Description of the important town of Genje.
It was wrested from the hands of Sháh Tahmás, in the year 1014 (1065), by Kojá Ferhád Páshá. At the time when Mohammed Páshá the Kiaya of Sárí Ahmed Páshá, was governor of Genje, the Sháh besieged it for seven months, and killed the whole garrison. Since that time it remained in the possession of the Persians, a large town, but the Sháh destroyed its castle; it is now an elegant town of six thousand houses with gardens and vineyards, a khán, a bath, and imáret, situated in a large plain. Its gardens are watered by the Kúrek, which joins the Kúr; the Kiblah side of the town is a mountainous tract, and the foot of the mountains is cultivated in gardens and vineyards; the silk of Genje is famous. On the plain round Genje are seven districts of Infidel villages, where cotton, silk and rice are cultivated; here are rich Moghs (ancient Persians, worshippers of fire) and beautiful youth of both sexes; the horse-shoes of Genje are not less famous than the silk. The town is governed by a Khán, who commands three thousand men. The public officers (the Khán included) are twelve in number, in honour of the twelve Imáms. Its first Ottoman governor was Khádim Hassan, who conquered Berda’a.
Pilgrimages (or Tombs) of Martyrs.
Twelve thousand Moslims, who had surrendered the castle by capitulation to the Sháh, were unmercifully killed, and are now buried outside the town in a place called Shohedaí Ervám (martyrs of Rúm). We remained three days as guests in the khán of the town, and continued our journey with about fifty companions to the north; on our right was the Khánlik of Loristán. After seven hours march we arrived at Gilkzár Ahmedí, formerly a town, but now a kent of seven hundred houses, the khass of the Khán of Genje, with a mosque, a khán, and a bath; fine silk is manufactured here. Nine hours further, is the Kent of Megúchúr of seven hundred houses, with a mosque, and a fine garden. On the opposite shore of the Kúr is a great kent called Kendere; we passed in boats to Megúchúr, the frontier of Genje, and after eight hours we reached the great town of Aras.
The town of Aras was built by Keyúmerth, and conquered in the year 985 (1577), by Kara Mustafa Páshá, the Vezír of Murad III. Emír Khán arrived with forty thousand men to succour the town, and finding it taken he fought a battle, which terminated in his being made prisoner, and all his troops consisting of Turcomans, Koks, Doláks, and Georgians were dispersed. They were routed for the second time by the Kiaya of Uzdemir-oghlí on the banks of the Kúr river which swallowed up a great number of them, the bridge having broken down under the weight of the fugitives; their bones are yet seen in heaps, and the bridge still lies in ruins. The Turkish general having convinced himself of the importance of the town of Aras, situated between Genje and Shirván, collected masons and workmen, and enclosed the town with a wall, including the garden Sháh Khiabán, which was outside of the town; three gates led through this wall of clay, the circumference of which is nine thousand six hundred paces. It was finished in forty days, and the governorship, with the rank of a Begler Beg, conferred on Kaitáss-Beg, who had been brought up in the Harím of Sultán Murad. From its situation at the foot of a mountain, the town resembles that of Brússa, surrounded with gardens of fruits and flowers, vineyards and rosebeds. It consists of ten thousand houses with terraces, and forty mosques; in the castle are those of Murad III., of Ferhád Páshá, and of Kara Sinán. The Turkomans and Komúks of Dághistán, pronounce the name of this town Arash. In the beginning of the reign of Sultán Mustafa, this town like that of Merend fell into the hands of the Persians. Forty quarters may now be reckoned, and as many mosques, sixteen baths, eight hundred shops, and seven coffee-houses. The youth are gazelle-eyed, with faces shining like the sun, because their women are Georgians, Dadiáns, Achikbásh, and Shúshád. The air is mild and the water of the royal mountain (Sháhkúh) most excellent. Around it are seven great districts each of which reckons one hundred populous kents, the most populous is that of Levend Khán near Aras. On crossing the bridge of Uzdemir-oghlí Osmán Páshá, the traveller arrives at the district of Palvanaí, and the district of Shair Abadán, where a castle is seen on a rock, the name of which I do not remember.
