Nakhchivan ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a true exclave of Azerbaijan, located west of Baku. The municipality of Nakhchivan consists of the city of Nakhchivan, the settlement of Əliabad and the villages of Başbaşı, Bulqan, Haciniyyət, Qaraçuq, Qaraxanbəyli, Tumbul, Qarağalıq, and Daşduz. It is spread over the foothills of Zangezur Mountains, on the right bank of the Nakhchivan River at an altitude of above sea level.
Toponymy The city's official Azerbaijani spelling is "Nakhchivan" (). The name is transliterated from Persian as Nakhjavan (). The city's name is transliterated from Russian as Nakhichevan' () and from Armenian as Nakhijevan ().
The city is mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography (2nd century AD) as (). The older form of the name is Nakhchavan (). According to philologist Heinrich Hübschmann, the name was originally borne by the city and later given to the surrounding region. Hübschmann believed the name to be composed of Nakhich or Nakhuch (probably a personal name) and avan, an Armenian word (ultimately of Iranian origin) meaning "place, town".
In the Armenian tradition, the name of the city is connected with the Biblical narrative of Noah's Ark and interpreted as meaning "place of the first descent" or "first resting place" (as if deriving from and ) due to it being regarded as the site where Noah descended and settled after the landing of the Ark on nearby Mount Ararat. It was probably under the influence of this tradition that the name changed in Armenian from the older Nakhchavan to Nakhijevan. Although this is a folk etymology, Nakhchivan is referred to as Apobatērion ("place of descent") by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in connection with Noah's Ark, which would make the tradition connecting the name with the Biblical figure Noah very old, predating Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 1.3.5, cited in Hewsen (1992), p. 189.Noah's Ark: Its Final Berth by Bill Crouse
Early Islamic sources knew the city as Nashawā; but starting from the Buyid and Seljuk periods, forms like Nakhjavān, Nakhchevān, and Naqchevan were used.
History
Classical period According to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, King Tigranes I of Armenia settled Median prisoners of war at Nakhchivan in the second century BC. Nakhchivan is first mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia as Naxuana ().Bosworth (2013)
Nakhchivan was destroyed by Shahanshah Shapur II in 363 and its Armenian and Jewish population was deported to Iran.Lint (2018), p. 1055 Emperor Heraclius travelled through the city en route to Atropatene in 623 during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628.Chaumont (1986), pp. 418–438
Medieval period The Arab siege of Nakhchivan in 650 AD led Theodore Rshtuni to conclude a truce. After the rebellion of 703 AD Muhammad ibn Marwan had the rebel nobles burnt alive in churches in Nakhchivan and Goghtn in 705.Blankinship (1994), p. 107 Nakhchivan temporarily came under the control of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia in , but was swiftly taken by Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Saj. The city was the temporary refuge of Atabeg Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr after his defeat at the Battle of Shamkor in 1195, and Nakhchivan was conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia in 1197.Rayfield (2013), pp. 112–113
The city and its surroundings were ruled either directly or indirectly by Zakarid Armenia from 1201 to 1350, but more often than not they only had partial independence and often were vassals of other empires. In 1225, Nakhchivan was occupied by al-Maleka al-Jalāliya, daughter of Atabeg Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan. In 1236 Nakhchivan was occupied by the Mongol Empire and later the Ilkhanate forcing Zakarid Armenia to pay taxes to the Mongol lords as well as owing them loyalty and troops. Genoese merchants were known to trade in the city by 1280.Bernardini (2000), pp. 422–426 The city was conquered by Timur in 1401,Rayfield (2013), p. 150 but was taken by King George VII of Georgia in 1405.Rayfield (2013), p. 152
Modern period
Nakhchivan was conquered by Shahanshah Ismail I in 1503.Rayfield (2013), p. 164 Shahanshah Abbas I of Persia reconquered Nakhchivan from the Ottoman Empire in 1603–1604.Herzig & Floor (2015), p. 5 Later the city served as the capital of the Nakhichevan Khanate.
Nakhchivan Khanate was annexed to the Russian Empire per the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828.Hille (2010), p. 66 The city became the centre of the Nakhichevan uezd of the Erivan Governorate in 1849. In 1896, Nakhchivan had a population of 7,433, roughly two-thirds of which were Azeri-speaking Muslims and one-third Armenian Christians. According to the 1897 census, Nakhchivan had the status of a county town ().
After the February Revolution of 1917, a soviet was formed in Nakhchivan, but the city was under the control of the Special Transcaucasian Committee from March to November 1917, and its successor the Transcaucasian Commissariat from November 1917 to March 1918.Hille (2010), p. 170 Turkey occupied Nakhchivan from June until November, after which the city was occupied by British soldiers in January 1919,Hille (2010), p. 173 and a military governor was appointed to administer Nakhchivan.
