Baku's "Ichari Shahar" (literally, Inner City), often referred to by foreigners as the "Old City", is a unique architectural preserve that differs considerably from the other ancient cities of Azerbaijan. Ichari Shahar has many fascinating architectural monuments, including the Maiden's Tower and the Shirvanshah Palace.
Inner City, Outer City
According to the archeological evidence, the city of Baku dates back to at least the early centuries AD. After 1538, Baku served as the capital of the khanate of Shirvanshah after Shamakhi, a city 1.5 hours north of Baku, sustained a major earthquake. That's when the Shirvan Shahs moved their capital to Baku.
From 1747 to 1806, Baku was the capital of a khanate that included Baku itself and 39 neighboring villages. This independent principality was called "Badkube" (i.e. wind-beaten), "City of Winds", and coined its own money.
During this period, the entire city was located inside the fortress walls and had a population of approximately 7,000 people. After the Russians occupied the city in 1806, and especially during the first Oil Boom of 1850-1920, Baku grew rapidly beyond its fortified walls. This is when the expressions "Ichari Shahar" (Inner City) and "Bayir Shahar" (Outer City) first came into use. Huseingulu Sarabski writes: "Baku was divided into two sections: Ichari Shahar and Bayir Shahar. The Inner City was the main part. Those who lived in the Inner City were considered natives of Baku. They were in close proximity to everything: the bazaar, craftsmen's workshops and mosques. There was even a church there, as well as a military barracks built during the Russian occupation." Residents who lived inside the walls considered themselves to be superior to those outside and often referred to them as the "barefooted people of the Outer City."
The Inner City consists of many small sections that are demarcated by winding lanes and narrow streets. Originally, each section, or block, was named after a neighboring mosque: Juma Mosque Block, Shal Mosque Block, Mohammadyar Mosque Block, Haji Gayib Mosque Block, Siniggala Mosque Block, Gasimbey Mosque Block and so forth.
Some of the sections of the Inner City and their mosques were named after the clans and nationalities that lived there. For instance, Gilaklar was the place where the merchants from Gilan stayed; Lezgilar was the street where the Dagestani armorers and gunsmiths lived. Most of the Inner City's residents were craftsmen, merchants or seamen. Some of the sections took their names from certain professions, such as Hamamchilar (Bathhouse Owners), Bazarlar (Cloth Traders) and Hakkakchilar (Stone Engravers).
Back in 1806, there were 707 shops and craftsmen workshops in the city, even though the total population was only 7,000. Every merchant and skilled craftsman had his own store. Their customers were the traders who came to Baku from various countries. Baku ships carried goods to and from Iran, Central Asia and Russia.
Centuries - Old Monuments
The Inner City's ancient monuments include the Maiden Tower, the Sinig Gala Minaret (11th century), the fortress walls and towers (11th and 12th century) and the Shirvanshah Palace (15th-16th century). In addition, the Inner City once boasted 28 mosques, nine caravanserais, several bathhouses, potable water reservoirs (ovdans) and a bazaar. Merchants from Central Asia tended to stay in the 16th-century Bukhari caravanserai, while the Indian traders preferred the 15th-century Multani caravanserai.
The residents of Baku were fond of bathhouses. Besides a bath, one could get a massage, enjoy some refreshments like cool sharbat (fruit drinks) or hot tea, have a snack or smoke the hookah pipe there.
Several of Baku's bathhouses are still standing, including the large 15th-century Haji Gayib bathhouse behind the Maiden's Tower and the 17th-century Gasimbey bathhouse near the Cultural Department of the British Council.
While Baku's medieval bazaar no longer exists, you can still see its columns and arches behind the Maiden's Tower. In the early 20th century, the bazaar was enlarged to extend from the Multani and Bukhari caravanserais to the 14th-century Juma Mosque.
European Styles
After the Russian government took control of Baku in the early 19th century, the traditional architectural look of the Inner City changed. Many beautiful European - type buildings were constructed during the 19th century and early 20th century, using styles such as Baroque and Gothic.
One such building, formerly known as the "Chain House", houses Baku's Institute of Ethnography today. This building's roof used to have three classical Greek - style statues of women on display along with two freestanding vases. The pedestals of all of the statues and vases were joined to each other with a double iron chain, thus giving rise to the name "Zanjirli Ev" (Chain House). When I was a child, I used to hear the older Inner City residents refer to this building as the "Chain House", but this expression is no longer used today. In the Soviet period, all of the building's statues were removed, as were the vases. However, the central statue has recently been reconstructed.
