FOOTNOTES
[530] Alla ed Douleh.
[531] Erzingan. See [p. 7], Caterino Zeno.
[532] Tchimish Gazak, or birthplace of Zimisces; identified by the Armenians with the ancient Hierapolis, though called by its present name after the birth of Zimisces, the Byzantine Emperor; it is now a town of about five thousand inhabitants, but without any relics of the Roman period.
[533] Schamachi.
[534] Shirvan.
[535] Irak-Ajemi.
[536] Bir, on the Euphrates; formerly a large town. It was taken and destroyed by Timour, the ancient Apamea.
[537] Kaiid Beg.
[538] Devetdar, an officer of Mamelukes. Tomant Bey, the last of the Soldans of Cairo, defeated and put to death by Selim I. in 1517, after a gallant resistance to the Turkish arms; he succeeded Campson Gauri.
[539] Orfa, anciently called Edessa by the successors of Alexander, and more recently Rhoa. It became a Roman colony, and one of their chief strongholds against the Parthians. At the time of the Crusades it was the residence of the Courtneys, who were called Counts of Edessa, and was taken from them by Saladin. Timour sacked it in 1426; it is now subject to Turkey. Kinneir, in his Geographical Memoir of Persia, says:—“It is situated in a barren country, sixty-seven miles from Bir and two hundred and thirty-two from Diarbekr. The town is surrounded by a stone wall and defended by a citadel. The ditch, which is broad and deep, is hewn out of the rock, and, when necessary, can be filled with water from the river Scirtus. The houses are well built, and the inhabitants, who are composed of Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Jews, and Nestorians, are said to amount to about twenty thousand souls. The chief ornaments of the city are a magnificent mosque consecrated to Abraham, and the cathedral of the Armenians, now fallen to decay. On a mountain, which overlooks and commands the citadel, are the ruins of a building called by the Arabs the Palace of Nimrod, and several extraordinary subterraneous apartments apparently of great antiquity.”
[540] Nimrod.
[541] Now the mosque of Ibrahim al Khaleel.
[542] The same tradition prevails now, and the fish alluded to seem as plentiful as ever, it being held sacrilege to catch them.
[543] The region is now very barren.
[544] Bagdad.
[545] Syria.
[546] Jemeleyn.
[547] Kara Amid, or Amid-Diarbekr. See [Zeno].
[548] An error. The Emperor Constantine repaired the old Roman walls only.
[549] These towers were built at various periods by the chiefs of the different dynasties that reigned there. There are inscriptions from Valens down to Sultan Selim, that each successive possessor placed on the walls.
[550] This was the emblem of the Ortokide and Eioobite rulers, and not the Imperial arms.
[551] Despina Khatoon, the latter word meaning “lady” or “madam”, and so “queen”.
[552] Calo Johannes, or Black John. See [p. 42], Zeno.
[553] Now the Ooloo Jami.
[554] A stone seat fastened to a wall.
[555] It has only four now.
[556] The Tigris, or Shat (Arabic for river). After the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, the river, on its way to the Persian Gulf, goes by the name of the Shat ul Arab.
[557] Hisn Keyf and Jezireh.
[558] Kara Amid-Diarbekr.
[559] Kharput, called by Arabic historians Khutburt and Hisn Ziyad, now Mauooriet el Azeezeh in Turkish official documents. It was a chief seat of the Orlokides, and here it was that Balak, the son of Behram, the son of Ortog, confined the gallant crusaders, Jocelyn de Courtenay and Baldwin du Bourg, after they had been liberated by their conquerors, Dejekermish and Soukman Ibn Ortok. Balak destroyed all his prisoners, with the exception of the royal captives, by throwing them over the battlements. It is now fast falling into decay, the fine old castle in the lower part of the town being now in ruins.
[560] Diarbekr.
[561] Mardin, the ancient Roman colony of Marde, still a prosperous town. Kinneir says, “Although in so elevated a situation, it has within itself a plentiful supply of the finest water; and, as the vine is cultivated with success in the recesses of the mountains, wine and brandy (arrack) are made by the Armenians in considerable quantities. The houses are all built of fine hewn stone, and appear to be very old. The windows are small, grated with iron, and, from the position of the town on a declivity, added to the narrowness of the streets, the buildings seem, progressively, to rise one on the top of the other. The population of Merdin amounts to nearly 11,000 souls, of which fifteen hundred are Armenians and two hundred Jews; the remainder are Turks, Arabs, and Kurds. The Armenians have here several churches, and a patriarch who was educated at Rome; he is a well-informed man, highly respected even by the Turks. The walls of the city are kept in tolerable repair, and a few old pieces of cannon are mounted on the towers of the castle, which is now in a very dilapidated state, and has never been completely repaired since the place was taken by Timour. Merdin is forty-six furlongs from Mosul and eighteen from Diarbekr. It is the frontier town of the Pashalik of Bagdad, towards Constantinople, and under the government of a Mussaleem appointed by the Pasha.”
