or SHUMMA, a fortified town of European Turkey, Bulgaria, in the pashalic and 58 miles S.S.W. of Silistra, 225 miles N.N.W. of Constantinople. It is a place of great importance in a military view, insomuch that it has obtained the name of the key of the Balkan; for to this point there converge roads and tracks from all the chief fortresses on the Danube to the north, and from the passes of the Balkan to the south. The fortifications of the town are not themselves the sources of its strength, but the entrenched camps that have been formed on the heights to the south and west, commanding the town and preventing an enemy from approaching by this route to the passes of the mountains. The town has more the appearance of a vast village than of a fortified place; it is spread over a wide extent of ground, each house standing with its own stables and cow-houses in the middle of a separate yard. A rivulet divides it into an upper and a lower town. The former is inhabited by Turks, and contains numerous handsome mosques and baths; while the latter, occupied by Jews and Christians, is very unhealthy, chiefly on account of its extreme dirt. Shumla contains a Greek and an Armenian church, several Bulgarian schools, infantry and cavalry barracks, and a new hospital, all of stone. There are three forts in the plain and one on the hills; but the fortifications were in an unfinished state until the Russian war in 1854, when they were completed. Some remains of antiquity still exist here in the shape of decaying arches and fountains. The mausoleum of Djezzar Hassan Pasha is one of the finest objects in the town. The copper and lead foundries of Shumla are considered the best in Turkey; weaving and silk-spinning are also carried on, and the trade of the town is very considerable. Wine, hardware, and manufactured goods are the principal articles of commerce. Shumla was first conquered by the Turks in 1387. In subsequent times it has been three times attacked by Russian armies, but always without success. The dates of these attempts were 1774, 1810, and 1828. On the last occasion, however, in the following year, Marshal Diebitch, leaving the town on his right, succeeded in crossing the Balkan by a pass further to the east. The population of Shumla is estimated at 30,000.