The Barda village of Jevanshir district of Elizavetpol governorate

In the photo — the bridge of Partav.

In the 1893 issue[1] of the journal Collection of Materials for the Description of the Localities and Tribes of the Caucasus, G. Osipov, the school supervisor of the village of Kasapet in the Jevanshir district of the Elizavetpol governorate, wrote an article about the village of Barda.

According to the author, the name Barda is explained among the locals as "bir-dia," meaning "once more, again, once again." Then, under the heading "Historical Monuments: The Legend of the Destruction of Barda," the author notes that it was formerly called Partav.[2] This, perhaps, refutes the Turkic origin of the name of the settlement.

G. Osipov also mentions that the city was the capital of the Albanian kingdom. Among the remnants of the ancient city, he mentions a prayer place called "Imam." He writes that, according to the local Armenians, the "Imam" was a church, but the Tatars turned it into a mosque, destroying the inscriptions and the images of saints on the interior walls. The author notes that the Imam mosque, in its internal structure and architecture, resembles an ancient Armenian church, although the Tatars claim that the relics of Imam Ali's son are kept there, which Panah Khan brought from Persia. According to them, the mosque was built on the site where the relics were buried.

These facts also testify to the Armenian trace in Partav. Now, it is called Barda and is the administrative center of the Barda district of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

[1] Collection of Materials for the Description of the Localities and Tribes of the Caucasus journal, 1893, issue 17.

[2] Ed. - In 701, Arminia, an administrative unit of the Arab Caliphate (including Armenia, Iberia, Albania Proper, and the Caspian regions) was formed, with its center initially being Dvin, and by the end of the 8th century, Barda.

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