Politics and Urban Life in Pre-Colonial South Caucasia: The Case of Shamâkhî in 18th Century

Social life of Southern Caucasia in pre-colonial period is a subject which mostly missed Iranian’s scholarly attention. Bearing this in mind, this paper attempts to shed new lights on a less studied aspect of this subject; its focus is on the historical aspects of urban life in eastern Caucasia before Russian dominance. Drawing on observational material which gleaned from multi-languages sources, it is organized into three parts: the first one deals with the historical situation of Shamakhi in the Safavid period, the second part has focused on the historical developments of Shamâkhî in early 18th century, and the last, traces the decaying process during which this main urban center of precolonial southern Caucasia was destroyed. As results show, administrative policies played a crucial role in this decaying process.