After a grand repast we delivered the letter of Defterdár-zádeh Mohammed Páshá the governor of Erzerúm, our gracious Lord, with the presents consisting of beads of pearls, Irák stuffs, and a fine sword. I also delivered the letters of the Kháns of Tabríz and Nakhshiván, complimenting him on the feast of his wedding; the Khán entertained me as a guest in his sister’s palace, the festival lasted ten days and nights, during which he praised the presents he had received through me, in the presence of all the Kháns and Sultáns; he then presented me with a Persian dress, ten tománs of Abbássí, and ten tománs of Bisití; after which, with my companions, I went to view the town.
The castle of Bakú is built on a hill and is of a square form; the gate looking to the west is of iron from Nakhshiván, the circumference is seven hundred paces, it has seventy towers, and six hundred battlements, the height of the wall is forty royal cubits; being situated on a rock, there is no necessity for a ditch. Within the castle are seventy houses with terraces, a mosque of Hyder Sháh, but without a minareh. In the castle is no khán, bath or market, but on the shore of the Caspian Sea the suburb (Robát) consists of a thousand houses with gardens, mosques and kháns, surrounded with walls on three sides; there are three gates, the gate of Guílán to the north; the gate of Derbend to the south; and westward towards the sea-shore is the harbour-gate. Seven minarehs of as many mosques are to be seen, the names of which I am ignorant of, and three baths, the most brilliant of which is that of Mirza Khán. This place being a frontier fortress opposed to Russia is garrisoned with excellent troops called Sháhseven and Dizchoken (who love the Sháh and bend their knees before him.) It is the seat of a Khán in the province of Shirván, ruled by twelve magistrates. The Russian Cossacks have several times pillaged the town of Bakú, and the province of Guílán; they besieged it at the instigation of the Persians soon after its conquest by Uzdemír-oghlí Osmán Páshá, when Kobád Páshá was governor, but were all cut down, and their bones are yet piled up on the shore. The climate is mild and favourable to the cultivation of rice and cotton; the water all smells of Naphtha which is found in seven mines near the town, of different colours, yellow, red and black. The inhabitants of the districts of Musekker, Sedán, and Ríneb do not use oil or grease, but all burn black Naphtha. The people are sound and stout, and some of them fine figures; they are for the most part Sunnís. The distance between this town and Derbend is four days journey, peopled by wandering Turcomans. Three journies east of Bakú is the town of Shabúrán, and Shamákhí is five journies to the east; the port of Shamákhí is much frequented by Chinese, and Tartars, Kalmúks and Russians, who bring different wares, in exchange for which they take salt, naphtha, safian, and silk. Round the town are many places, where if a portion of earth is dug up fire bursts forth, which is used by the Caraváns in cooking their victuals. Near the town to the north flows the Kúr, which is sometimes navigated by Cossack and Russian pirates, who ravage the Persian provinces, and sell their prisoners privately in the markets of Guílán. It is a great river like the Danube, broad but not deep. I remained some days at Bakú to witness the festival at the wedding of the sister of the Khán of Eriván, who was married to the Khán of Bakú. If I were to describe minutely all that took place at this festival it would more than fill a large book. During a fortnight’s stay I received many valuable presents, from the Khán and others, viz. rich cloth, seven horses, three Georgian slaves, a Persian sable pelisse, two camels, ambergris, &c. ten tománs of Abbássí for the expenses of the journey, and as much to be distributed amongst my servants. We took leave of our friends, and the Khán himself, out of friendship, accompanied us when we left the town.
Description of our journey from Bakú through Georgia.
We passed to the south over a dreary tract along the sea, where we saw mines of Naphtha in seven places; it boils up from the earth on the seashore, and in the district of Musekker in hot springs, on the surface of which it collects. It is a Royal lease, let for seven thousand tománs of aspers per year. The men belonging to the inspector of the Naphtha collect it from the surface of the springs and small lakes, fill jacks of goatskin with it and sell it to the merchants; the yellow is the most esteemed; the black Naphtha is carried as a Royal revenue to the fortresses, and used to light the walls on dark nights, and to be thrown on the besiegers. It is also used by the Mihmándárs for torches; all the torches at the Court of the Sháh and at their great houses are made of Naphtha of Bakú; if it catches fire it burns to the last drop; to prevent, therefore, the destruction of the mines, heaps of earth are piled up near them, and if one of them should be ignited by a spark, all the people flock together and throw earth upon it to quench the fire. There are also mines of Naphtha in other places, which, however, I did not see. We advanced to the south, and halted in the district of Musker, beneath tents of felt belonging to Turcomans, who with Moghols and Kúmúks pass the winter here; it is a fertile tract of country.
Description of a Whale with ears like an Elephant.
