The Town and Castle of Nígíssár.
The next day we reached, in eight hours time, the seat of the Dánishmend family, the old town and stronghold of Nígíssár. Its builder was a Greek Emperor; it was conquered in the year 476 (1083) by Sultan Melek Ghází, of the Dánishmend family, and became the seat of this dynasty; their second residence was Amasia. The Seljúks, who anxiously wished to possess it, laid siege to it several times without success. Its name is a corruption of Níg-hissár, the good castle. It is an ancient, strong-built castle, on a limestone rock, five hundred and sixty paces in circumference, of an hexagon shape: the three gates face the east, west, and south; within the castle are three hundred houses and magazines, and a mosque, which was formerly a church. The garrison is small in number, because it is not a frontier fortress; they only keep watch against rebels; the lower suburb is a large town, but its streets being narrow, and going continually up and down hill, it is with difficulty that a horseman can make his way to the market-place, and for a waggon to do so is out of the question. This town belongs to the khass of the Páshá of Sivás, the residence of a Súbashí of seven hundred purses’ revenue, the judge is appointed with one hundred and fifty aspers, and there is a Muftí, Nakíb, Serdár, and Kiaya-yerí. The town comprises forty-three quarters, with sixty mihráb (Jámí and Mesjids), of which nine are Friday mosques, wherein the Khutbe is performed. The mosque of the castle was formerly a church, an ancient place of worship. To the mosque of Melek Ghází, the visitor descends by five or six steps; it has a slender, thin, well-proportioned minareh: its equal is not to be seen elsewhere. The mosque of Chaplakáneh is faced with bricks. At the west end of the town is the mosque of Júregí; outside of the castle is the mosque of Khalíl Efendí, just finished, faced with brick; also outside of the castle is the mosque of the Muftí. The houses of the town, in the valley, and on the hill, ascending one above the other, are two thousand seven hundred in number, faced either with earth or bricks. There are three baths, viz., that of the Muftí in the castle, that of Chaplakháneh outside of the castle, and that of the Infidels, also outside of the castle, besides forty-five private baths in the palaces.
The Hot-spring of Nigíssár.
It is a small hot-bath outside of the town to the south; the women and boys of the town wash their clothes here; it is a well-flavoured water, has no sulphurous smell, and is useful as a remedy in leprous and arthritic diseases. It is visited every year, in the month of July, by a great number of people, who amuse themselves for a month, and then return to their homes. There is a college, and house for reading of the Korán and tradition, but no kitchen for the poor; there are seventy schools for boys. The inhabitants are an honest set of people, with some beautiful women amongst them. There are seven convents, the first of which is the great convent of Chevregí; that of Elias-dedeh is not less famous. There are a great number of springs and fountains, which move as many corn and fulling mills, also five hundred elegant shops, but no Bezestán. The narrow street, which leads down from the castle, is lined on both sides with shoemakers’ shops; the principal streets are paved with large slabs. The inhabitants are fresh-coloured lively looking Turks, who pay great attention to strangers. Among the eatables, pomegranates are much famed; they each weigh an occa, and some even as much as five hundred dirhems, and are of the size of a man’s head. The cheese, Kufte and Passdagh of this place are famous; the environs are laid out in rice plantations (Cheltuk). The Black Sea is two journies distance from this place.
Pilgrimages of Nígíssár.
The conqueror of Nígíssár, Melek Ghází, of the Dánishmend family, is buried near the castle gate. God’s mercy be upon him! Chevregí-boyúk Sultán lies near the great mosque, beneath a cupola. We left this town and advanced towards the east, through mountains and forests. After six hours march we reached Kariebásh Chiftlik, the frontier of Sivás, here bordering the governorships of Erzerúm, with two hundred Armenian houses, and a ziamet. The next day, as soon as we trod the ground of Erzerúm, we offered up a sacrifice of two hundred and seven camels, and the inhabitants of Erzerúm, with the Kiaya of the Chaúshes, the Defter-Emíní, the Chaúshlar-Emíní, the Timár Defterdárí, and other gentlemen of the Diván at their head, came to meet us with presents.