[562] According to Kinneir this is not the case now. See [preceding note].
[563] Jezireh, on the Tigris, representing the old fortress of Bezabde, was an important town till the invasion of Timour, by whom it was taken and destroyed. It was a chief seat of the Atabegs, the ruins of whose castle still exist.
[564] Hesn Keyf.
[565] Sultan Khalil, the Eioobite. His tomb exists there yet. Hesn el Kahef or Hesn Keyf, three hours and a half from Redhwanis, mentioned by Procopius as Ciphas, while an Armenian author, writing about the first crusade, speaks of it under the name of Harsenko, and says that after the defeat of Baldwin de Bourg, Count of Edessa, and Jocelyn de Courtenay by Dejekermish and Soukman, which resulted in the capture of those two chiefs, Jocelyn was sent a prisoner to Hesn Keyf, while Baldwin was incarcerated at Mosul. They were ransomed for a considerable sum, but fell into the hands of Balak the son of Behram, the son of Ortok, who confined them at Kharput. The modern town is perched on the top of a steep and nearly inaccessible rock, having at the eastern end the old castle built by the Ortokides on the ruins of a more ancient edifice. In a small plain at the foot of the mountains that here press down upon the Tigris, are the ruins of the old town of the same name, the seat of the Ortokides and Eioobites. A noble bridge of three large and three smaller pointed arches, but now in ruins, spanned the river close under the town. But by far the most interesting relics of the place are the myriads of grots that stretch for three miles in one direction, and occupy the sides of six other separate ravines, scooped out of the hills to the east of, and round the town. They exist, tier above tier, in parallel lines all up to the top, communicating with each other by stairs and by a narrow zigzag path, that passing each cell reaches from the highest cave to the plain. In the same manner the water of some springs on the top of the hill was conducted by a narrow channel past each of them and within easy reach of their inhabitants.
[566] Tigris.
[567] It is now a miserable village of one hundred and fifty houses only.
[568] Brother-in-law.
[569] Kizzilbashes, or red-heads. The seven Turkish tribes who bore this name were the “Oostkajalu,” “Shamlu,” “Nikallu,” “Baharlu,” “Zulkudder,” “Kajar,” and “Affshar.”
[570] Khatun “lady” or “princess.”
[571] Irak Ajemi.
[572] From the courtyard of the old castle at the eastern end of the modern town, a curious covered way, containing a winding stair of two hundred steps, is scooped out of the solid rock, leading down to the river. A little farther on are the remains of a similar stair, which, like the former, was evidently used by the townspeople to supply themselves with water from the Tigris. Where the stairs are at all exposed to the attack of an enemy from the opposite side, they are pitted with innumerable small holes, probably caused by flights of arrows that had been shot against these exposed parts to prevent any communication with the river.
[573] The foundations are Parthian. The only remaining arch fell in last year—1869.
[574] Tchimishgazak. In ruins now.
[575] Now Keffendo. The ruins are situated in the narrow gorge of the Bitlis valley.
[576] Saert, on the Bohtan Su or Eastern Tigris, also called Asaerd and Mobaelra, has been identified by d’Anville and Kinneir as the ancient Tigranocerta, though Mr. Ainsworth more recently has combated that idea, as no ruins are to be seen above ground. Tacitus and Strabo both place Tigranocerta near Nisibin; but coins of Tigranes are to be found here.
[577] Sassone.
[578] Arzen, on the Huzu Arzen, near the village of Giri Hassan, has fallen into ruins, which are still very extensive. Numerous coins have been found here.
[579] Orfà, Kara Amid (Diarbekr), Mardin, Jezireh, Hesn Keyf, and Saert.
[580] Jemeleyn.
[581] Keffendo.
[582] The Bitlis Tchai, rising near the Van Lake, flows into the Bohtan Su or Eastern Tigris.
[583] Modern travellers give a very different account of this region.
[584] Caravan Bashi.
[585] Bitlis. See Zeno, [p. 8].
[586] The Bitlis Tchai. See [p. 156].
[587] Sheibani Khan, Yeshilbash. See Zeno, [p. 55].
[588] Yezd.
[589] Sheibani Khan was a descendant of Gengis Khan, and an enemy of the house of Timour.
[590] Tadvan, on the Van Lake.
