Shabaran (also spelled Shaburan and Shaberan; ), was a town and district in the historical region of

Shirvan Shirvan (from ; ; Tat: ''Şirvan'') is a historical region in the eastern Caucasus, as known in both pre-Islamic Sasanian and Islamic times. Today, the region is an industrially and agriculturally developed part of the Republic of Azerbaijan ...

, in what is now the eastern part of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. Shabaran was founded by the

Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

king

Shapur II Shapur II ( , 309–379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth King of Kings (List of monarchs of the Sasanian Empire, Shahanshah) of Sasanian Iran. He took the title at birth and held it until his death at age 70, making him the List ...

(). The 10th-century Persian geography ''

Hudud al-'Alam The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' (, "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or in also in English "The Regions of the World") is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan (present day northern Afg ...

'' refers to it as ''Shav.ran'', whilst The Georgian Chronicles calls it ''Shaburan'', which points to a possible relation to Shavur (Shapur?), an Iranian name that is attested in the Caucasus. Shabaran was the earliest capital of the Shirvan kingdom. It was often contested between the

Shirvanshahs The Shirvanshahs (Arabic/) were the rulers of Shirvan (in present-day Azerbaijan) from 861 to 1538. The first ruling line were the Yazidids, an originally Arab and later Persianized dynasty, who became known as the Kasranids (also referred t ...

, the Hashimids of Darband, and the rulers of Arran. According to the 10th-century Arab geographer

al-Maqdisi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the ''Nisba (onomastics), nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and '' ...

, the majority of Shabaran's population was Christian. In 983, the Shirvanshah Muhammad IV () had a wall constructed around Shabaran. The sudden emergence of Iranian names among the descendants of Shirvanshah Yazid ibn Ahmad () is significant in relation to the fact that he and his daughter Shamkuya were buried in Shabaran. This development most likely resulted from Yazid ibn Ahmad's union with a princess of an ancient local dynasty. In 1167,

Akhsitan I Akhsitan I (also spelled Akhsatan; ) was the 20th Shirvanshah after 1160, and thought to have reigned until the years 1197–1203/04. He was the son and successor of Manuchihr III (). His mother was Tamar, a Georgian princess from the Bagratio ...

asked the

King of Georgia This is a list of kings and queens regnant of the kingdoms of Georgia (country), Georgia before Georgia within the Russian Empire, Russian annexation in 1801–1810. For more comprehensive lists, and family trees, of Georgian monarchs and ruler ...

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

to help him to defend from Kipchak,

Khazar The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

and

Rus' Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in Ro ...

assaulters. George III marched against them and conquered Shabaran, which in Georgian sources is referred to as "Shaburani". George III proceeded to give this town to Shirvanshah, who was his subject. In 1538 Shirvanshah rule was abolished by the

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

shah Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...

s (kings) of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, who turned Shirvan into a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, which Shabaran was part of. The German explorer

Engelbert Kaempfer Engelbert Kaempfer (16 September 16512 November 1716) was a German natural history, naturalist, physician, exploration, explorer, and writer known for his tour of Russia, Iran, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693. He ...

(died 1716) mentions Shabaran as one of the villages in Iran that had coffeehouses. Shabaran was completely destroyed in 1723.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{cite book , last=Minorsky , first=Vladimir , title = A History of Sharvān and Darband in the 10th-11th Centuries , year=1958 , publisher=W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd. , location=Cambridge Former populated places in Azerbaijan Sasanian cities Shapur II de:Şabran