It was decided that Nakhchivan would be granted to Armenia on 6 April 1919, and the city was annexed on 6 June 1919,Hille (2010), p. 171 however, some months later the city became the center of a regional Muslim uprising and pogrom against its Armenian inhabitants. Britain, France, Italy, and the US, with approval from Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed on 25 October 1919 to appoint American Colonel Edmond D. Daily as General-Governor of Nakhchivan, elections would be held, and both Armenia and Azerbaijan would withdraw its forces from the territory.Hille (2010), pp. 171–172 However, in March 1920, Turkish forces led by Kâzım Karabekir occupied Nakhchivan.
Soviet Russia took control of Nakhchivan on 28 July 1920, and the city became part of the newly formed Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.Hille (2010), p. 172 The Treaty of Moscow of 16 March 1921, and later the Treaty of Kars of 21 October 1921, between Soviet Union and Turkey agreed that Nakhicheva would be an autonomous territory under the protection of Azerbaijan and delimited its borders with Turkey.Hille (2010), p. 159Hille (2010), p. 191 In February 1923, the city formed part of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Krai within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), but later became the capital of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the ASSR in March 1924.
When Azerbaijan declared independence from the Soviet Union, Nakhchivan remained part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, a trilateral ceasefire was signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. According to the agreement, Azerbaijan will gain a road access to Nakhchivan through Armenia which will be secured by Russian peacekeepers.
Since 9 June 2009, the Bulqan, Qaraçuq, Qaraxanbəyli, Tumbul and Haciniyyət villages of the Babek District are included in the scope of the administrative-territorial unit of the Nakhchivan city.
Ecclesiastical history The bishop of Mardpetakan resided at Nakhchivan, and the Armenian historian Tovma Artsruni records Sahak Vahevuni as bishop of Nakhchivan and Mardpetakan and brother of Apusahak Vahevuni.Thomas et al. (2010), p. 103
Geography The city is spread over the foothills of Zangezur chain, on the right bank of the Nakhchivan River at an altitude of almost . The floods and soil erosion spiked because of the decreased forest cover along riverbanks. As a result, reforestation projects implemented in the city to encourage tree planting.
Climate Nakhchivan has a continental semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with short but cold, snowy winters and long, dry, very hot summers.
Population Nakhchivan is believed to have been populated by Armenians from ancient times. The 5th-century Armenian history Buzandaran Patmuiwnk reports that the Armenian king Tigranes the Great () resettled Jews from Palestine to Nakhchivan, and that in the 4th century AD the Sasanian king Shapur II () resettled 2,000 Armenian and 16,000 Jewish families from Nakhchivan to Iran.Tsibenko (2021) These numbers, though exaggerated, attest to Nakhchivan's status as a populous city at the time.Hakobyan et al. (1991), p. 952, col. 1 According to Nina Garsoïan, the population of Nakhchivan appears to have remained predominantly Armenian in the early medieval period, as the Arab geographer Ibn Hawqal records Armenian as the language of the city in the tenth century;Garsoïan (1987), p. 91 although Vladimir Minorsky and Clifford Edmund Bosworth write that the town "acquired a Muslim character" after the massacre of the Armenian nobles there in 705.
In the thirteenth century, the town's inhabitants were massacred by the Mongols, and William of Rubruck described it as "almost a wilderness" in 1253. It must have recovered quickly, as in 1339–1340 Hamdallah Mustawfi considered it "an attractive, flourishing place". According to Veronika Tsibenko, the Armenian population of Nakhchivan declined rapidly in the Seljuk period and especially after Timur's () destructive conquest. In about 1500, the Kangarlu, a Turkic nomadic tribe of four to five thousand people, settled in Persian Armenia. The city suffered during the Ottoman-Safavid wars of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; it was in ruins when visited by the travelers Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (in 1664) and Jean Chardin (in 1673). Most of the Armenian population died or was forcibly resettled during this period. The Safavid shah Abbas the Great () deported 250,000 to 300,000 Armenians, as well as Muslims, from the Nakhchivan region deep into Persia in 1604. Later, under Shah Abbas II (), the Kangarlu returned to Nakhchivan.
Armenians returned to Nakhchivan under the terms of the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828, by which the city and the region came under Russian rule. At that time, per Russian estimates, there were 114 Armenian families, 392 Muslim families, and 285 Armenian immigrant families living in the city. By the end of the nineteenth century, Armenians made up about one-third of the population while Muslims made up two-thirds. The Nakhchivan region was a site of interethnic conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis from 1918 to 1920. As result, the proportion of the Armenian population decreased to 11–15 percent in 1926. By 1979, Armenians made up only 1.4 percent of the city's population. The remaining Armenian population of Nakhchivan departed as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the forcible population exchange between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Nakhchivan experienced significant emigration in the 1990s and 2000s to Turkey and the main part of Azerbaijan. According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, the number of population of city was 63,800 in 2000. Per the latest Azerbaijani census in 2019, the population of Nakhchivan is 94,368, consisting of an urban population of 83,792 and a population of 10,576 in the rural settlements administered together with the city.