[591] Van, the ancient Artemita, according to Kinneir, is situated two miles from the lake. “It is surrounded with a good wall and deep ditch, and has four gates: one, corresponding with the palace of the governor; another, to the east, called the Gate of Tauris; the third, to the south, called the Middle Gate; and the fourth, fronting the lake, known by the appellation of the Gate Sinla. On the north is a castle built on a high and perpendicular hill, which rises abruptly from the plain. This fortress can only be approached by one passage, so narrow as to admit only two persons abreast; it is always supplied with corn and military stores, and in the centre of the works stands the palace of the Aga of the Janissaries. This city is abundantly supplied with water and provisions; the houses are built of stone and tile; the streets are spacious and well paved; and the population is said to amount to fifty thousand souls, two-thirds of which number are Turks, and the remainder Kurds and Armenians. The air is pure, and the environs of the city delightful.”
[592] Peygri, now Beygir Kellah, hardly on the lake, but a short distance from it, on a small stream falling into the same.
[593] Arjish, Ardh-el Jivaz.
[594] Iklat, a very ancient Armenian town. Subsequently it became the seat of the Eioobites, and then of the Ak-koinloo.
[595] Arjish (the ancient Arzes) is a town containing six thousand inhabitants, situated on the north-west side of the lake, three days’ journey from Van.
[596] Island of Ak-Tamar, the seat of the Catholicos of the Armenians, described by Layard.
[597] Vastan in ruins to the south of the lake, nearly opposite the island of Aktamar.
[598] There are numerous cuneiform inscriptions on the castle walls, of which it is curious he should make no mention.
[599] Khoi.
[600] Marand, a town about halfway between Tabreez and Khoi, seems, by the name, to denote the town mentioned; but the traveller here expressly states that it is between Van and Khoi; so we must look for it somewhere on the blank space of Kiepert’s map to the east of Lake Van.
[601] Doulet Khaneh.
[602] Harem.
[604] Sofian, on the Ak Tchai, a tributary of the Aras, on the direct route to Tabreez.
[605] Hassan Beg.
[606] Tauris, or Tabreez, as it is now called, is supposed by most to be the ancient Ecbatana. Kinneir says:—
“The Persians conceive Zobeida, the celebrated wife of Haroun-ul-Rashid to be its founder; but, as they are in general very ignorant regarding the history of their cities, little reliance can be placed on any information obtained from them. That Tauris was a favourite residence of Haroun-ul-Rashid cannot be denied, and, although he might not actually have founded the city, he may yet have improved and embellished it to a considerable degree. It was, in the days of Chardin, one of the largest and most populous cities in the East, and contained, according to that traveller, five hundred thousand inhabitants. But no town has experienced to a greater degree the ravages of war. Situated towards the frontiers of contending empires, it has alternately been in the hands of the Turks, Tartars, and Persians, and has been taken and sacked eight different times; but its ruin has been chiefly owing to the number of earthquakes, which have at different times levelled its proudest edifices with the dust.
“Tabreez does not now contain more than thirty thousand inhabitants, and is, upon the whole, one of the most wretched cities I have seen in Persia. It is seated in an immense plain at the foot of a mountain, on the banks of a small river, whose waters are consumed in the cultivation of the land. It is surrounded with a decayed wall, and the only decent house in the place is a new barrack, erected by the Prince for the accommodation of his troops. The ruins of the ancient city are very extensive and very mean, being nothing but a confused mass of old mud walls.
“The observations of the gentlemen of the Mission give the latitude of Tabreez in 38 deg. 10 min. N., and 46 deg. 37 min. E.”
The population and trade of Tabreez have greatly increased since Kinneir’s time, partly owing to the intercourse with Russia; it has now nearly eighty thousand inhabitants.
[607] The followers of what is called the “Shiah sect”, curse the memories of Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman, whom they look upon as usurpers of Ali’s rights; and they despise all the “Soonee”, or body of traditions collected during their reigns, which are venerated by all orthodox Mahometans. They believe that Ali, the beloved son-in-law of Mohammed, is almost equal to the Prophet himself; and that if Mohammed is the Apostle, Ali and his descendants, the twelve Imaums, were the Vicars of God. These Imaums all suffered martyrdom, except Mahadi, the last, and he is said to have mysteriously disappeared, and is believed to be still alive. The twelve Imaums are—
| 1. | Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed. | ||
| 2. | Hassan | } | his sons. |
| 3. | Hossein | } | |
| 4. | Zein al Abudeen. Put to death by Caliph Walid I. | ||
| 5. | Mohammed al Badkir. Put to death by Caliph Hashem. | ||
| 6. | Jaffier al Sadiek. | ||
| 7. | Moôssâh Kazim, from whom the Suffavean family is descended. | } | All put to death, generally by order of the Caliphs. |
| 8. | Ali Riza; buried at Meshed. | } | |
| 9. | Mohammed al Takec. | } | |
| 10. | Ali al Nukec. | } | |
| 11. | Hassan Askeri. | } | |
| 12. | Mohammed al Mahadi. Mysteriously disappeared. | ||
[608] The Lake of Urumea, into which the Adschy Tchai, the river close to Tabreez, flows.