A whale had been driven on shore, one hundred yards long, with two heads, one at the tail end, the other of the size of a cupola. In the upper jaw it had one hundred and fifty teeth, each a yard long, ears like an elephant, and eyes of the size of a round table, and covered with beaver’s hair. The inhabitants of Bakú, Derbend and Shamákhí flocked together to see it. Khoja Sarúkhán, a voyager in the Caspian Sea, told me that this kind of whale was common in that sea; there are certainly many strange creatures and animals in that sea which are not to be found elsewhere; the shore is covered with bones and carcasses of strange kinds with square and pentagon heads, and an immense number of extraordinary fish. According to the reports of sailors, the circumference of the Caspian Sea is twenty-four thousand miles; it has no islands like the Black Sea and White Sea, wherein two thousand and forty islands are reckoned, forty of which are great ones, like Cyprus, Creta, Rodos, &c. with large towns and rivers. The conflict of the waves of the Caspian Sea is stronger than those of the Black Sea; it is bounded on the west by the Russian provinces; and on the east by the country of the Uzbegs, Kalmúks, and Cossacks. In winter-time the Kalmúk Tátárs pass over the ice of lakes and rivers which are frozen for the space of seven months, committing depredations in the Russian provinces, and carrying a great number of prisoners away. On the western side its extremity is at Derbend, and south to it, in the district of the Avárs, which is comprehended by a gulf on the frontier of Dághistán, is the castle of Terek on the river of the same name. Its length from north to south is four thousand miles, and its depth three hundred cubits; thousands of boats and vessels carry on trade, but they are all afraid of Russian Chaiks, with whom they fight; the vessels are not large ships like those of the White, Black and Red Sea, but small boats of reeds with small guns; there are no men of war or great Caravellas like those of the White Sea, which are necessary to meet the vessels of the Franks in the Archipelago and Mediterranean; such great means of defence are not required on the Caspian, as there are only Cossack boats to be met with.
We continued our journey eastwards through plain fields, and arrived at the great town of Shabúrán, an elegant yet ancient town, which was first built by Isfendiár, and ruined by Húlagú. Uzdemír-oghli Osmán Páshá, the Vezír of Murad III., took possession of this town after the conquest of Derbend, and it became the seat of a sanjak Beg. In the beginning of the reign of Sultán Murad IV. the Persians became masters of it again, and it is now the seat of a Sultán which is the same as a sanjak Beg in Turkey, it is a well inhabited town, with seventy mosques, the largest of which are the mosques of Uzún Hassan, of Tokmák Khán and of Ashár Khán. The fountains and china work, with which the mosque of Uzún Hassan is inlaid, are no where found in such profusion. Uzdemir-oghlí used to come every Friday with a great train from Derbend, in order to perform his prayers here; it is adorned with so many arabesques and carvings in marble, that the greatest architects are astonished on beholding it. The town is situated in a valley rich in bowers, roses, flowers and fruits. Its districts are seven, named after the seven planets. We continued our journey to the south in the district of Musker, and reached the station of Kent Charkhí on a wide plain at a great distance from the Sea. It is the khass of Shah Mikhál, the Prince of Dághistán, with five hundred houses, a mosque, a bath, a caravánseraï, and a market-place. The inhabitants are for the most part Kúmúks of Dághistán. We travelled further on to the south, leaving Regál on our left, and arrived at last in the district of Musker at the capital of it, the pass of Alexander, the strong fortress of Derbend.
Description of Derbend the Gate of Gates.
It is generally known that Alexander having designed to build the dike of Gog and Magog, when he arrived at this place, thought of executing a project for uniting the Caspian with the Black Sea, by means of a canal which was to join the Caspian Sea with the Phasus; but being advised by his Vezírs of the danger of this union, as the Black Sea was a great deal lower than the Caspian, he left it unexecuted, and built three immense walls with three ditches as a stronghold between the Black and Caspian Seas, and as a line of defence against the Bení Assfar Sala’at, Rús, and the people of Crimea and Kipchák. These triple walls, on Mount Caucasus in the mountains of Irák Dadián, with triple ditches, I, poor Evliyá, saw, and which all those who travel from Crimea into the country of the Kúmúks also see; by the lapse of time some of the towers are in ruins and the ditches choked up with earth. The author of the History of Tophet pretends that the Caspian Sea issues by subterraneous canals cut by Alexander into the Phasus, but this is an evident blunder, as I can most positively assert, because when I saw the Phasus on my journey to the siege of Assov, I found its water clear and fresh, while that of the Caspian Sea is so salt and bitter, that it burns a man’s skin if used for purification. This is a case for applying the Persian proverb; “Where is hearing, and where is seeing?”
We have already mentioned in our journey to Trebisonde, that Alexander built a strong castle on the shores of the Black Sea at the mouth of the Phasus, and on the shores of the Caspian he built this gate of gates or iron gate.