SHUMLA (Bulgarian Shumen,

See also:

• TURKISH

Turkish Shumna)  , a fortified town of Bulgaria, 50 in . W. of Varna, on the railway from Trnovo to Shumla Road (a name given to a station on the Varna-Rustchuk railway by the English builders of the line) . Pop . (1906) 22,290, about one-third being Moslems . The town is built within a cluster of hills, northern outliers of the eastern Balkans, which curve round it on the west and north in the shape of a horse-shoe . A rugged ravine intersects the ground longitudinally within the horse-shoe ridge . From Shumla roads radiate northwards to the Danubian fortresses of Rustchuk and Silistria and to the Dobrudja, southwards to the passes of the Balkans, and eastwards to Varna and Baltchik . Shumla has, therefore, been one of the most important military positions in the Balkan Peninsula . A broad street and rivulet divide the upper quarter, Gorni-Mahle, from the lower, Dolni-Mahle . In the upper quarter is the magnificent mausoleum of Jezairli Hassan Pasha, who in the 18th century enlarged the fortifications of Shumla . The principal mosque, with a cupola of very interesting architecture, forms the centre of the Moslem quarter . The town has an important trade in grain and wine, besides manufactures of silk, red and yellow slippers, ready-made clothes, richly embroidered dresses for women, and copper and tin wares .

In 811 Shumla was burned by the

emperor Nicephorus, and in 1087 it was besieged by Alexius I . In 1388 the sultan Murad I. forced it to surrender to the Turks . In the ,8th century it was enlarged and fortified . Three times, in 1774, 1810 and 1828, it was unsuccessfully attacked by Russian armies . The Turks consequently gave it the name of Gazi (" Victorious ") . In 1854 it was the headquarters of Omar Pasha and the point at which the Turkish army concentrated (see CRIMEAN WAR) . On the 22nd of June 1878 Shumla capitulated to the Russians .