It is located in the southern part of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, 240 km (150 mi) from Baku.

[3] According to the Azerbaijani historians, the name of the town goes back to the ethnonym of the Sakas, who reached the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan in the 7th century B.C.

[4] In the medieval sources, the name of the town is found in various forms such as Sheke, Sheki, Shaka, Shakki, Shakne, Shaken, Shakkan, Shekin.

The Sakas were an Iranian people that wandered from the north side of the Black Sea through Derbend passage and to the South Caucasus and from there to Asia Minor in the 7th century B.C.

[7] As a result of archaeological excavations conducted in 1902 in the village of Boyuk-Dakhna in the Shaki region, various ceramic products and a stone tombstone dating back to the 2nd century AD and containing inscriptions in Greek were discovered.

Management of Shaki was entrusted to the son of Rashid al-Din Hamadani – Jalat[15] In the 30s of the 14th century, the local Oirat tribe took power.

[21] Ismail's son and successor Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576) put an end to this, and in 1551, he appointed the first Qizilbash governor to rule the town.

In 1734-1735, there was a revolt of poor people against the policy of Nadir Shah in the village of Bilecik (Shaki)[5] In 1741, there was another uprising against the local ruler, Melik Najaf.

Appointed by Nadir Shah, Haji Chelebi, who claimed descent from the hereditary Muslim-Armenian rulers of the province, announced the formation of an independent Sheki khanate in 1743.

However, new uprisings and the death of Nadir Shah allowed Haji Chelebi to re-declare himself Khan[6][24] During the existence of Shaki khanate, the local population of the city was engaged in silkworm breeding, craft and trade.

[27] The Jaro-Balakan Jamaat, Qabala and Ares sultanates were dependent on the Shaki khanate[28] In 1751, Haji Chelebi defeated the army of the Kakheti king Heraclius II.

At the initiative of Heraclius II, a political conspiracy of the Kakheti Kingdom, the Karabakh, Ganja, Irevan, Nakhichevan, and Karadag khanates against the Shaki khan was arranged.

[32] The area was fully annexed by Russia by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and the khanate was abolished in 1819 and the Shaki province was established in its place.

During its history, the town saw devastation many times and because of that, the oldest historic and architectural monuments currently preserved are dated to only the 16th–19th centuries.

For many centuries, Shaki had a large Armenian community and has been famous for being the center of silkworm-breeding and local silk production.

[38] In 1930, an uprising against the policy of collectivization in the Azerbaijan SSR broke out in the village of Bash Goynyuk in the Shaki district.

[44] A home to ancient Caucasian Albanian churches, religion is highly important to the people of Shaki due to its historical religious diversity.

[47] More than 200 European companies opened offices in the city, while silkworms to the tune of 3 million roubles were sold to them in a year.

[47] Shaki possesses a small silk industry and relies on its agricultural sector, which produces tobacco, grapes, cattle, nuts, cereals and milk.

In pop culture, probably the most famous feature of Shakinians are their nice sense of humor and comic tales.

[49] Shaki's comic tales hero Hacı dayı (Uncle Haji) is the subject of nearly all jokes in the area.

It goes back to a time, when it was a market center on the Silk Road, linking Dagestan, Russia to the northern trade routes through the Caucasus.

[46] Many public places and private houses in Shaki are decorated with shebeke, a wooden lattice of pieces of coloured glass, held together without glue or a single nail.

At the height of the khanate, the fortress contained a gated palatial complex and public and commercial structures of the city, while the residential quarter was situated outside its walls.

[62] Many years Shaki fortress safeguarded approaches to the city, the acts of bravery by its defendants of fight with foreign oppressors had been written in many history books.

[49] Shaki also has some famous dishes, including girmabadam, zilviya, piti, a stew created with meat and potatoes and prepared in a terracotta pot.

[46] As of the 18th century, five big Caravanserais (Isfahan, Tabriz, Lezgi, Ermeni and Taze) were active in Shaki but only two of them have survived.

[26] The upper and lower Caravanserais were built in the 18th century and used by merchants to store their goods in cellars, who traded on the first floor, and lived on the second.

[65] The regional channel Kanal-S, newspapers Shaki and Shakinin Sasi are headquartered in the city.

[67] The city's notable residents include: Fatali Khan Khoyski, prime minister of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov, an activist of the French Resistance, poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh, composer Jovdat Hajiyev, film director Rasim Ojagov, actor Lutfali Abdullayev, religious leader Mahammad Hasan Movlazadeh Shakavi, and others.