[609] From the Caspian.
[610] Ghilan.
[611] Bagdad, Kashan, and Yezd.
[612] Caravan serai.
[613] Ormuz.
[614] Hesht Behesht, eight heavens.
[615] Calo Johannes. See Zeno, [p. 9].
[616] “Queen Despina.”
[617] Uzun Hassan, at the time of his marriage with Despina, was not King of Persia but only Prince of Diarbekr. Trebizond was taken by Mahomet II, Grand Turk, in 1461.
[618] He was strangled by his half-brothers after Uzun Hassan’s death.
[619] Tocat, Malatia, and Sivas. See [Zeno].
[620] Amida Diarbekr. See Zeno, [p. 6].
[621] Orfà (Edessa). See Zeno, [p. 98].
[622] Kalat en Nejm.
[623] A son of Yakoob Sultan; his brother, Murad Khan, disputed the throne with him, and seized Fars and Babylonia.
[624] Sheikh Hyder. See Zeno, [p. 42].
[625] Ardebil.
[626] Martha.
[627] Schamachi.
[628] Derbend.
[629] Demir Kapoo, or “iron gate”, it is sometimes called.
[630] The island of Ak Tamar, the seat of the Armenian Catholicos.
[631] Arminig.
[632] Ghilan.
[633] Pyrcall.
[634] See Zeno, [pp. 48, 49].
[635] Astrabad, Sari.
[636] See Zeno, [pp. 50], [56].
[637] Schamachi. See Zeno, [p. 56].
[639] Stepmother, according to others.
[640] Perhaps Alanja, near Maragha, on a small stream falling into Lake Urumia; but Zeno says it was to the north of Tauris.
[641] This is rather a contrast to his previous assertion, that he was one of the most bloodthirsty tyrants that ever existed. See [p. 191].
[642] Murad Khan, brother of Alumut.
[643] This by no means equals the slaughter caused by Timour at Ispahan.
[644] See Zeno, [pp. 53, 54].
[645] Sultan Khalil, the Eiobbite.
[646] Hesn Keyf. See [p. 108].
[647] Ajem.
[648] Jemeleyn.
[649] Kharput.
[650] Alla-ed Douleh, named Becarbec.
[651] See Angiolello, [p. 108].
[652] Kaisarieh.
[653] Marash. See Zeno, [p. 54].
[654] El Bostan or Albistan. See Zeno, [p. 54].
[655] Kara Dagh, Black Mountain.
[656] Malatia.
[657] Tchimish Gazak.
[658] [Next page] says 4000.
[659] Kharput.
[660] Nevruz, New Year’s day, at the vernal equinox.
[661] Kashan.
[662] Ispahan, which rose to its greatest prosperity under Shah Abbas.
[663] Shiraz.
[664] Caierbec, notorious for his treachery against Khafoor el Ghouri, the Soldan of Egypt, in his war with Selim I. See Angiolello, [p. 122].
[665] Sheibani Khan. See Zeno, [p. 56].
[666] Khorassan.
[667] Herat. See Zeno, [p. 56].
[668] Astrabad, a city of about fifty thousand inhabitants, is situated near the mouth of the river Ester, on a bay of the Caspian. It is the capital of a small province of the same name often included in Mazanderan; it is also a treasure city of the reigning family, being the centre of their hereditary possessions.
[669] Probably one of the ports of Mazanderan; perhaps Balfrush. Zeno.
[670] Shirvan.
[671] Kara Bagh Dagh, or Mountain of Kara Bagh.
[672] Baku, after which the Caspian is sometimes named.
[674] Probably the names of the twelve Imaums.
[675] La Illaha illa Allah. Ismael Wely Allah.
[676] Yezd.
[677] Sheibani Khan.
[678] The battle of Merv took place in 1514.
[679] Bir or Birajik.
[680] He does not mention the Turkish invasion of Persia, under Selim I, in 1514, which must have come under his notice, if, as he says, he remained in Tauris till 1520.
NARRATIVE
OF THE
MOST NOBLE VINCENTIO D’ALESSANDRI,
Ambassador to the King of Persia for the Most Illustrious Republic of Venice.