This lady is buried beneath a cupola, at the foot of a rock; she was the daughter of one of the Princes of the Aúk Koyúnlí, and lies buried here with all her children, but without any keeper attached to her mausoleum, she is buried in a marble coffin; near it is a mosque and a bath. Six hours further is the village of Habs, at the western end of the plain of Erzerúm; it consists of one hundred and fifty Armenian houses. All the principal men of Erzerúm came to this place with presents to meet the Páshá’s Diván. We proceeded with a large retinue for the space of five hours, to the hot-bath, which is also situated at the western end of the plain of Erzerúm, and where every year some person or other is drowned. It is a very useful bath, but too warm to be used without a mixture of cold water. Some of the former princes have built a dressing-room here (jámeghán), and a basin (havúz): the climate is pleasant. The Motesellem Mustafa Agha, here presented the Páshá with an Arabian racehorse, caparisoned with jewels, a sable pelisse, a quiver, and a sword set with jewels, a dagger and a girdle, and ten racehorses, mounted by ten Georgian boys, all armed. His three hundred and seventy slaves were clad in showy dresses, like so many waiting youths in Paradise. He gave also to me, poor Evliyá, a sable fur, some cloth, and one hundred piastres, because I had been master to his son for some time. Our arrival at this hot-bath was exactly the seventieth journey we had made since we left Constantinople, and an entrance in grand procession was organized, which outrivalled in brilliancy those of the greatest Vezírs. Indeed, the Páshá was a Commander-in-Chief (Serdár), who by Imperial rescript (Khattí Sheríf) was allowed even to use the Túghra, or cypher of the Sultán. The troops of Erzerúm paraded on both sides of the way from this hot bath, which is six hours distance from Erzerúm, up to the gates of the town; with cuirasses and casques, bearing long lances, their horses being adorned with knots of sea-horses’ bristles, and various other trappings. The Páshá was surrounded by eight body-guards (Shátir), who wore golden caps on their heads, carried battle-axes in their hands, had golden girdles, and splendid caftáns, walking like the peacocks of Paradise. On the right and left of the Páshá walked the Matarají-bashí (keeper of the leaden bottle, which contains the water for purification), and the Tufenkjí-bashí, or head of the fuzileers, bearing a water-bottle set with jewels, and muskets of costly workmanship. The Páshá passed between two lines, greeting both sides, and the people returned his salute. Four hundred Ulemás all clad in armour were headed by the Imám, and I, poor Evliya, as Múëzzin. Behind us followed the treasurer and the standard-bearer, with the eightfold Turkish music. The Tátár troops, the Muteferrika, the chamberlains, passed, all clad in armour. As soon as the procession drew near Erzerúm, the fortress began to salute by firing the great guns from the highest tower, called Kessik Kala’á, as a selám aleikum, after which the Janissaries fired the guns of the inner castle, and so continued during the procession. But when the Páshá himself entered the gate of Erzenján, the six hundred and seventy guns, which compose the artillery of the fortress, were all discharged at once, and the skies were rent and the earth trembled. Seven regiments of Janissaries lined the way from the gates of the town to the gates of the palace, ready to salute the Páshá, who, as soon as he had entered the palace, was saluted once more by a general discharge of the artillery on the walls. Many hundred victims were sacrificed, and a splendid repast equal to that of Mádí Kerb followed. After dinner the music played, and a diván was held, wherein, after the decision of many lawsuits, the twenty-seven Aghas of the castle, those of the Janissaries, artillerymen, armourers, &c., were invested with seventy brilliant robes of honour, and Molla Chelebí Efendí, the relation of Emír Bokhara, with a green sable pelisse. I received a caftán in my degree of clerk of the custom-house. The governor then most graciously assigned me a lodging in the palace built by Tekelí Mustafa Páshá, where I lived quietly, sometimes keeping company with the Governor, and at others discharging the functions of clerk of the custom-house. I had full opportunity of acquiring the most perfect knowledge of the state of Erzerúm, as I was allowed to see all the kanúns, registers, and protocols.
