Shamkir tower

The monument attracted the attention of many travelers, was repeatedly mentioned and even described ^[2] . The earliest mention of the monument is found at Abulfeda (beginning of the XIV century ), noting that "the minaret is very high and outstanding." Referring to the stylistic features of architecture, Mikael Useynov and Leonid Brittanytsky dated the minaret of the XII — the beginning of the XIII century ^{[2] [5]} . The information of G. Gamba is interesting in his description of a trip to the Caucasus, where he compared the tower with the Column of Trajan in Rome and noted that the mullahs used the tower to convene Muslims for prayer ^[6] . Eduard Eichwald saw the minaret in 1826 , but having visited the area of ​​the Shamkir settlement in 1861, Dorn found only its ruins ^[2] and reported its destruction to the ground ^[1] . The minaret is known for complementary drawings by Dubois de Montpere ^[7] , and Gregory Gagarin. But these drawings do not give an idea of ​​his former surroundings. Therefore, the information of Arseny Sukhanov , passing through Shamkir in the 50s of the 17th century , is especially interesting ^[2] . He wrote that “the city passed empty, it was great, brick, and stone from the soil, and inside another was; both have corrupted walls, but it’s also a very scorching woman and is tall and very good; the brick is whole ; there is a brick bridge over the river; that river is great good, but divided apart into five rivers; along the bank of a stream of ducts; having crossed that river, we spent the night on the bank against the city of that empty one ” ^[8] .

The tower was mentioned by the American Protestant missionary Eli Smith ^[9] :

The east wind, even after the fog had calmed down in the morning, seemed saturated with harmful fumes all day; and not reaching the Shamkor pillar, I felt signs of an approaching fever. We stopped for a while to study antiquities. It is built of brick, has a spiral staircase to the very top, and is said to be 180 feet high. On the stone at the base of Arabic script there is an inscription, the other encircles the upper part, where there is also a surrounded gallery with a door that opens from the inside. Its origin is unknown, but apparently it was built as a minaret of a mosque. Other local ruins are the foundations of a large caravanserai, and several small Muslim graves.

Original text

The east wind, even after the fog of the morning had subsided, had seemed all day surcharged with noxious vapours; and before reaching the column of Shamkor, I felt symptoms of approaching fever. Still we stopped a moment to examine that antiquity. It is built of brick, has winding stairs within to its top, and is said to be 180 feet in height. On a stone near the bottom is an inscription in the Arabic character, and another reaches nearly around it at the top, where it is also surrounded by a gallery with a door opening upon it from within. Its origin is not known, but it was evidently built for the same purposes as the minaret of a mosque. The other ruins of the place are the foundations of a large caravanserai, and several small moslem tombs.

^[ten]

An idea of ​​the monument is given by N. Frolovsky, who published in 1836 in the Review of Russian possessions of the Caucasus, describing that “the most interesting of all the monuments (meaning the Elisavetpol Territory ) is the Shamkhor pillar erected among the plains on the left bank R. Shamkhor, 25 versts from the city, and opening his eyes to almost 30 versts. It is surrounded by the ruins of a fortress and other buildings, which were surrounded by a square wall, extending one hundred from north to south, and sixty fathoms across. The time of the construction of the pillar is unknown, although, incidentally, an unaccountable legend attributes it to Alexander the Great . The base of the column is a cubic figure and has seven arshins across and six and a quarter in height; on this basis another foot of the same figure is arranged, containing for six arshins of width, five arshins in height. On it stands a round column, which has a diameter of five at the base and up to four arshins at the top, eighteen fathoms in height, with a base of up to twenty-two fathoms. Its upper part is surrounded by a quadrangular cornice, which the sides enclose in 5 arshins; beneath the cornice there is a noticeable inscription, believed to be in Kufic . Above this cornice there is still a round column, six fathoms high, already destroyed at the top; its diameter at the base is not more than one fathom. The whole pillar has up to 28 fathoms of height. In the middle of the column is a spiral staircase, consisting of 124 large, almost destroyed steps, which are very difficult to climb. In the upper part under the cornice, there was also apparently a staircase, judging by the recesses in the wall, into which the steps were probably fortified. The pillar is built of brick on a drywall mixed with sand and small stones; the work is extremely durable and beautiful; cement is so strong that it completely merged with brick. One cannot without regret see that time is already beginning to destroy in many places this beautiful monument of antiquity, and even the column incline is quite noticeable [“It is doubtful that this column served as an observatory, as Gamba believes (Voyages dans la Russie meridionale etc.), but very likely that it was nothing more than a minaret, from the top of which Muslims were called to pray “]” ^{[2] [4] [5]} .

The composition of the minaret is common. The basis is a prismatic volume with a lancet inlet opening. Wedge-shaped bevels create a transition to an octagonal volume, on which a slightly thinning trunk of the minaret rises. An interesting interpretation of the balcony for the muezzin . Gagarin's drawing captures large divisions of the supporting stalactite cornice, under which an inscription tape is placed. There is elongated proportions over the balcony with a small lancet aperture ^[5] .

The top of the minaret is the source material for the restoration of approximately simultaneous minarets in the villages. Karabaglar and Nakhichevani ^[2] . The minaret is completed with a kind of “lantern” with an easy through arcade . The combination of a “lantern” with a developed balcony for the muezzin is somewhat unusual ^[5] and is rare ^[2] . Such a "flashlight" is common in the minarets of neighboring countries and neighboring countries. He does not meet in the Shirvan minarets, and a balcony with a roundabout was intended for the muezzin. The figure also shows the difference in the patterns of the brickwork of the trunk and the top of the minaret. In addition, on the trunk cut through by slit-like openings, approximately at the height of its upper third, a wide decorative strip stands out ^[2] .

In 1970, when laying a gas pipeline in the Shamkir region of the Azerbaijan SSR , at the site of the Shamkir settlement, a kufic inscription was found shedding light on the purpose and date of construction ^[11] . The Arabic-language inscription on this stone slab, now in the Museum of the History of Azerbaijan , states that the tower was erected at the expense of Sheikh al-Saleh ibn Afshin in the year 493 hijra ( 1099/1100 ) ^[3] :

Having examined the text of the inscription, the Azerbaijani historian Meshadikhanum Neymat came to the conclusion that the Shamkir minaret was one of those structures that were designated for cover, that is, the defense of the city. It served as a watchtower, from which it was possible to trace the entire vicinity of the city. Neymat noted that the inscription also shows that the minaret was not built in the 12th-13th centuries, as researchers of the history of the monument's construction suggested, but at the end of the 11th century ^[11] .