To the left of the Chain House, as you walk in from the Double Gates, stands a three - story, early modern style house which was built in 1903 by my great - grandfather, sea captain Mashadi Baghir Alakbarov. He lived on the third floor. His brother Museyib, also a sea captain, lived on the second floor. Mammad Sadikh Alakbarov, who worked at a bank, lived on the first floor. The attached one - story building, now covered with grapevines, also belonged to them and was leased to various shopkeepers.
Inner City businessman Gatir Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (1837-1915), my mother's great-grandfather (not to be confused with Taghiyev, the famous millionaire), built a beautiful two-story Baroque-style building to the right of the Chain House. Unfortunately, that building was torn down in the 1970s and replaced by a Soviet concrete block structure that is known as the Encyclopedia Building.
General Tsitsianov
Sarabski provides interesting information about the history of the Baku fortress gates, which were built between the 12th and 19th centuries. In the 1930s he wrote: "Recently the Inner City has acquired a fifth gate, though in the past there were only four. The most famous of the entrances is the Double Fortress Gates [Gosha Gala], which was sometimes referred to as the Shamakhi Gate." According to my elderly relatives, in the past there was only a single archway there at Gosha Gala, not the two entrances that exist today, which allow traffic to enter and exit through separate archways. It seems that Russian General Tsitsianov was set on capturing the Inner City of Baku through the Gosha Gala gates. In 1806, the Russian navy landed its troops on the shores of Baku. General Tsitsianov sought permission from Khan Huseingulu to permit a garrison of 600 to 1,000 Russian soldiers to enter the city, under the command of Russian authorities.
At first, the khan agreed and even went out to greet Tsitsianov in front of the Double Fortress Gates. But while the negotiations were being carried out (February 2), the khan's cousin Ibrahim suddenly shot Tsitsianov.
Tsitsianov's soldiers fled. The khan's guard tracked down the Russians and killed many of them. Then the Baku artillery opened fire on the Czar's ships, which made a hasty retreat to Sara Island, off the coast of Baku. The khan beheaded Tsitsianov and then sent his head to the Iranian ruler Fathali Shah as a gift. Since Russia was at war with Iran, Huseingulu khan hoped to engage the Shah's assistance in helping him combat the Czar's army.
However, Fathali Shah did not offer any help. Seven months later, on September 18, 1806, the Russians returned and this time easily captured Baku. With his 500 soldiers and 70 cannon, the khan could not withstand the superior Russian forces under Bulgakov. Huseingulu fled to Ardabil, a city in what is now Southern Azerbaijan (part of Iran).
In 1846, the Russians erected a monument in memory of Tsitsianov, placing it in front of the Double Fortress Gates where he had been murdered. After the Bolshevik
Revolution in 1920, this monument was dismantled and destroyed because it honored the Czar's army. During the Soviet period, Azerbaijani historians avoided mentioning these facts and did not include the Tsitsianov incident in the "official" version of the history of Azerbaijan. I happened upon this information by reading some of the old chronicles that are maintained at Baku's Institute of Manuscripts, especially a chapter called "The History of the Baku Khanate," found in the book "Gullistani-Iram (Garden of Paradise) by the famous scholar Abbasgulu Agha Bakikhanov (1794-1847), himself a descendant of that last Baku khan.
Gates and Trade
Sarabski provides interesting information about another famous gate called the Taghiyev
Gate [located near what is now the Academy of Science Presidium]. He writes: "Another gate is situated close to the Double Fortress Gates, near the Sabir Square." This gate is not medieval and was built much later (1877) by the Baku merchant and landowner Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev [a namesake of the famous millionaire], who had the nickname Gatir Haji Zeynalabdin. Actually, his nickname relates to this gate. Haji Zeynalabdin owned various shops where the Sabir Garden and Husi Hajiyev Street are today, just outside the fortress walls. However, nobody wanted to rent these shops as they were considered too far on foot from the bazaar in the Inner City, even though they are part of the heart of the city today. For quite a long time, Haji's stores remained empty. Finally, he came up with an idea to ask permission from the Baku City Council to open a section of the citadel wall and erect a new gate there.
Once people from the Inner City were able to pass through this gate, Haji's shops began to flourish. That's how Haji got the nickname "Gatir", which refers to his quick wit, resourcefulness and persistence. (The word "gatir" literally means "mule", but implies both "smart" and "stubborn".)
According to newspaper accounts, a heated battle took place in front of the Taghiyev Gate in 1918, when Armenians were trying to capture the Inner City. Gatir Haji Zeynalabdin's son, Mammad Hanifa (1875-1920), nicknamed "Gochu" (meaning "brave"), commanded the Inner City defenders and succeeded in staving off the Armenians.