The royal mount, opposite the town, is the summer abode of the Turcomans. Amidst the districts of Aras is also that of Shekí, which is now governed by the governor of Aras, though it was sometimes ruled by the power of the Princes of Dághistán. The Khán of Aras leads twenty-three thousand men into the field. Twelve public officers keep order in the town. After a stay of three days in this town, we advanced to the north, and after two stations reached the castle of Shekí.
Description of the Castle of Shekí.
It was built by Alexander a Prince of the Shúshads, from whose hands it passed into those of the Prince of Dághistán, and then into those of the Persians. Lala Kara Mustafa Páshá, the Vezír of Murad III. conquered it, and it was conferred on Erkelád Beg, the son of Levend Khán. In the beginning of the reign of Sultán Mustafa it returned into the possession of the Persians, and is now the seat of a Sultán, who commands one thousand men. It is a nice castle built on a rock, its circuit three thousand paces, a ditch is not required; its two gates are that of Genje and that of Shirván; though situated on the frontier of Dághistán it is reckoned to belong to Georgia, the more so as its builder was a Georgian; there are three thousand houses, and seven mihrabs; in the market is the mosque of Mirza Alí Beg, in the castle that of Lagúsh-oghlí Ahmed Beg; that of Murad III. is falling into decay. In the gardens great quantities of silk are produced. At a journey’s distance east of this castle passes the river Kanúk, flowing into the Zenghí. Advancing to the north, we crossed the river of Uzdemir-oghlí Osmán Páshá and arrived at the place Koyún-gechid, where we saw piles of human bones; our companion Yasser Alí Aghá told us, that it was on this spot that Mustafa Páshá, the general of Murad III., was attacked by the Kháns of Tabríz, Lor, Nakhshiván, and Karabágh, who with more than two hundred thousand men surrounded him. Koja Lala Mustafa Páshá ordered a general attack, which was instantly made on one side by Uzdemir-oghlí, on the second by Mohammed, the governor of Haleb, and on the third by Mustafa, the governor of Mera’ash, who cut to pieces more than a thousand men, and drove the rest like sheep to the ferry of Koyún-gechid, where a great many of them were drowned, some in the river Kanúk and some in the Kapúr. In short there remained altogether more than forty thousand men on the field of battle, whose bones are piled up as an everlasting monument; I said a Fátihah for their souls, and crossed the sheep’s ferry. Further on to the north we passed the white river (Aksú), which is called by the Persians the river of Gilán. It comes from the mountains of Aras, and flows into the Kúr. At the end of three hours we entered the district of Mahmúdabád consisting of two hundred highly cultivated kents, which produce a thousand Yúks of silk, each kent resembling a large town. The inhabitants are Turkománs, Kok, Dulák, Moghols, and Ettels.
Account of the Tribe of Ettels.
Ettel signifies in the Mogolic language, tongue of dogs; they take this name from their war-cry, which is a kind of howling. Near Márdín, in the sanjak of the mountains, which I entered with Melek Ahmed Páshá, the Ettels are a tribe like that of the hairy Kurds, impure, impious, irreligious robbers, who pretend to be of Hamza’s sect, keep neither prayer-hours nor fasts, are ignorant of moral duties and of God. Seven or eight of them share a woman amongst them; if she gets with child, her seven or eight keepers after some time assemble, and the woman gives an apple into the child’s hand, the man to whom the child gives it is reckoned to be the father, and henceforth the woman belongs exclusively to him, without any man being allowed to raise pretensions to her. The famous sect of the candle-extinguishers (Múm sonduren), must be a branch of them, because I saw or heard nothing of them any where else. It is a certain fact that they drink out of the shoes of their Sháhs, to whom they are most obedient.