Aresh

Aresh was a commercial town in the Shaki country of western Shirvan, on the road towards Barda. Its surrounding district produced abundant raw silk, attracting Turkish, Syrian and other merchants. The English traveler Anthony Jenkinson counted Aresh among the most prosperous trading cities he encountered in the sixteenth century. A castle guarded the town, and Safavid rulers briefly struck silver and copper coins in its name.

In 1548 the ruler of Shaki, Dervish Muhammad Khan, defeated a combined Safavid and Georgian force at Aresh, but the town became part of the Safavid state in 1551. Ottoman forces occupied it during the wars over Shirvan and built a wooden fortress; a Safavid prince recaptured and destroyed the town in 1578. Shah Abbas rebuilt its walls in 1606. When Evliya Çelebi visited in 1647, he described a large town with mosques and schools, reflecting its recovery from the earlier devastation.