum, re-built in 1991.

Historic Armenian community

In addition to Persian- and Turkic-speaking Muslims, the city has had a numerically, economically and, culturally significant Armenian community. Among the Armenians, the city is known as Gandzak. The word Gandzak is likewise associated with the concept of treasure or riches - gandz (Arm. - ????). The city's historically important Christian figures include Kirakos Gandzaketsi

Kirakos Gandzaketsi

Kirakos Gandzaketsi was an Armenian people historian of the 13th century and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days....
(??????? ?????????, 1201-1271, author of the History of the Armenians), Armenian

Armenian language

The 'Armenian language' is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh....
philosopher Mkhitar Gosh

Mkhitar Gosh

Mkhitar Gosh was an Armenian scholar and priest. He wrote a code of laws including civil law and Canon law that was used in both Greater Armenia and Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia....
(?????? ???, c. 1130–1213) author of the Code of Laws that was used in Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was a state formed in the Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk Turks invasion of Armenia. It was located on the Gulf of Iskenderun of the Mediterranean Sea in what is today southern Turkey....
and Armenian diasporan groups in Europe, and Grigor Paron-Ter

Grigor Paron-Ter

Grigor Paron-Ter , was the Armenian Apostolic Church Patricarch of Jerusalem. He reigned from 1613 to 1645. During his tenure, the Ottoman Empire was in crisis, which also impacted the Armenian people and Armenian Jerusalem....
(?????? ????? ???, 1560-1645) - Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. Among the modern time's prominent Armenian person's of the city were Russian-Armenian architect Karo Halabyan, secretary of Armenian SSR

Armenian SSR

The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Armenian SSR for short, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union that made up the former Soviet Union....
communist party, President Askanaz Mravyan

Askanaz Mravyan

Askanaz Mravyan was a Soviet Armenian statesman and political activist, one of the leaders of Soviet Armenia.He studied at Saint-Petersburg Psycho-neurological Institute....
, Marshall

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. . Stalin, however, refused this honor, and was always depicted wearing Marshal's insignia....
Hovhannes Baghramyan, Chief Marshal

Chief Marshal

The ranks of Marshal of a troop arm and Chief Marshal of a troop arm were senior military ranks of the Soviet Army. They were established in 1943....
Hamazasp Babadzhanian

Hamazasp Babadzhanian

Hamazasp Khachaturovich Babadzhanian . Chief Marshal of the Armored troops of the USSR in 1975. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944....
and the Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....
champion Albert Azaryan

Albert Azaryan

Albert Vagharshaki Azaryan is an Armenians artistic gymnast who competed internationally representing the Soviet Union. He is the 1956 and 1960 Gymnastics at the Olympics on the still rings....
.

The founder of the Hethumid dynasty

Hethumids

The Hethumids , also known as the House of Lampron, were the rulers of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from 1226 to 1373. Hethum I, the first of the Hethumids, came to power when he married Queen Isabella of Armenia who had inherited the throne from her father....
, Oshin of Lampron

Oshin of Lampron

Oshin of Lampron was an Armenian nakharar, formerly lord of a fortress near Ganja, Azerbaijan, who migrated in the early 1070's to Cilicia and founded the House of Lampron that ruled the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the 12th century....
was an Armenian nakharar

Nakharar

Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility....
and lord of a castle near Ganja who fled to Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia now known as ?ukurova, was a commonly used name of the south coastal region of the Anatolian peninsula, and a political entity in Roman times....
in 1075 during the Seljuk invasion of Armenia.

Administrative organization

Ganja is divided into:

K?p?z Rayon, with about 160,000 people
Nizami Rayon, with about 140,000 people
Hacik?nd
Hacik?nd

Hacik?nd may refer to:*Hacik?nd, Goygol, Azerbaijan*Hacik?nd, Kalbajar, Azerbaijan...
village, with about 500 people

Education

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

Ganja State University
Ganja State University

Ganja State University is a public university located in Ganja, Azerbaijan. Previously known as the Pedagogical Institute, it has 22 specialties in 26 faculties....
Azerbaijan State Agricultural Academy
Azerbaijan State Agricultural Academy

Azerbaijan State Agricultural Academy , also referred to as the Azerbaijan Agricultural Academy , is a public university located in Ganja, Azerbaijan....
Azerbaijan Technological University
Azerbaijan Teachers Institute, Ganja Branch

Famous people

Ganja is known for its famous people:

Nizami Ganjavi
Mahsati Ganjavi
Javad Khan
Javad Khan

Javad khan Ziyad oghlu Qajar a member of the royal Qajar family, the Khan of Ganja khanate. During the first Russo-Persian War , Ganja, Azerbaijan was considered by Russians as a town of foremost importance....
Mirza Shafi Vazeh
Mirza Shafi Vazeh

Mirza-Shafi Vazeh , also known as the "sage from Ganja ", was a classical Azerbaijani literature, who continued the classical traditions of Azerbaijani poetry from the 14th century....
Mirza Topchubashov
Israfil Mammadov
Fikrat Amirov
Fikret Amirov

Fikret Mashadi Jamil oghlu Amirov was a prominent Azerbaijani composer of the Azerbaijan SSR period.Fikret Amirov grew up in an atmosphere of Azerbaijani people folk music....
Nigar Rafibeyli

Languages

About 99% of the population of Ganja speak Azerbaijani

Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran....
, only 1% of the population speak in other languages.

Sister cities

Derbent

Derbent is a types of settlements in Russia in the Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan....
, Russia Rustavi

Rustavi

Rustavi or Rust'avi is a city in the southeast of Georgia , in the province of Kvemo Kartli, situated 16 miles southeast of the capital Tbilisi....
, Georgia

Izmir

Izmir, also once called Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of Izmir, by the Aegean Sea....
, Turkey Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
, Russia

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest City in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it not only List of Municipalities in New Jersey but also the 65th List of United States cities by population Newark is also home to major corporations, such as Prudential Financial....
, United States Kars

Kars

Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Population: 8,672 ; 20,891 ; 54,000 ; 129,789 ; 8500 ; 142,145 ; 130,361 ....
, Turkey

Pictures of Ganja

External links

at the