The Governorship of Erzerúm or Erzenrúm.
It is situated in Azerbeíján and Armenia, and, according to some, erected by Núrshiván; but the truth is that it was by Erzenbaí Ben Softár Ben Kúndúz, of the dynasty of the White Sheep, whose ancestors had come from Mahán, and built the castle of Akhlát, on the borders of the lake Wán; they are all buried at Akhlát, and the ancestors of the Ottomans, Ertoghrúl and Súleimán, derive their lineage from them. Uzún Hassan, having become master of Azerbeiján, built the castle called Hassan, after his name, at Erzerúm. Envious of the conquest of Constantinople by Mohammed II., he began to trespass on the frontiers, and to violate the peace. Mohammed II., in defiance of him, conquered Trebisonde, and defeated him with twenty thousand men in the field of Terjeán. With great difficulty we traversed the rude pass of Iskefser, and in three hours we reached Shákhna, an Armenian village of two hundred houses, where the Armenian girls are wonderfully pretty. From Constantinople to this place we had constantly ascended towards the east, and all the rivers were flowing from that direction towards us; this will show on what high ground Erzerúm is situated. From Shákhna we crossed the Governorship of Erzerúm, which was our allotted province, in different directions to the south, north, east, and west, and shall now describe the stations of these our excursions.
Tekine is a village in the jurisdiction of Iskefser, with one hundred houses, a ziámet. Five hours further on is the village of Chádár, of one hundred houses, in the jurisdiction of Koilí. The castle of Koilí was built by Usún Hassan, from fear of Mohammed II.; it belongs to the sanjak Shuban Kara Hissár, in the province of Erzerúm; it is situated on a high rock, and is one thousand three hundred paces in circumference. Inside are one hundred houses and magazines, an iron gate opens to the west; it has a commander and seventy men; the suburb outside consists of one hundred houses, a mosque and some shops. The castle saluted us with seventeen guns, and the inhabitants met us with presents; they slaughtered ten sheep as a sacrifice, for which they received ten ducats. Two stations north of this village, on the shore of the Black Sea, is Baihssa-bazárí, which a man on foot may reach in one day. In the reign of Ahmed I. the Cossacks of Oczakov pillaged this place: the environs being gardens and flowery meadows are extremely favourable to bees, and the honey of Koilí-hissár, scented with musk and ambergris, is famous; the inhabitants are a turbulent set of people. We descended a deep precipice, and after seven hours reached the village of Doirán. The river here issues from the mountains of Kerkúk, is joined by several streams from the mountains of Koilí-hissár, and below Chehárshenbe by the river of that name, which passes Amasia. The Kerkúk is an excellent freshwater river. The village of Doirán, situated on its banks, in the valley of Akshár, consists of one hundred houses. We now went towards the east four hours, to Anderes on the frontier of Shuban Kara-hissár, in the valley of Akshár, a village of one hundred houses. Having marched two hours towards the east, we reached the Chiftlik of Tabán Ahmed Agha, where the Páshá was presented with an Arabian horse, and with twenty horses for his suite, three thousand sheep, seven strings of camels, seven of mules, and ten purses; it was a great festival, worthy of the Ottoman court itself. In recompense for this great festival, the giver of it, Ahmed Agha, was imprisoned in the Kiaya’s room, and bought his life by the payment of forty purses and seventy camels, by which opportunity I also got a horse. Two hours further on lies the village of Ezbeder, in the territory of Shuban Kara-hissár, an Armenian village surrounded with gardens. Four hours further we reached the valley of Tilismát Za’aba; the torrent of Tilismát Za’aba issues from the neighbouring mountains, and falls into the river Akhlát; there are one hundred houses here built upon rocky ground; the subjects here are all Armenians. A cave is still shown in which there was formerly a treasure, guarded by two swords, which were continually moving up and down, a mast has many times been put beneath them and instantly cut through; a magician has since got possession of the treasure, but the cave still remains to be seen. There is, besides, another talisman somewhere hereabout, but