Description of the Fortress of Erzerúm.
It was wrested out of the hands of Kara Yússúf, the son of Uzún Hassan, by Sultán Mohammed II. The khass of the Vezír is fixed at one million, two hundred and fourteen thousand six hundred aspers; the whole province is divided into twelve sanjaks. The officers are a Defterdár of the treasury, a Kiaya of the Defterdár of the Timárs, a Kiaya and Inspector of the Chaúshes, an Alaï-Beg, and a Cherí-bashí. The sanjaks are as follows:—Kara-hissár, Akií, Pássin, Siper, Hassan, Melázgerd, Tekmán, Kúrúján, Túrtúm, Mujtekerd, Mámreván, and Erzerúm. The khass of the Defterdár of the treasury amounts to one million and fifty-two thousand nine hundred aspers; that of the kiaya of the fiefs to fifty thousand, and that of the Defterdár of the fiefs to twenty thousand two hundred. There are fifty-six ziamets, and two thousand two hundred and nineteen timárs; the feudal militia number five thousand two hundred and seventy-nine swords, and the Jebellís, in time of war, twelve thousand men, besides two thousand men who are furnished by the khass of the Páshá. The soldiers of Erzerúm are stout, brave fellows. The judge is a Molla, with a revenue of five hundred aspers, with three subordinate Naíbs or Vicars. An Agha of the Janissaries, an Agha of the artillerymen, and one of the armourers, who are all in the interior fortress. Abasa Páshá, the famous rebel, one night surprised this fortress, and put the whole garrison of Janissaries to the sword, except the Agha, who was absent that night by accident, and consequently escaped. Abaza remained in rebellious possession of it for ten years, in defiance of seven Vezírs, who marched against him with the power of absolute command, such as Cherkess Mohammed Dishlín Hossein Páshá, Timúr Kázík Khalíl Páshá, &c. but owing to the strength of the fortress, they were unable to reduce the rebel, until Khosrew Páshá assumed the command; he took Abaza prisoner, and carried him with him into the presence of Sultán Murád IV. He obtained a general pardon, and was first made Governor of Bosnia, afterwards of Bude, and finally of Ozakov, which he retained up to the time of the expedition against Eriván. The troops rebelling at that moment, called loudly for Abaza Páshá, which, coming to the ears of the Sultán, he ordered him to be killed, and buried in the tomb of Murád Páshá, near the market of the ink-makers. He escaped, however, and wandered for some time in Arabia and Persia, re-appearing at Erzerúm the same year that we came there. I saw his blood even before my own door, because Silihdár Súleimán Páshá cut his head off on the arrival of our Motessellím, or Páshá’s substitute. Since the rebellion of Abaza, the greatest attention has been paid to this important post by the government; it has been strengthened by an immense artillery, and six companies, so that the whole garrison amounts to two thousand five hundred men, a commander of the castle, Dizdár, and twelve Aghas. In the inner castle are one hundred and eighty cannons, and at the gate of Tabríz, in the centre of the two fortresses, are twelve large cannons, placed there by Murád IV. The fortress is situated at a gun’s shot from Mount Egerlí; on the north and north-west extends the plain of Erzerúm, two miles square, a fertile flowery field, covered with villages.
Description of the great river Euphrates.