Sarabski cites very brief information about the other Inner City gates. The third gate opened into the courtyard of the Industrial College [now, Azerbaijan State Economic University]. Wheat and coal were brought from the Absheron village of Navahi and various mountain villages in carts and camel caravans and then sold there. The fourth gate was situated behind Baku's City Hall. The fifth gate opened from the Governor's Garden near the present-day Philharmonic Hall.
Education
Historical records indicate that a madrasa [a religious secondary school] was set up in Ichari Shahar in the 11th century. It was there that the famous Eastern philosopher Baba Kuhi Bakuvi (933-1074) taught science. Four hundred years later, another distinguished scholar named Seyid Yahya Bakuvi (died in 1403) founded a Darul-Funun (university) in the Shirvanshah Palace. However, when the Shirvanshah state collapsed in 1538 and Baku lost its status as a capital, these higher-level schools were closed and the cultural life of the city gradually diminished. The tiny Baku khanate founded in 1744 could not replicate this sophisticated cultural environment of an earlier era.
When the Russians descended on Baku in 1806, there were a total of 12 preliminary and secondary religious schools (maktabs and madrasas) in the Inner City. According to Sarabski, by the early 1900s, only three remained, and the quality of education had deteriorated. The common people called these schools "Mollakhana", meaning "Molla's Home". Some people did not want to send their boys to the Mollakhana, even for their preliminary education. They preferred to send them to the less expensive "private Mollas", who taught only the Arabic alphabet and the Koran.
Education at the Mollakhanas was based completely upon memorization. When the youth could not pronounce the Arabic words, they were beaten with a stick called a "chubug" until they mastered the pronunciation. Likewise, during the calligraphy lessons, the teacher would hit the children's fingers when they did not write correctly. Parents typically supported this approach. When parents took their sons to the Mollakhana, they used to tell the Molla: "The flesh is yours, but the bones are mine!" meaning, "You can beat him, but don't break his bones." This expression has become an Azerbaijani proverb. In those times, flogging pupils was common, not only for the Muslim Mollakhanas, but for the Russian schools as well. Punishment was considered to be the normal way to make children learn and obey. Before the Russians came, it was the Mollakhanas who provided the only education that was available in Baku. Young boys studied the Arabic alphabet, calligraphy, grammar and arithmetic, and had to memorize the Koran by heart. Sometimes, they read verses by Saadi and Hafiz in Persian, and were exposed to a bit of history from the small tome "Tarikhi-Nadir" (History of Shah Nadir) and a few other sources.
The musical comedy "O Olmasin, Bu Olsun", (If Not That One (Bride), Then This One) composed by Uzeyir Hajibeyov in 1911, provides a humorous reference to this book, "Tarikhi-Nadir". One of the musical's comic characters, the merchant Mashadi Ibad, comments on how his friend has sprinkled his conversation with pretentious words and phrases in Turkish, Russian and French. "I've read nearly half of 'Tarikhi-Nadir'," Mashadi Ibad says, "but I still can't understand what you're trying to say!" The fact that this history text is so small makes the statement even more humorous.
Water Supply
Since Baku is located on arid land, its residents have always struggled to have an adequate water supply.
Beginning in the 11th century, the Inner City had three underground water supply systems built of stone and clay pipe. In the 19th century, this underground pipeline was named Naghi Kuhulu, meaning "The Pipeline of Naghi"; it served the Inner City residents until the beginning of the 20th century. The water flowed in from wells and springs situated throughout the city, then collected in a special reservoir inside a building named Shirin Ovdan (Sweet Water House), located near the Shirvanshah Palace.
Sarabski writes that sometimes the pipes of the Ovdan clogged up, stopping the flow of water. A very kind, skilled person named Jumru Aghamali always came to the rescue. He was very small, slender and quick, and could descend into the narrow water pipe and clean it out.
Sarabski writes: "Jumru Aghamali never asked for any payment for this work as he believed it was pleasing to God. After Jumru died, nobody continued his work and the Shirin Ovdan fell into disuse." Despite Jumru's generosity, he was still labeled with the nickname "Hezar pesha, kam maya", which means, "a thousand jobs, little money". Many families tried to find solutions to the city's water problem by digging their own private wells in their courtyards. One of the outer walls of the ovdan used to have a plaque identifying it as: "Medieval Ovdan. This monument of architecture is under the protection of the State." However, the plaque no longer stands.
Other interesting information about Baku's Old City:
Walking Tour across Icheri Sheher >>>
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