life
Shusha was famous for its rich cultural life, literature, music and architecture. A large number of different literary and musical societies operated in the city.
At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, the Shusha school of mughamat was formed, which in different years consisted of several creatively individual schools, headed by major mugham performers (khanende). This school became famous not only in Transcaucasia, but throughout the Middle East. The Encyclopedia Britannica links the fame of the city to the special role it played in the preservation and development of all genres of this ancient art form. Mugham, according to the American historian Ronald Suny, is most strongly associated with the city of Shusha.
In the 18th century, the famous Azerbaijani poet and vizier of the Karabakh Khanate Molla Panah Vagif lived and worked here. His poetry had a huge impact on the development of Azerbaijani literature and music. Vagif's poems formed the basis of many folk songs. Vagif's poetry also attracted mugham performers.
The Shusha khanende masters, connected with this eternally “singing city” with their appearance and activities, played a huge role in enriching Azerbaijani mugham with fresh and bold development methods, bright expressive colors, and a new approach to the dramaturgy of destgah (complex of musical melodies). Such singers as Sadiqjan, Ismail, Hasan, Abbas, Mashadi Isi, Abdulbagi Zeynalov, Haji Gusi and others grew up in Shusha.
In the second half of the 19th century, a music school operated in Shusha, led by Harrat Gulu and Molla Ibrahim. This school trained singers from an early age, mainly for religious chants. In the 1880s in Shusha and a music school taught by Kor Khalifa, who taught children to play the tar, kemancha and mugham. This school released a small number of tarists and kemanchists and after the death of Ker Khalifa it was closed.
Shusha, famous as one of the centers of Azerbaijani musical culture, was one of the first cities where folk music concerts began to take place. In 1898, in Shusha, under the direction of A. Akhverdiev, the first musical performance in the Azerbaijani language was staged - "Majnun at the grave of Leyla" (based on the poem by Fizuli). The part of Majnun was sung by khanende Jabbar Karyagdyoglu; It was from this production that the creative path of the then thirteen-year-old Uzeyir Gadzhibekov began. In 1901, a public concert of Azerbaijani folk music organized by A. Akhverdov took place in Shusha. In addition to mughams, a duet from Fizuli's poem "Leyli and Majnun" was performed at the concert. In 1902, a dramatization of Alisher Navoi's poem "Farkhad and Shirin" was also shown there.

Russian researcher of oriental music V. Vinogradov writes in his book about Shusha:
“There is a lot of music here, more than in any other region of Azerbaijan, you can hear folk songs, dances, singers, instrumentalists. Shusha has been known as a musical center since ancient times and is famous throughout the Transcaucasus as an inexhaustible source of folk musical talents. “Shusha musicians” made the history of Azerbaijani music and represented it not only in their homeland, but also in other countries of the East.”
A connoisseur of the music of the peoples of the Caucasus, V. D. Karganov, in his book Caucasian Music, wrote: “... for the Transcaucasus he gave musicians and singers mountains. Shusha, which was a wonderful homeland of poetry, music and song; from this city, which played the role of a conservatory for the entire Transcaucasia, every season and even every month new songs, new motives came to Transcaucasia.
Shusha is also known as an ancient center of carpet weaving. At the end of the 19th century, it was noted that of all types of handicraft production existing in Shusha, carpet weaving occupies the first place in terms of the quantity and quality of products, and that in terms of the quantity and quality of carpets and rugs, Shusha occupies the first place in the entire Caucasus.
It is possible that in 1837 M.Yu. Lermontov, who was in Transcaucasia as part of the Nizhny Novgorod regiment, visited Shusha, but this is often questioned. The letter of the poet, where this city is supposedly mentioned, has not been preserved, and in the publication from which it is known, it says “was in Noise”, which is an obvious mistake, and the correction to “in Shusha” is only presumably. Perhaps the letter read “in Nukha”: Shusha lies far from the route of the Lermontov regiment, while the poet obviously passed through Nukha, which lies on the road from Shemakhi to Kakheti.
Mir Mohsun Navvab (1833-1918) was born, lived, worked and died in Shusha. He made a significant contribution to Azerbaijani science, literature and art, took part in the painting of the Shusha mosque Govkhar-aga. Wall paintings made by Navvab in 1886 have been preserved in the hall of the memorial museum of the artist in Shusha. The same lists were kept in his small working room.
From the second half of the 19th century, musical gatherings - mejlis - began to be organized in Shusha. Among them are "Mejlisi-uns", organized by Natavan, and "Majlisi Faramushan", created by the poet, artist and musicologist Mir Mohsun Navvab.

Shusha in the works of Vasily Vereshchagin
Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin, visiting Shusha in mid-May 1865, created several drawings and many sketches. The Kiev Museum of Russian Art has a drawing by Vereshchagin depicting a mosque in Shusha and dated by the author: “July 17, 65” - therefore, it is believed that the artist stayed in the city and its environs for more than two months, collecting sketch material. It is also noted that the “celebration” of the sacred ten days of Moharrem made an indelible impression on Vereshchagin. So, it is believed that a significant milestone in the work of Vereshchagin was the large drawing “Religious procession at the Moharrem holiday in Shusha”, created by him on the basis of sketches from nature and oil studies (which he began to paint only during the trip) when returning to Paris.
It is also noted that such works as "Guest House in Shusha", "Mosque in Shusha" and others are not sketches, but quite finished sketches, well built, finely worked out in the main and in all details. In the city, Vereshchagin, introduced by the governor to private and public houses, had the opportunity to observe and sketch such everyday scenes as a merchant receiving his guests, studying at a Tatar school. As a result of these observations, Vereshchagin created several drawings: “In the guest room of a rich house” (“Tatar cafe”), “In a Muslim school” (“Tatar school in Shusha”), “Hall in the house of a Tatar in Shusha”.