Şabran

Shabran stood on the river of the same name in northern Shirvan, a city of craftsmen and merchants on the route along the western Caspian. It was an important center of the Shirvanshahs, who minted coins here and used its fortress as a prison. Silk production, pottery and glassmaking flourished in the town; a fourteenth-century water conduit brought water from a distant spring.

Shabran was rebuilt after repeated attacks, but the early eighteenth century brought its final decline. In 1711 rebels led by Haji Davud took and destroyed the residential and commercial quarters. The citadel survived until 1743, when rebels against Nader Shah breached its walls and captured it. By the end of the century the old site lay deserted, its remaining walls recalling a city that had endured for centuries on this busy corridor.