The great river Euphrates flows through the middle of the plain of Erzerúm. Its source is at the bottom of the pilgrimage of Dúmlibaba, on the east side of Georgia; it flows towards the west, causing in its way many marshes and canals, passes before the village of Kián, the castle of Kemáni, through the Yaila of a thousand lakes, inhabited by the Curds Izúlí, joins the Murád (the name of which it assumes), and passes like a sea in the neighbourhood of Malatia to Samosat, Kala’aí Rúm, Birejík, the bridge Búmbúja, Bálissa, Ja’aber, Rakie, Rahbie, Karkessia, Ania, Hita, Ebyár, Takúk, Helle, and Kúfa; it is joined at Kaverna by the Shatt-ul-arab (Tigris), and thus becomes an immensely large river, which is ascended by Indian ships from Bassra; the whole extent, with all its windings, is four hundred farsangs; it passes four hundred towns and villages. In the plain of Erzerúm its water is very sweet and palatable, well worth being recorded in the Korán by the verse:—“And we gave you to drink of the water of the Euphrates.” Besides the Euphrates no less than seventy-two rivers descend from the mountains of Erzerúm and Diárbekr. Makrisí says, that the Tigris and Euphrates were dug out by Daniel with the assistance of Angels. The Tigris is the Shatt, which rises east of Diárbekr, between Torjíl and Miafarekein, receives an infinite number of springs, and goes to Hossní Kaifa and Mossul. This river unites the upper and lower Zarb, and becomes a tremendous and roaring stream which is called the mad Zarb. It was of the river Euphrates that the prophet is reported to have said:—“O inhabitants of Cufa, your river Euphrates takes up two channels of Paradise.” Imám Ja’afer is reported to have said in praise of this river:—“If the inhabitants of Irák and Rúm were acquainted with all the excellent qualities of the Euphrates, they would build a wall on each side of it. Whoever bathes therein three times, may be certain of being cured of many diseases.” Another tradition on the Euphrates is reported by Abúhoreirí, as follows:—“The last day shall not arrive till the Euphrates flows not from a mountain of gold, on which men are killing each other; ninety-nine shall be killed out of each hundred, and yet every one shall say, ‘perhaps it is I who may be saved.’” The Euphrates and Orontis (A’assí), are the only two rivers which touch the frontier of the Holy Land. The Euphrates freezes in the winter so that during two months many caravans cross it, but it never freezes south of Erzerúm; it is a sweet clear water, and a great comfort to the inhabitants of Erzerúm, though they have the spring, called the Source of Paradise, within their walls.
Of the Form and Size of the Fortress of Erzerúm.
It consists of two castles of a square form, the distance between the two walls is seventy paces; the ditch is eighty paces broad, and twenty deep, but, on the side of the Gurjí and Erzenján gates, the ditch is not so deep: the whole circumference is eighty thousand paces, and it has three gates, that to the west is the gate of Erzenján, where the ditch is crossed by a bridge; the second to the east, and the third to the north, are likewise entered by crossing bridges. The first, which is the Georgian gate (Gúrji), is double, like that of Erzenján; but that of Tabríz, as it is close to the walls of the inner castle, is only a single one. The guns are all pointed towards the quarters of the town Dáragháj and Gumishlí Kunbed. Within the outer castle is an immense tower reaching to the skies, known by the name of Kessik Kulle, on the top of which is a high wooden Koshk; as it is one hundred cubits high, ten guns pointed from thence in all directions, intercept even the flight of birds. The height of the wall of the inner castle is seventy cubits; the other walls are but from forty to fifty cubits high; there are two hundred and ten strong towers, and two thousand and eighty battlements round the castle, and seventeen hundred houses, all covered with earth (terrasses) in the ancient style, so also are all the villages which I saw in the whole government of Erzerúm.
Praise of the Palaces of Erzerúm.
The palace of the Páshá has no less than one hundred and ten rooms of various sizes, for the Diván and Koshks; of the last, the two finest are those of Tayár Páshá, and of Benlí Páshá, with a bath and a fine fountain. On the outside, above the stables, are the rooms for the watchmen; the court-yard is a spacious place where they play the jeríd. It has two gates, one is that of the Diván, opening on the great road, the other is a secret gate, always kept shut. Erzerúm contains seventy quarters of Moslíms, and seven of Infidels. There are no Armenians, Copts, or Jews; if any make their appearance they run the risk of being killed. In the quarter called the Source of Paradise the houses are built of stone; most of them are only one story high, because the air is sharp and the winter severe. It has been known to snow here for ten or eleven months in the year, which is the reason that the greatest part of the houses are built of one story, like a bath, with windows, and a felt door on the top.