2025
2025
2025-09-29
The Armenian village of Gyandkhan[1] is located in the present-day Aghsu district, 10.9 km northwest of the district center Aghsu. In the past, it was part of the historical territory of Shirvan.
Very few records about this Armenian village have been preserved. Judging by the available data, the local Armenians were most likely forced to convert to Islam as early as the 18th century.
In 1986, during Samvel Karapetyan’s visit, an Armenian cemetery was still preserved near the village. He mentions 10–12 rectangular worked tombstones and more than 100 unworked slab stones. Some of the tombstones were decorated with depictions of a bow and arrow, a staff, and other household items, while one bore an Armenian inscription with the name PʻIRVĒALE(ՓԻՐՎԷԱԼԵ). According to Samvel Karapetyan, the style of the carvings and the form of the script are characteristic of the 15th–16th centuries. Today, the village is inhabited by Azerbaijanis.
About 1.2 km northeast of Gyandkhan stood the settlement of Shambilan, once an Armenian village. Later, its inhabitants seem to have abandoned it, or some disastrous event destroyed the community. In 1796, records mention the village under the name Shabiya. Since then, no further information about this settlement near Gyandkhan has survived.
During Samvel Karapetyan’s visit, around 30 house foundations were visible at the site. In the village cemetery, about two dozen tombstones without inscriptions were preserved.
Bibliography
Karapetyan S., The Armenian Lapidary Inscriptions of Aghvank Proper, Yerevan, 1997, p. 6.
Karapetyan, S., Aghvank Proper, Part 1, Yerevan, 2024, pp. 37-38.
Karapetyan, S., Turkophone Armenian Villages of the Kapaghak District of Historical Armenia, Lraber (Journal) of Social Sciences, 1988, 1(1), pp. 40–52.
[1] Gyandkhan, Azerbaijani – Qendaxan.