Editing Shusha (section)

===Within the Russian Empire===
From the early 19th century, Russian ambitions in the [[Caucasus]] to increase its territories at the expense of neighbouring [[Qajar Iran]] and [[Ottoman Turkey]] began to rise. Following the annexation of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] in 1801, some of the khanates agreed to become Russian protectorates in the immediate years afterwards.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} In 1804, the Russian general [[Pavel Tsitsianov]] directly [[Battle of Ganja (1804)|invaded]] [[Qajar Iran]], initiating the [[Russo-Persian War (1804–1813)|Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813]]. Amidst the war, in 1805, an agreement was made between the [[Karabakh Khanate]] and the Russian Empire on the transfer of the Karabakh Khanate to Russia during the war, but was not fully realized, as both parties were still at war and the Russians were unable to consolidate any effective control over Karabakh.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
[[File:Ruins of the Govheraga Mosque, XVIII c..jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ashaghi Govhar Agha Mosque]], opened in 1876]]
The Russian Empire consolidated its power in the Karabakh Khanate following the [[Treaty of Gulistan]] in 1813, when Iran was forced to recognize the Karabakh Khanate,<ref>[[Arif Yunus|Yunus, Arif]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kD4jAQAAIAAJ&q=treaty+of+gulistan+1813+karabakh ''Karabakh: past and present''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304132455/https://books.google.nl/books?id=kD4jAQAAIAAJ&q=treaty+of+gulistan+1813+karabakh&dq=treaty+of+gulistan+1813+karabakh&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBDgeahUKEwin1JjGtfPIAhVGXg8KHcN3Deg |date=2016-03-04 }} Turan Information Agency, 2005. page 29</ref> along most of the other khanates they possessed in the [[Caucasus]], as belonging to [[Russian Empire|Russia]], comprising present-day [[Dagestan]] and most of the modern-day [[Azerbaijan|Republic of Azerbaijan]], while officially ceding Georgia as well, thus irrevocably losing the greater part of its Caucasian territories.<ref>Allen F. Chew. "An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders". Yale University Press, 1967. pp 74.</ref> Absolute consolidation of Russian power over Karabakh and the recently conquered parts of the Caucasus from Iran were confirmed with the outcome of the [[Russo-Persian War (1826–1828)|Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828]] and the ensuing [[Treaty of Turkmenchay]] of 1828.<ref>Timothy C. Dowling [https://books.google.com/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ&dq=russo+persian+war+1804-1813&pg=PA728 ''Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626144341/https://books.google.nl/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA728&dq=russo+persian+war+1804-1813&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=QnOXVJXpCcz7UPevhPAK&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=russo%20persian%20war%201804-1813&f=false |date=2015-06-26 }} pp 729-730 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014. {{ISBN|978-1598849486}}</ref>

[[File:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, Shushi, Armenia.jpg|thumb|[[Ghazanchetsots Cathedral]], opened in 1887]]
During the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the citadel at Shusha held out for several months and never fell. After this Shusha ceased to be a capital of a khanate, which was dissolved in 1822, and instead became an administrative capital first of the Karabakh province (1822–1840), and then of the [[Shusha Uyezd]] of the [[Elisabethpol Governorate]] (1840–1923). Shusha grew and developed, with successive waves of migrants moving to the city, particularly Armenians, who formed a demographic majority in the surrounding highlands.<ref name="penny">[https://books.google.com/books?id=lD97QrsCTIMC&pg=PA175 ''The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge'']. 1833.</ref><ref name="Tbilisi 1866">''The 1823 Russian Survey of the Karabagh Province: A Primary Source on the Demography and Economy of Karabagh in the Early 19th Century'', trans. George A. Bournoutian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2011.</ref><ref name="Bournoutian, George A 1994, page 18">Bournoutian, George A. A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-E Qarabagh. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1994, page 18</ref>

Beginning from the 1830s the town was divided into two parts: Turkic-speaking Muslims lived in the eastern lower quarters, while Armenian Christians settled in the relatively new western upper quarters of the town. The Muslim part of the town was divided into seventeen quarters. Each quarter had its own [[mosque]], [[Turkish bath]], water-spring and also a quarter representative, who would be elected from among the elders (''aksakals'') and would function similarly to the head of a modern-day municipality. The Armenian part of the town consisted of 12 quarters, five churches, a town and district school and a girls' seminary.

The population of the town primarily dealt with trade, horse-breeding, carpet-weaving and wine and vodka production. Shusha was also the biggest centre of silk production in the Caucasus. Most of the Muslim population of the town and of Karabakh, in general, was engaged in sheep and horse-breeding and therefore, had a semi-nomadic lifestyle, spending wintertime in lowland Karabakh in wintering pastures and spring and summer in summering pastures in Shusha and other mountainous parts.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}

In the 19th century, Shusha was one of the great cities of the Caucasus, larger and more prosperous than either [[Baku]] or [[Yerevan]].<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201">[[Thomas de Waal|Waal, Thomas de]] (2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=XHR-t0gWGJUC&dq=karabakh+khanate+persian+language+official&pg=PA201 ''Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123082509/https://books.google.nl/books?id=XHR-t0gWGJUC&pg=PA201&dq=karabakh+khanate+persian+language+official&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4t5SEqaXJAhXLECwKHQVJAy4Q6AEIRjAH#v=onepage&q=karabakh%20khanate%20persian%20language%20official&f=false |date=2015-11-23 }} NYU Press. {{ISBN|978-0814760321}} p 201</ref> Standing in the middle of a net of caravan routes, it had ten [[caravanserais]].<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201"/> It was well known for its silk trade, its paved roads, brightly coloured carpets, big stone houses, and fine-bred horses.<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201"/> In 1824, George Keppel, the Earl of Albemarle, passed through the city.<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201"/> He found two thousand houses in the town, with three-quarters of the inhabitants Azerbaijanis and one-quarter Armenian.<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201"/> He furthermore noted regarding the town;<ref name="Waal 2013 p 201"/>

{{Blockquote|(...) The language is a dialect of the Turkish; but its inhabitants, with the exception of the Armenians, generally read and write Persian. The trade is carried on principally by the Armenians, between the towns of [[Shaki, Azerbaijan|Sheki]], [[Nakhchivan (city)|Nakshevan]], [[Khoy|Khoi]] and [[Tabriz]]."}}