Medieval era ,
Imereti,
Georgia According to the anonymous medieval Arabic history
Tarikh Bab al-abwab, the city of Ganja was founded in 859–60 by
Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mazyad, the Arab governor of the region during the reign of the caliph
Al-Mutawakkil, and so-called because of a treasure unearthed there. According to the legend, the Arab governor had a dream where a voice told him that there was a treasure hidden under one of the three hills around the area where he camped. The voice told him to unearth it and use the money to found a city. He did so and informed the caliph about the money and the city. The caliph made Muhammad the hereditary governor of the city on the condition that he would give the money he found to the caliph. The foundation of the city by the Arabs in the 9th century is supported by the medieval
Armenian historian
Movses Kaghankatvatsi, who mentions that the city of Ganja was founded in 846–47 in the canton of Arshakashen by "Mahmed son of Xałtʿ" (i.e., Muhammad ibn Khalid). The 14th-century Persian historian
Hamdallah Mustawfi instead claims that the city was founded in 659–60, when the Arab armies first arrived in the
South Caucasus. The area in which Ganja is located was known as
Arran from the 9th to 12th century; its urban population spoke mainly in the
Persian language. Historically an important city of the South Caucasus, Ganja has been part of the
Sassanid Empire,
Great Seljuk Empire,
Kingdom of Georgia,
Atabegs of Azerbaijan,
Khwarezmid Empire,
Il-Khans,
Timurids,
Qara Qoyunlu,
Ak Koyunlu, the
Safavid, the
Afsharid, the
Zand and the
Qajar empires of
Persia/
Iran. Prior to the Iranian Zand and Qajar rule, following
Nader Shah's death, it was ruled locally for a few decades by the khans of the
Ganja Khanate, who themselves were subordinate to the central rule in mainland Iran and were a branch of the Iranian Qajar family. Ganja is also the birthplace of the famous Persian poet
Nizami Ganjavi. (1642–1666), minted in Ganja, dated 1658/9 (left = obverse; right = reverse) (1751–1779), minted in Ganja, dated 1763/4 (left = obverse; right = reverse) The people of Ganja experienced a temporary cultural decline after an
earthquake in 1139, when the city was taken by king
Demetrius I of Georgia and its gates taken as trophies which is still kept in
Georgia, and again after the
Mongol invasion in 1231. The city was revived after the Safavids came to power in 1501 and incorporated all of Azerbaijan and beyond into their territories. The city came under brief occupation by the
Ottomans between 1578–1606 and 1723–1735 during the prolonged
Ottoman-Persian Wars, but nevertheless stayed under intermittent Iranian suzerainty from the earliest 16th century up to the course of the 19th century, when it was forcefully
ceded to neighbouring Imperial Russia.
16th–19th centuries and Russian conquest (1797–1834), minted in Ganja, dated 1802/3 (left = obverse; right = reverse) For a short period, Ganja was renamed Abbasabad by
Shah Abbas after war against the Ottomans. He built a new city to the southwest of the old one, but the name changed back to Ganja during the time. During the
Safavid rule, it was the capital of the
Karabakh province. In 1747, Ganja became the center of the
Ganja Khanate for a few decades following the death of
Nader Shah, until the advent of the Iranian
Zand and
Qajar dynasties. The khans/dukes who de facto self-ruled the khanate, were subordinate to the central rule in mainland Iran and were from a branch of the Iranian Qajar family. Some western sources assert that "the capture of the city was followed by a massacre of up to 3,000 inhabitants of Ganja by the Russians". They also claim that "500 of them were slaughtered in a mosque where they had taken refuge, after an
Armenian apprised the Russians that there might have been 'Daghestani robbers' among them". With their military superiority, the Russians were victorious in the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813. By the
Treaty of Gulistan that followed, Iran was forced to cede the Ganja Khanate to Russia. It was renamed
Yelizavetpol () after the wife of
Alexander I of Russia,
Elizabeth, and in 1840 became the capital of the
Elizavetpol uezd and later in 1868, the Elizavetpol Governorate. The Russian name of the city was rejected by the local Azerbaijanis, who continued call it
Ganja.
20th century Ganja—known then as Yelizavetpol—was one of the main sites of the
Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–07. In 1918, Ganja became the temporary capital of the
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, at which point it was renamed Ganja again, until
Baku was recaptured from the
British-backed
Centrocaspian Dictatorship. In April 1920, the
Red Army occupied Azerbaijan. In May 1920, Ganja was the scene of an abortive
anti-Soviet rebellion, during which the city was heavily damaged by fighting between the insurgents and the Red Army. In 1935,
Joseph Stalin renamed the city Kirovabad after
Sergei Kirov. In 1991, Azerbaijan re-established its independence, and the ancient name of the city was given back. For many years the
104th Guards Airborne Division of the
Soviet Airborne Troops was based in the town. In November 1988, the
Kirovabad pogrom forced the local Armenian population to leave the city.
21st century Reconstruction in the 21st century has led to dramatic changes in the city's urban development, transforming the old Soviet city into a hub of modern high-rise, mixed-use buildings. In 2008,
Ganja Mausoleum Gates were built on the basis of sketches of ancient Ganja gates made by local master Ibrahim Osmanoğlu in 1063. In 2020, during the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Ganja came under
bombardment by Armenian armed forces several times, killing 32 civilians and injuring dozens more. On 11 October, a residential apartment block in Azerbaijan's city of Ganja was destroyed overnight in an Armenian missile strike, killing 10 civilians and wounding 34 others. while Artsakh stated that Armenian forces had targeted and destroyed the Ganja military airbase on
Ganja International Airport, which they alleged was used to bombard Artsakh's capital
Stepanakert and also stated that the Azerbaijani population were given warning to move away from military facilities to avoid collateral damage. Subsequently, both a correspondent reporting from the scene for a Russian media outlet and the airport director denied that the airport, which had not been operational since March due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, had been shelled. On 17 October, 21 civilians were killed and more than 50 injured when an Armenian
SCUD B ballistic missile hit a residential area in Ganja. ==Geography==