I have not seen it. Five hours from hence is the village Yakúb, on the frontier of Shuban Kara; three hours further on, that of Korkún Kiassí, and in one hour more, the village of Barú; after which we came through the pass of Tekmán, which is closed by the winter for seven or eight months. After having got through it with much difficulty, we reached Kázíoghlíkoí, an Armenian village. Four hours further is the castle of Shírán, on the frontier of Shuban Kara; in four hours the village of Kara Jalar; in five hours the village of Sáríchalar, inhabited by Moslíms and Armenians; in eight hours the village of Sálút, the pass of which we traversed with considerable trouble, and for the space of five hours were crossing the great plain of Kerkúk. At the end of this plain is the village of Genj Mohammed Agha, with two hundred houses and a mosque, on the frontier of the district of Shuban Kara-hissár; five hours to the east is the village of Keremlí, inhabited by Moslíms and Armenians; opposite to it, on a hill, lies the Castle of Dermerí, built in the reign of Sultán Ahmed from fear of the rebels; it is a small castle with a gate to the north, without commander and garrison. Here the Páshá made an excursion (Ilghár), with three hundred horsemen, and we arrived, at the end of twelve hours, at Chághir Kánlí Sultán, who was a great Sheikh in the time of Sultán Mohammed II. His tomb is adorned with several lamps (chirághdán), candelabras (shemidán), censers (búkhúrdán), and vases for sprinkling rose-water (gulábdán). It is a reverential place, where prayers are put up to Heaven. I visited it, and read the Súra Yass there; through the sanctity of this saint the country abounds with cattle. Two Chiftliks are exempted by Imperial diploma from all taxes; the village consists of three hundred houses, with a mosque and a convent, the dervishes of which go bareheaded and barefooted, and wear their hair long. The people carry wooden clubs in their hands, some of them crooked sticks (litúi). They all came to wait on the Páshá, and to exhibit the grants of their foundation. The Páshá asked from whence they dated their immunity, and they invited him to visit their place of devotion (Sema’ákháneh). We followed them to a large place where a great fire was lighted of more than forty waggon-loads of wood, and forty victims sacrificed. They assigned a place for the Páshá at a distance from the fire, and began to dance round it, playing their drums and flutes, and crying “Hú!” and “Allah!” This circular motion being continued for an hour, about an hundred of these dervishes naked, took their children by the hand, and entered the fire, the flames of which towered like the pile of Nimrod, crying “O all constant! O all vivifying!” At the end of half an hour, they came out of the fire, without the least hurt except the singeing of their hair and beards, some of them retiring to their cells, instead of coming before the Páshá, who remained much astonished. They then gave a feast to the Páshá, which was even greater than Ahmed Tabán’s feast. It was surprising that they were enabled to prepare such a feast in so short a time, as the Páshá had arrived suddenly, and by a by-road. The Páshá confirmed their immunities, and gave them a present of one hundred ducats. In sixteen hours more we came to the plain of Terján. The mosque of Sultán Hassan is a praiseworthy monument of Uzún Hassan, but ít stands alone here. Uzún Hassan, who liked the situation, intended to build a town here bearing his name, but Sultán Mohammed II. destroyed all his projects by the famous battle, which was fought on this plain; it was a scene of great slaughter, even now the peasants find bones and hidden treasures when ploughing the field. We crossed this plain hastily, and in eight hours reached the village, where the Kiaya of the Chaúshes had provided a great feast for the Páshá, and presented him with five horses, five purses, and three Georgian slaves. At the end of five hours we reached the village of Púlúr, and in four hours that of Terjánlí Alí Agha, an Armenian village of three hundred houses, a mosque and a bath. Alí Agha gave a grand repast here, accompanied with a present of ten horses, ten purses, ten strings of camels, and five of mules. We went from hence nine hours further, to the village of Mama Khatún, in the district of Erzerúm, consisting of one hundred Mussulman houses; it is a free ziámet.