SHEMAHA, a formerly important but now insignificant town in Transcaucasia, in 40° 38' N. lat. and 66° 19' E. long., on the Zagolovai, an affluent of the Peerssagat, which falls into the Caspian. It is situated in a mountainous, very picturesque country, covered with luxuriant vegetation, at about 2230 feet above the level of the Black Sea. In 1873 it had 25,087 inhabitants, of whom 18,680 were Tartars and Shachsevans, 5177 Armenians, and 1230 Russians. Some 300 Armenian families now profess Lutheranism—the result of a mission first established at Shemaha about twenty years ago. Shemaha was the capital of the khanate of Shirván, and was known to Ptolemy as Kamachia. Situated as it was on the high road from Europe to India, this old town must at one time have possessed very considerable importance, and evidence of the fact is found in the numerous ruins of large caravansarais, churches, and public buildings. About the middle of the 16th century it was the seat of an English commercial factory, under the well-known traveller Jenkinson (compare Russia, vol. xxi. p. 93), afterwards envoy extraordinary of the khan of Shirván to Ivan the Terrible. In 1742 Shemaha was taken and destroyed by Nadir Shah, who, to punish the inhabitants for their Sunnite creed, built a new town under the same name about 16 miles to the west, at the foot of the main chain of the Caucasus. The new Shemaha was at different times a residence of the khan of Shirván, but it was finally abandoned, and in its place there stands now only a village called Akhsu, whilst the old town was rebuilt, and under the Russians became capital of the government of Shemaha. In recent times Shemaha has suffered greatly from earthquakes: in 1859...
it was shaken to its foundations, and in consequence the seat of the governor was removed to Baku; in 1872 (16th January) there occurred a still more terrible shock, from which the town has never recovered. Silk manufacture is the principal industry in Shemaha. In 1873 there were one hundred and thirty silk-winding establishments, owned mostly by Armenians. The industry has, however, since 1864 considerably declined.
The district of Shemaha (4426 square miles), corresponding to the ancient khanate of Shirván, lies along the southern slope of the main chain of the Eastern Caucasus. It contains a population of 97,801 inhabitants (1873), of whom 8493 are Russians, 14,838 Armenians, 73,124 Tartars, 638 Jats (old Persian tribe), and 708 Jews. As everywhere in Transcaucasia, the number of males is considerably in excess over the females (100 to 81). The district occupies a sparsely-wooded mountainous region, completely shut up on the north, and open to the dry, large, and mostly desolate valley of Kura on the south. The climate is generally healthy, rather dry and moderately warm; in the lower parts the people suffer from malarious fever. The annual rainfall in Shemaha is 14·52 inches, the mean summer temperature 73° Fahr., winter 37°. The soil, mostly of the Tertiary formation, is very rich and of considerable variety. This district occupies in Transcaucasia a foremost place in vine-growing and in the silk industry. The vine region, in the south-west of the district, is a long strip of land of breadth varying from 4 to 20 miles. The highest level of the vine is about 2500 feet above the sea. The plant is left unprotected in winter, and owing to the abundance of water occasioned by the melting snows and the heavy rains in spring, there is no need of irrigation. According to a general survey made in 1875 there are in the district 3098 vineyards, occupying a total of 1754 acres. The other products are principally wheat, cotton, and rice. In 1875 the annual vintage at Shemaha was calculated at about 62,160 gallons. The best wine is that of Matrassy. The province of Shirván, now the district of Shemaha', has been frequently the theatre of terrible struggles and bloodshed. It was conquered by the Persians in 1501 under Shah Ismail I., and it continued with brief interruptions to be a part of the Persian dominions until the fall of the Safawí dynasty.
Shemaha, the capital of Shirván, was sacked in 1712 by the Lcsghians; eight years later the town and the whole province were devastated by a certain Daghestani, Ala ud-Daulah, who was later recognized by Persia as the khan of Shirvan. In 1724 the khanate was taken by Turkey, but ten years later Nadir Shah of Persia reconquered it after terrible ravages. On the departure of Nadir Shah soon afterwards Shirván enjoyed independence under the rule of Mahmud Seyyid, who rebuilt Shemaha. The Russians entered Shirván first in 1723, but soon retired. In 1795 they captured Shemaha as well as Baku; but the conquest was once more abandoned, and Shirván was not finally annexed to Russia until November 1805 after the voluntary submission of its last khan Mustapha.
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